fic for sjlikeslists part 2/2
1) For Whom: sjlikeslist
2) Type of Work (art, fic, vid): fic
3) Rating: PG
4) Length: 13,574
5) Plot Summary (if fic or vid): AU of "Hourglass," in which Clark gets a vision of his future with Chloe from Cassandra.
6) Notes: Veers off from th e events of Hourglass and plays with timelines and events there.
“Hello, Clark, you look like you’re off on another planet.”
He kept chewing on the top of his pen, and stifled the urge to reply that he found that particular expression insensitive at best and offensive at worst. Cassandra might be open on that disclosure train but he wasn’t ready to tell anyone---not even Pete---that he (probably) came from a galaxy far, far away. He still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about Chloe being The One in the future or the mother of his kid. He wasn’t sure he should tell her anything, in case he undo the future on accident. Except, he also didn’t think he could keep everything status quo for long either, not when he knew that something big was coming for them and that he was supposed to be the only one to weather that.
Maybe he could just focus on the problem at hand.
Sighing, he flipped through Chloe’s intel. The cops had been able to get to The Beanery last night when Zoe had made a quick 911 call when an odd client, a Harry Volk, hadn’t wanted to leave. Zoe’s suspicion had saved her life in a big way. She might have thought he was no more than a creep, but Harry was far worse than that. He was the serial murderer who’d been stalking Smallville lately, and had already killed two other people by strangling them with piano wire.
The one that Pete’s grandfather had commented on not three days ago as being oddly familiar at The Talon.
“So Zoe escaped, which is great, but the police couldn’t detain Harry and that means he’s out there about to go Hannibal Lecter on the next person. I mean, we have to think about the patterns, right Clark?”
“Why isn’t Pete here?”
“Football practice and also sweet talking his grandpa with a photo about any details and gaps he can fill in about Harry Volk,” Chloe corrected. “I’m serious. There has to be a reason for him to be picking the people he does. Like Coach Walt went nuts on people but he did it on people who threatened the football program. Tina Greer went all single white female on Lana. So there has to be a motive for Volk too.”
“Maybe or maybe we want to believe that every time murder hits Smallville, yes meteor rocks are involved, but there is a rational motive too,” Clark said, still shuffling through the papers. “Sometimes bad things happen even in the meteor capital of the world.”
“And normally, sure, I could roll with even the used-to-be most boring town in Kansas has regular crime too. Except this doesn’t fit. He goes after Zoe who’s our classmate, but before it was Lucy Wigman who is forty and then before that was 30 year old Dale Hinkman down at the feed store. The M.O. stays the same with the piano wire but why different ages, races, and genders? That’s the weird part. Something more has to connect them. I’ve tried looking online and talking to Chad the Goth but…”
Clark smiled at that. “Did you ever try anything old fashioned?”
“Huh?”
“County records?”
Chloe smirked at that and sat on the edge of his desk. “What is with you and old fashioned lately? You aren’t even candy-striping now, but you’re always over at the home. I know you like to ‘bump’ into Lana but this is way more than that.”
“First, you can’t tell me that going through real county records isn’t a good idea. Also, I like Cassandra Carver. Sometimes we just talk or she plays the radio and we do some Mancala. It’s not like I have to Lana-spy so don’t say it like that.”
Chloe shrugged. “It’s more than that. I’ve heard from Lana what they say Cassandra can do. So what did she promise your future would be?”
“Now you don’t have to say it like that,” he said, shoving the papers in the folders with a bit more force than he’d meant to. “She’s real, Chloe, and we went through this before. Being able to tell the future is a weird ability but probably still more normal than turning into bugs. Besides, haven’t you ever wondered to just have a peek, to know if life would turn out okay?”
She eyed him and those bright green eyes were so familiar and intense. It had to be denial that had kept him from seeing the connection in Gene from the beginning. “There are a few things I’d want to know. I’d want to know about how long I have to wait before I have a press pass from the Planet or when I should get my dress to accept the Pulitzer. Everyone has things they want to know, to feel it’d work out and not feel so in the dark. I get that, believe me.”
“But? You still seem on the fence, like you hate me going to her specifically.”
“Lana said that Cassandra was very nice. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that maybe there are things we’re not supposed to know in advance, things that no one can know. Just don’t go chasing the dragon here and get addicted to glimpses. Here’s a reason you have to live in the now too.”
“That’s very hippie granola of you also,” he said, his tone brightening. “Look, things have just been super weird even for Smallville. All the people who were affected by meteors started breaking bad and
I feel like we’re almost going to die every day. Maybe I wanted something to make sense.”
She nodded and did him the favor whether she knew it or not of looking somewhere else. “You’ve seemed really different since everything with Lex. I guess near-death experiences can get to a guy.”
“Maybe…I, maybe I just started noticing things I never did before. Or maybe everything just came all at once.”
Chloe nodded and stood up. Then she placed one small hand over his. “If there’s anything you need to get off your chest. You don’t need feel you can only go to a psychic, you know? I’d like to think that, okay, I’m no Pete but I know you pretty well.”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry at that. Okay, not cry, he was a guy after all, but he was pretty sure part of his problem was that he lately was wondering exactly how much he could trust her currently.
“I think you’ll figure more out going to the County Records. I, uh, want to visit the home and then I have deliveries but we can meet back here in the morning and really figure out what you found and what Pete got off his grandpa, right? We’ll figure this out, we’re like five-for-five already.”
Chloe nodded. “Yup and then you still owe me and interview with the head of the chess team. Don’t think serial murder gets you out of that.”
“You’re hard to please.”
“And that’s the kind of reputation that I’m going for.”
**
Cassandra shook her head even before he crossed the threshold into her room. “Clark, most people I speak with only get one chance, maybe two. I need you to understand as interesting as what I see is that you can’t just do this. It doesn’t hurt me but you can’t just dwell in what will be and forget to actually make it happen.”
“I know, and I had a friend today basically imply I was a vision junkie.”
“Was this friend short and blonde?”
He nodded and felt dumb when he remembered she couldn’t see it. “I’m sorry.”
“People make all kinds of gestures. I can hear fabric rustle for what it’s worth, including your jacket when you shook your head. I can give you one last glimpse and then it’s best for you if you just try and figure out what it means, what you want, and how much you need to tell Chloe right now. Although, I think I fell into this not just because it was interesting but because I was selfish too.”
“I don’t understand?”
“You’re the first person I’ve had in years to visit me almost every day. My daughters moved to the East Coast and once people fulfill their curiosity they don’t see me after that. I’m going to miss you.”
“I can still come,” he objected, pulling up his chair. “Who’d play Mancala with you? Or who would you teach about Copeland? I can still…my mom’s father is still alive but he wasn’t allowed to know me as a kid. My dad’s parents died before I was adopted.”
“Is there a reason why you weren’t allowed near your grandfather?”
Clark sighed. “Because I’m ‘gifted,’ right? My mom thought it would be bad if such a famous Metropolis lawyer knew I wasn’t like everyone else, might call in the wrong people to look at me, that sort of thing.”
“Then I think I’d like you to still come. You don’t have to---“
“It’s nice, I said that,” he answered, taking her hand in his and blinking one final time at the onslaught…
**
He’d expected to be in the apartment with Chloe and Gene, doing something parental. Possibly he feared being back on his knees in a semi-circle of tombstones, what he didn’t expect was to be walking down the stairs in some kind of art deco building that was also going nuts. People were rushing past him, the lights were blinking in and out and, as he got closer to the desk, he noticed green code crawling over them. It was almost like The Matrix, but then Clark also realized that the writing reminded him a little of what was on his ship and the tablet Dad had shown him. Whatever that language was playing havoc with every computer in this basement was it was from his planet.
Clark stumbled forward and realized the basement was almost completely empty. A flash of familiar blonde hair was the first thing he spotted as Chloe, a little older and curvier, was hugging him.
“Clark thank God. Brainiac, it’s everywhere!”
He didn’t understand anything that was going on, anything about Lex as a vessel or needing to do what some computer called Brainiac wanted. He wasn’t even sure “when” in his future he was. They were clearly too young still to have kids and Chloe had no rings on her fingers. His dad and hers were both that old fashioned that marriage was going to be a pre-requisite which, honestly, suited Clark fine.
What he did understand was the pain etched on Chloe’s face, the fear. If the whole city was shutting down whatever he was supposed to be facing was serious business and might even be able to kill him. What he didn’t expect even was her racing back into his arms and kissing him. At first, he froze, not even confused by the coming Apocalypse. He’d be gone before he had to live a fight he hadn’t even had yet, that much he knew. It was just that Chloe had only kissed him once before and this was nothing like that. It was skillful and wanting, years of passion and desire clearly bottled up for him. At some point, it felt too good to resist and he melted into her embrace, his tongue working in time with her own.
He almost moaned when she pulled back from him.
He never knew Chloe could feel like this.
“I thought I’d never see you again…I---“
He wanted to say a million things, to promise her that it would be alright, that they’d come out of this like they always seemed to. He wanted to hold her close to him and keep her safe especially after a car had almost creamed her not five minutes ago. He wanted so many things, but Clark settled for inching into the phone booth and answering the call and then there was Lex’s voice, oddly distorted, and the world blurring away…
**
He wasn’t staggering back this time, was used to being in an out of scenes, to the worlds that were different but not quite from his own. He was grinning broadly. Yeah, maybe it was selfish of him. He’d been shown a vision of the future where the world was being destroyed or at least threatened by alien possession and evil androids---and what did it say about him that his planet was capable of these things?---and all he could think about was the best kiss of his life.
And the damn thing hadn’t even happened yet.
Okay so not counting his mom on the cheek, Clark had only been kissed before by Chloe that day in the loft but he was pretty sure even if he’d kissed a dozen girls that this kiss he’d just seen would stand out. He’d felt passion flowing through him, the racing pulse of her heartbeat, and the sweet scent of her. It was making blood rush even now for him and, oddly, his eyes itched more than he had before he’d visited with Cassandra.
Clark didn’t want to focus on the reasons behind that.
Taking measured, even breaths, he sat back in his seat and tried---yet failed---to prevent his blush. It wasn’t that Cassandra could see that, but he felt his delight must be obvious no matter what. She was smirking so pointedly at him.
“So you see that maybe things with Chloe might not be so bad?” The laugh was just barely kept out of her voice.
Clark sighed. “Maybe I understand more the good parts of hanging out with her, of dating her. I still feel like I’d still be far more than she’d ever really bargain for. There’s considerations…”
“It seems to me that she’s been more than ready to make them. Like I said, you don’t have to tell her anything now or tell her some but not all, but I think anything you have to tell her. It will and always was her choice to make how to handle it. You can only put out who you are and she takes it or doesn’t. Seems so far she will or has.”
He chuckled at that. “The tenses are crazy. I saw her accept this, sort of, because I saw Gene and that kiss and everything else, except what if I screw it up somehow and it’s some paradox.”
“You’re a very nice young man. I think I’m a decent judge of character, Clark. Besides, you’re not hard on the eyes either.”
“Cassandra!”
“I was young once too,” she lamented, setting up her radio to her preferred 40s broadcast. “Now do we play Mancala or not?”
“I can’t. I have deliveries but tomorrow I promise a full hour and I’ll even let you win.”
“You wish. I could whoop your butt forty ways to Sunday.”
Clark smiled and squeezed her shoulder as he stood to leave. She wasn’t wrong. Cassandra was a fierce competitor and had nailed him every time they’d played so far.
**
“Clark, you look like a man deep in thought,” Lex said, stepping into the kitchen and grabbing an apple out of the crate the younger man was dropping off.
He nodded. Clark had saved the mansion for last but had almost broken speed limits getting through the rest of his load. Maybe Lex was a bad influence. Maybe not. It was more this overwhelming drive to get home so he could get permission to go to Chloe’s. He wasn’t sure what she’d finally decided or figured out after school with the county court records and he was hoping stopping by her place would be a way to technically talk strategy about Volk but also to maybe talk about them.
No matter how curious she seemed, how open to every mystery out there as exhibited by the Wall of World, he knew Chloe wasn’t ready for the “I’m an alien” spiel. Besides, Clark didn’t know much to add to that himself. All he had was a ship he couldn’t open and a tablet that he couldn’t read. He could be related to those little worm guys who made coffee in those Men in Black movies for all he knew.
Maybe, though, he could at least do something he’d never tried with anyone, even Pete before. Maybe he could at least let her see his powers, even start off with just the speed and strength and get a read on her before unearthly origins made the mix. He just had to do it the right way and that kiss---Dear
God that kiss---really would be his someday.
Hopefully just like a certain boy with mischievous green eyes and a tendency to roll them often.
“Well, I’ve been hanging out at the Senior Home.”
“I heard a certain young candy striper was working there now,” Lex replied, smirking.
Sometimes, Clark didn’t quite get why Lex hung out with him. Oh there was the obvious that Lex was still far too curious about the car crash, that maybe the billionaire was angling to get proof of Clark’s powers. Still, there were easier ways to do that if that was what Lex truly craved. Clark had heard a few pointed comments when dropping off supplies to Fordman’s or the feed store. A few people in town made really crappy assumptions about both of them. That was immature as Hell. Sometimes, though, Clark wondered if Lex had always wanted a little brother.
It would explain the big brother-come-matchmaker act.
Although, sometimes even in just the few months since they’d met, Clark wondered if Lex didn’t just wish Lana was older and was trying to set him up with her as a proxy.
It was all so complicated.
Then again, what in his life wasn’t?
“It’s not actually about Lana,” Clark stammered.
“Oh that’d be new. Have you decided to give it all up and let the quarterback have her?”
“Lana’s her own person and after Sean Kelvin and the not-a-date, well, she can make her own decisions.”
“That sounds more resigned than usual,” Lex said, leaning against the counter.
Clark shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Maybe I just have perspective on things. Lex?”
“Hmm?”
“What would you say if I told you there was a woman at the Senior Home who can see the future?”
Lex smirked. “And is this like Chloe Sullivan’s theories on the meteor rocks, like why Tina Greer could look like me?”
“Yeah, Cassandra Carver doesn’t really make a secret of it. She’s given me a reading or two and she’s read Lana, although she won’t say what there. She has a lot of confidentiality or ethics or something.”
Lex laughed and bit into his fruit. “You asked about Lana, huh?”
“Maybe a little, but she showed me things and they made me start thinking about stuff.”
“Stuff like college or career or stuff like Lana?”
“Stuff like maybe I had the crush all wrong?”
The other man set the apple down and stood up straighter. “This must completely serious. Last week Lana was the possible love of your life and now you’re thinking about someone else from the future.”
“Well it’s not like it’s a girl I’ve never met or something, not some random glimpse of a college or office woman, no.”
Lex beamed back at him and Clark was sure his cheeks were red. Lex was a Luthor after all and, even now, he was beginning to realize how good Luthors were at hearing everything you hadn’t said as well.
“So Cassandra at the Senior Center---“
“Home actually.”
“Mrs. Carver thinks you and a certain reporter are destined for each other?”
“She doesn’t think. She saw. She touched my hand and saw the future and told me about it,” Clark lied a bit about the how. There was definitely a difference with being told second hand but since being an alien was the only reason she could envelope him in the vision too, Clark thought it was best not to mention it.
“Wives’ tales then. Just because people in Smallville have abilities and there’s a real scientific reason for how, well, it doesn’t mean she can see futures. That’s fairly out there. There are so many variables and time might not even work that way.”
“I’m telling you that she sees things and she’s good at it. Lana went to her. Cassandra said she’s had people come to her for about a decade. She saw me and Chloe kissing once and the other time,” again lies wouldn’t hurt anyone. “The other time it was us with a kid in a city apartment.”
“Your child, I assume?” Lex asked but he was still as dismissive as he ever was in any meeting with his father.
“I just know what Cassandra sh…told me.”
“That you and Chloe are soulmates so now you’re like ‘Lana Who?’”
“It’s not funny! I was being honest. What if someone really can see the future and now I know things and what should I even tell Chloe? I know it sounds nuts but it’s Smallville and she founded the Wall of Weird and the meteor rock theories anyway. I just…what if I scare her off or go on too strong?”
Clark wanted to say more, wished he could explain the extra bit nagging at him. No matter what he and Cassandra had both seen over and over again, no matter what he’d felt, it didn’t mean that somehow he’d mess it all up anyway in execution and Chloe wouldn’t like all of him. Hell, most days, especially since he’d seen his ship, Clark didn’t like himself either.
“Well,” Lex mused, stroking his chin. “If you think what she saw was true, then I think you don’t need to rush anything. Assuming she saw a kid and marriage in the offing, it’s not like you’re going to propose tomorrow over homeroom---“
“We’re actually in different homerooms.”
“That’s not my point. Maybe you could start with an actual date for coffee and go from there. After all, one of the things I’d be least likely to believe about a person is that they have the gift for prognostication.”
“Because of the theory of relativity and Einstein and a million other things?”
“Something like that. You know, I think that the Greek philosopher---“
Clark had never been more glad to get a cell phone call than at that moment. “Chloe, hey what’s up?”
“Clark? Oh God, you have to call the police or help me or something.”
Her voice was shrill and she was panting so loud that it startled him. He gripped the phone more tightly and struggle to keep himself from shattering it in front of Lex.
“Chloe! Calm down. What’s going on?”
“It’s Volk! He tracked me down at the courthouse and he’s chasing me. I’m hiding in an archive room in the basement but Clark, please…”
He wanted to ask why she just didn’t call the police herself but he knew why. He wouldn’t ask and risk Lex overhearing her answer. Still, he’d saved her from Walt and then again from Sean Kelvin. That second one had been a truly impossible save. Maybe Chloe knew a lot more about his powers than she said to his face.
He could handle whatever problem Volk was, but the police might not be suited to crazy meteor infected (?) serial killers on the loose.
“I’ll be right there. Chloe, I…just hang on,” he hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket without tearing it. “Lex, call the cops. Chloe’s in trouble at the courthouse.”
“And what are you going to do?”
“Drive down there and, um, be there when they pull her out. I don’t want her being barraged by cops and twenty questions alone or until Mr. Sullivan can show.”
“Or maybe you’ll---“
“Lex, just do it!” Clark shouted, as he rushed to his truck.
**
Clark ditched the truck a mile out from the mansion, at least conscientious enough to keep up that much of an appearance. Hopefully Lex would do as he was told for at least once in his life and call the police. All Clark had to do was get down to the basement and pull her out. He didn’t even have to use powers for that, just sneak her out and let the police shut the building down and close in on Volk.
That was the plan until he’d heard a scream while racing at top human speed down the stairs toward the files. He’d wanted to do it normal as possible, in case there were cameras---God, don’t let there be cameras---but that wasn’t an option now. He’d heard Chloe’s panicked shout and then silence.
He’d have to hope there wasn’t any eye in the sky as Clark put on all the speed he had and raced toward where he’d last heard her.
When he got there, he found a guy maybe a little older than he was with dirty blonde hair looming over her with a piano wire tightening around her throat. Her eyes were bulging wide and blood was streaming a bit from the cut the wire made into her throat but Chloe was still conscious.
For now.
She started fighting anew when Clark showed up, reaching out toward him.
Volk stopped and shook his head. “I didn’t invite you. I have a few more jury members to repay for their crimes and this bitch is trying to ruin that.”
“And I’m not big on murder,” Clark said before rushing forward at an impossible to follow pace and knocking Volk away from Chloe and into a collection of file cabinets. The metal dented from the impact and Volk groaned before passing out at their base. Without waiting, he made his way over to Chloe and gently unwound the wire from around her throat. Reaching up, he stroked a strand of hair back from her cheek. “Are you okay?”
Fat tears rolled down her face but Chloe nodded. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and strained but at least she could still speak, at least Volk hadn’t done to her what he’d managed to do to poor Candy or the others.
“You might have some explaining for later.”
“I…”
“You need to go. I figure you did at least call the police and my dad will know. Maybe the cops shouldn’t be here to ask you too many questions.”
“I have explanations,” he said but even then his voice seemed flat and pathetic. “I do, honest.”
She smiled through her tears. “I believe you have a lot to say. Get out of here and I’ll cover, alright?”
“Chloe---“
“Just do it!” she said, shoving at him. “I got this.”
He blurred out of there even as the sound of sirens started echoing through downtown. He believed that Chloe could talk her way out of just about anything.
**
She didn’t call him that night, and Clark figured she had to go to the police station to file her report and then spend some time reassuring her dad that she was alright. He was already waiting for her for once at The Torch office when she walked in at seven a.m. the next day.
“So,” she said, a whir of motion in Doc Martens and a blinding neon green jacket. “I’ll get the Dragnet stuff out of the way first.”
“Huh?”
“You never watch any TV ever, do you?” she said, taking a seat on the desk in front of him and swinging her legs up and down a bit.
“Not really. Mom and Dad say it rots your mind.”
“Blasphemy!” Chloe shouted. “Volk is under arrest. It was hard at first because they went to file papers with me and then they got back to him an hour later and he was eighty instead of eighteen.”
“Huh?”
“Parrot much? Basically he had an accident while Lana was watching him. Basically he had meteor rock and electricity mixed together in order to make him young, as long as he kept dosing himself. He was out for trying to take down the descendants of the jury that convicted him. Zoe’s grandfather was on it. Actually, so was one Hiram Kent.”
“Jeez,” Clark hissed. “I wish he’d just come for me first. Then Zoe wouldn’t have been scared and Candy and the others would be alive. Jesus, you wouldn’t have been hurt.”
Chloe nodded. “Well, they did fingerprints and they still match so Mr. Volk is going to spend his golden years behind bars for Zoe's attack and mine. Then there's the three victims he actually did get to. He'll be away for the rest of his life, easy. Also," she added, laughing uneasily. "I’m basically three for three this month with meteor mutant madness.”
“Don’t joke. He was really close.”
“I know, but you got there and I was pretty sure you would. You saved me from Sean and then you always do beat the bus to school on foot. You were a safer bet than the cops.”
“Yeah, but if I hadn’t…” he said, clenching his hands into fists at his side. He didn’t trust himself to have his hands near a mouse or keyboard then. They might be shattered by him. “You almost died.”
“See Fire Coach and Ice Boy this month. I’m a reporter, Clark. It’s what I do. I investigate and find things people want to keep hidden. If I don’t get death threats, I’m not doing my job.”
“You’re fourteen and at The Torch not the star reporter for the DP, not yet. You need to pace better.”
Chloe shrugged and pushed her bangs out of her face. “I have my own superhero. I might be good.”
“So I’m good to be used?” Clark asked, and his throat was tight. That’s not what it felt with that kiss or talking to a much older Chloe in the farm’s kitchen. It felt deeper than that, not like he was convenient for her. Pushing back his panic, Clark asked her another question. “I mean, sorry, that’s not really why you came here this morning, is it?”
“Of course not. I’ll try to limit my death defying stunts to monthly. I just mean, don’t martyr yourself. I have a dangerous hobby and one day a career. I’ll be smarter but I’d be in trouble if you weren’t here, okay?”
Of course all her biggest troubles would be gone if there’d never been a shower. There were only meteor freaks to attack her because he’d come, just like Lana’s parents would still be alive and Lex wouldn’t be bald and changed as well. It was all his fault and he was a fool in some ways. The world would be better mostly, if that damn shower had never happened.
“I guess. I bet you have a lot of questions, right?” he sighed then and let his bangs fall over his eyes.
For all his discussions with Cassandra and Lex, Clark was still scared she’d reject him. Anything was possible; he knew that better than anyone. “About me, I mean.”
“I always figured you were fast, ever since that book appeared in the loft from nowhere during our first k…the first day we met.”
“Oh.”
“You’re not as smooth as you think,” Chloe said, grinning.
“I’m fast, yeah and pretty strong.”
“Like strong enough to punch through a foot of ice. I definitely noticed that,” she said and then she hesitated, biting at her lip.”
That scared him a little. Chloe never hesitated. “What?”
“You’ve been more honest with me in the last twelve hours than in the rest of our friendship. I’m scared if I press then you’ll clam up again.”
“I wasn’t that much. You saw me.”
“But usually you go off to chores or class or deflect. You could have tried lying again, and I truly appreciate that you didn’t.”
“Maybe I’ve been getting better advice than usual.”
“Maybe you should have started hanging out with the elderly much, much earlier,” she conceded.
Clark smiled and reached out and squeezed her hand gently. “You can ask. I promise I’ll try and answer as best as I can. I…some things are too much right now and some things, honestly? I don’t even understand about myself.”
She nodded but still didn’t quite make eye contact. “But you’re not just strong and fast, are you?”
“How so?” he asked. It would sound stupid to say he could float since he could do fuck all to control it anyway. It wasn’t an ability he could prove and he’d only done it very badly about four times.
“It takes a lot to hurt you. Not just because punching through ice didn’t seem to hurt, but I saw some of the accident reports on Lex’s Porsche.”
“I dove in after---“
“But you didn’t, did you?” she asked. “He hit you but you survived. I’m right, aren’t I?”
Clark sighed and thought of those sharp green eyes maybe twenty years down the line, maybe even longer. If Gene ever really was going to happen, then he had to trust Chloe just a little bit more to start. “I guess a car can’t really hurt me now either. Uh, don’t ask about the wood chipper.”
She was up then, pretty fast for a human girl, and running her hands all over his chest and arms. Chloe stepped back and blushed when she realized what she was doing. “You’re kidding! Say you’re kidding.”
“I got mad at Dad and did something pretty stupid to make a point. It didn’t do anything but it was a shitty stunt to pull cause I wasn’t positive it wouldn’t. Yeah, I’m fast, strong and very tough and it’s definitely related to the shower.”
I was the shower…
“Some days, I really wonder if this town wouldn’t have been better off without it. There are some great people with abilities out there in my files. Obviously we can add one clairvoyant granny to our list and not just hometown freshman heroes.”
“Thanks.”
“But,” she said, sitting back on the desk and sighing. “I’m sorry. I don’t…the meteor freak thing, it’s just that term would never be about you. Do you get that? I think you’re amazing.”
He nodded and digested her smile. She believed that now. If five years down the line she knew the alien part of things, he hoped she still would. He had a lot of reassurance she would but anything could change and his life never came with fulfilled promises before, had it?
“Thanks and I’m just glad you’re okay. You scared me, and a lot of stuff’s been going on this week. Cassandra showed me some things but maybe Volk really just drove the points home. You could have died last night.”
“But I didn’t. One hundred percent tip-top shape Chloe.”
Clark stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’ve been an idiot for a long time. I don’t want the next time this happens to feel this much regret. If our lives are this dangerous and they’re definitely only going to get worse if you’re, um, at The Planet.” Oh she’d be there soon too. And then there’d be possessed Lex and killer computers from outer space. There was no way Clark was even remotely ready to fight that off. “Chloe, this seems stupid the way I’m saying it. We’ve been through so much already, but would you like to go out with me? We can borrow my dad’s truck and go to a movie in Granville, even one of those stupid Oscar contenders you like.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really really,” he said, leaning closer to kiss her.
Chloe pulled back and he wanted to scream. “What about Lana?”
“Lana’s not a part of this,” he said, kissing her for a long time. It wasn’t the Daily Planet basement and the world wasn’t ending around them but it was pretty good too. When he pulled back, Chloe was blinking up at him but not saying anything. Beyond a rarity for her. “I want to try being us. It’s just a movie and if it doesn’t work out, okay, but I want to try.”
“Jeez, Kent,” she said finally pulling herself together and slapping at his shoulder. “I thought you’d never ask!”
**
Epilogue
Clark had to track down Lana at the Senior Home. He was beyond confused when he got there to find her room empty and cleaned out, all her personal items gone and her bed with fresh neutral linens. That didn’t make sense. He’d been there three days ago. Had she gone home to live with one of her daughters and just not told him that was coming?
That wasn’t like her at all.
He found Lana at the reception desk and the look she offered him was unusual for her. They were getting to be friends. He’d found that her no longer wearing a necklace he was deathly allergic to and him actually saying words was helping that on both sides. However, she’d been confused by him or nice or sometimes just annoyed but she’d never looked up at him with her large eyes brimming with tears.
Pity.
“Lana,” he started, not sure he wanted to know the answers to any of this. “Where’s Cassandra?”
“Clark, I didn’t know how to tell you. I’m not good at giving bad news and it’s hard---“ she started.
“She went to live with her daughter right? I know homes can be very costly so it’s a money saving thing and she’s back in Missouri, right?”
Lana shook her head. “Cassandra had a stroke three nights ago. I’m very sorry.”
“No, she was fine. I saw her. We talked and I went to finish deliveries for Lex. There wasn’t anything wrong.”
Lana sighed and started rummaging under the desk. “Sometimes it’s like that. Mr. McKinnon on the second floor didn’t have any history of heart issues and he had a heart attack last week. You can’t always tell when this is going to happen.”
“But she was fine! Did anyone else see her? Did she, I don’t know, get a shock or something?”
“As far as I know, you were the last one to see her that night. My supervisor went in to give her her pills at about ten o’clock and she was passed out in her chair. Well, Margie thought she was…and then she figured out it was worse.”
“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” he said and it felt dumb to be saying it. Not only because he’d only known her a couple of weeks but also because he was talking with Lana and that was somehow callous even if her parents had died over a decade ago.
She nodded. “You don’t always. Aunt Nell says that people know even if you can’t say it. I have to believe that.”
“I guess,” he said, feeling terrible nevertheless. He had been honest with her that he agreed that too many glimpses were wrong but he’d never had a grandparent or someone like that in his life, let alone someone who could understand what it was like to have some kind of ability. He’d really been planning on visiting her for years to come. “I guess her family came and cleared everything out by the looks of it. If you see her daughters or if they call again, I just, let them know I’m sorry, okay?”
Clark was turning around when Lana put a soft hand on his shoulder. “She left you something.”
“It was sudden,” he argued, standing back to face her.
“She left you a letter anyway. Maybe she had it just stored up in case. I had a great aunt like that, planned everything for ten years before she actually died. Sometimes old people are like that.”
Lana handed him both the Mancala board they’d used so often and the letter. “I didn’t read it. It was shut and I made sure it’d get to you. I’m sorry, Clark.”
He nodded and started walking away, not getting all the way to his truck like he’d planned. Instead he sat in one of the over-sized rocking chairs on the porch and opened her letter. He reread it a few times, digesting things:
Clark,
I have one of these and have had for years for my daughters and my grandchildren, and I feel a bit silly having one set aside for a boy I’ve only known a week, but I bet I know you a bit better than most people in your life.
Funny how that works.
I also think you’re going to need everyone in your corner that you can get. Also, this is where I apologize. Sometimes, I can see things when people aren’t aware I’ve seen anything at all. You’ve seen that desolate field, that hint of how long you’ll live, and an adorable if exasperating son so far. I’ve seen something else, something far greater, and I’m already proud of you.
Again, odd, but my life has been that since the shower.
Somehow, I suspect you can relate.
Be good, Clark, and hang in there. You have such things waiting for you that I’m almost jealous.
Cassandra
**
Folding the letter up and shoving it in his jeans pocket, Clark stood and set out to leave. Despite his strength, the game board he carried felt oddly heavy. He was almost down the stairs when a man with a hugely bushy mustache laughed as he passed by.
“This intern program with all the candy stripers…at least we have a lot of new kids around. Those nice new girls and you, son, but I never thought I’d see Lex Luthor come by here too.”
Clark stopped then and frowned back at him. “He did? When?”
“Few nights ago. Didn’t stay long and lit out of here like a house on fire. But, I have to say, I like this. Nice to see someone notices us once in a while, right?”
Clark nodded and hurried to his car. “He noticed something, I’ll give you that.”
2) Type of Work (art, fic, vid): fic
3) Rating: PG
4) Length: 13,574
5) Plot Summary (if fic or vid): AU of "Hourglass," in which Clark gets a vision of his future with Chloe from Cassandra.
6) Notes: Veers off from th e events of Hourglass and plays with timelines and events there.
“Hello, Clark, you look like you’re off on another planet.”
He kept chewing on the top of his pen, and stifled the urge to reply that he found that particular expression insensitive at best and offensive at worst. Cassandra might be open on that disclosure train but he wasn’t ready to tell anyone---not even Pete---that he (probably) came from a galaxy far, far away. He still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about Chloe being The One in the future or the mother of his kid. He wasn’t sure he should tell her anything, in case he undo the future on accident. Except, he also didn’t think he could keep everything status quo for long either, not when he knew that something big was coming for them and that he was supposed to be the only one to weather that.
Maybe he could just focus on the problem at hand.
Sighing, he flipped through Chloe’s intel. The cops had been able to get to The Beanery last night when Zoe had made a quick 911 call when an odd client, a Harry Volk, hadn’t wanted to leave. Zoe’s suspicion had saved her life in a big way. She might have thought he was no more than a creep, but Harry was far worse than that. He was the serial murderer who’d been stalking Smallville lately, and had already killed two other people by strangling them with piano wire.
The one that Pete’s grandfather had commented on not three days ago as being oddly familiar at The Talon.
“So Zoe escaped, which is great, but the police couldn’t detain Harry and that means he’s out there about to go Hannibal Lecter on the next person. I mean, we have to think about the patterns, right Clark?”
“Why isn’t Pete here?”
“Football practice and also sweet talking his grandpa with a photo about any details and gaps he can fill in about Harry Volk,” Chloe corrected. “I’m serious. There has to be a reason for him to be picking the people he does. Like Coach Walt went nuts on people but he did it on people who threatened the football program. Tina Greer went all single white female on Lana. So there has to be a motive for Volk too.”
“Maybe or maybe we want to believe that every time murder hits Smallville, yes meteor rocks are involved, but there is a rational motive too,” Clark said, still shuffling through the papers. “Sometimes bad things happen even in the meteor capital of the world.”
“And normally, sure, I could roll with even the used-to-be most boring town in Kansas has regular crime too. Except this doesn’t fit. He goes after Zoe who’s our classmate, but before it was Lucy Wigman who is forty and then before that was 30 year old Dale Hinkman down at the feed store. The M.O. stays the same with the piano wire but why different ages, races, and genders? That’s the weird part. Something more has to connect them. I’ve tried looking online and talking to Chad the Goth but…”
Clark smiled at that. “Did you ever try anything old fashioned?”
“Huh?”
“County records?”
Chloe smirked at that and sat on the edge of his desk. “What is with you and old fashioned lately? You aren’t even candy-striping now, but you’re always over at the home. I know you like to ‘bump’ into Lana but this is way more than that.”
“First, you can’t tell me that going through real county records isn’t a good idea. Also, I like Cassandra Carver. Sometimes we just talk or she plays the radio and we do some Mancala. It’s not like I have to Lana-spy so don’t say it like that.”
Chloe shrugged. “It’s more than that. I’ve heard from Lana what they say Cassandra can do. So what did she promise your future would be?”
“Now you don’t have to say it like that,” he said, shoving the papers in the folders with a bit more force than he’d meant to. “She’s real, Chloe, and we went through this before. Being able to tell the future is a weird ability but probably still more normal than turning into bugs. Besides, haven’t you ever wondered to just have a peek, to know if life would turn out okay?”
She eyed him and those bright green eyes were so familiar and intense. It had to be denial that had kept him from seeing the connection in Gene from the beginning. “There are a few things I’d want to know. I’d want to know about how long I have to wait before I have a press pass from the Planet or when I should get my dress to accept the Pulitzer. Everyone has things they want to know, to feel it’d work out and not feel so in the dark. I get that, believe me.”
“But? You still seem on the fence, like you hate me going to her specifically.”
“Lana said that Cassandra was very nice. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that maybe there are things we’re not supposed to know in advance, things that no one can know. Just don’t go chasing the dragon here and get addicted to glimpses. Here’s a reason you have to live in the now too.”
“That’s very hippie granola of you also,” he said, his tone brightening. “Look, things have just been super weird even for Smallville. All the people who were affected by meteors started breaking bad and
I feel like we’re almost going to die every day. Maybe I wanted something to make sense.”
She nodded and did him the favor whether she knew it or not of looking somewhere else. “You’ve seemed really different since everything with Lex. I guess near-death experiences can get to a guy.”
“Maybe…I, maybe I just started noticing things I never did before. Or maybe everything just came all at once.”
Chloe nodded and stood up. Then she placed one small hand over his. “If there’s anything you need to get off your chest. You don’t need feel you can only go to a psychic, you know? I’d like to think that, okay, I’m no Pete but I know you pretty well.”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry at that. Okay, not cry, he was a guy after all, but he was pretty sure part of his problem was that he lately was wondering exactly how much he could trust her currently.
“I think you’ll figure more out going to the County Records. I, uh, want to visit the home and then I have deliveries but we can meet back here in the morning and really figure out what you found and what Pete got off his grandpa, right? We’ll figure this out, we’re like five-for-five already.”
Chloe nodded. “Yup and then you still owe me and interview with the head of the chess team. Don’t think serial murder gets you out of that.”
“You’re hard to please.”
“And that’s the kind of reputation that I’m going for.”
**
Cassandra shook her head even before he crossed the threshold into her room. “Clark, most people I speak with only get one chance, maybe two. I need you to understand as interesting as what I see is that you can’t just do this. It doesn’t hurt me but you can’t just dwell in what will be and forget to actually make it happen.”
“I know, and I had a friend today basically imply I was a vision junkie.”
“Was this friend short and blonde?”
He nodded and felt dumb when he remembered she couldn’t see it. “I’m sorry.”
“People make all kinds of gestures. I can hear fabric rustle for what it’s worth, including your jacket when you shook your head. I can give you one last glimpse and then it’s best for you if you just try and figure out what it means, what you want, and how much you need to tell Chloe right now. Although, I think I fell into this not just because it was interesting but because I was selfish too.”
“I don’t understand?”
“You’re the first person I’ve had in years to visit me almost every day. My daughters moved to the East Coast and once people fulfill their curiosity they don’t see me after that. I’m going to miss you.”
“I can still come,” he objected, pulling up his chair. “Who’d play Mancala with you? Or who would you teach about Copeland? I can still…my mom’s father is still alive but he wasn’t allowed to know me as a kid. My dad’s parents died before I was adopted.”
“Is there a reason why you weren’t allowed near your grandfather?”
Clark sighed. “Because I’m ‘gifted,’ right? My mom thought it would be bad if such a famous Metropolis lawyer knew I wasn’t like everyone else, might call in the wrong people to look at me, that sort of thing.”
“Then I think I’d like you to still come. You don’t have to---“
“It’s nice, I said that,” he answered, taking her hand in his and blinking one final time at the onslaught…
**
He’d expected to be in the apartment with Chloe and Gene, doing something parental. Possibly he feared being back on his knees in a semi-circle of tombstones, what he didn’t expect was to be walking down the stairs in some kind of art deco building that was also going nuts. People were rushing past him, the lights were blinking in and out and, as he got closer to the desk, he noticed green code crawling over them. It was almost like The Matrix, but then Clark also realized that the writing reminded him a little of what was on his ship and the tablet Dad had shown him. Whatever that language was playing havoc with every computer in this basement was it was from his planet.
Clark stumbled forward and realized the basement was almost completely empty. A flash of familiar blonde hair was the first thing he spotted as Chloe, a little older and curvier, was hugging him.
“Clark thank God. Brainiac, it’s everywhere!”
He didn’t understand anything that was going on, anything about Lex as a vessel or needing to do what some computer called Brainiac wanted. He wasn’t even sure “when” in his future he was. They were clearly too young still to have kids and Chloe had no rings on her fingers. His dad and hers were both that old fashioned that marriage was going to be a pre-requisite which, honestly, suited Clark fine.
What he did understand was the pain etched on Chloe’s face, the fear. If the whole city was shutting down whatever he was supposed to be facing was serious business and might even be able to kill him. What he didn’t expect even was her racing back into his arms and kissing him. At first, he froze, not even confused by the coming Apocalypse. He’d be gone before he had to live a fight he hadn’t even had yet, that much he knew. It was just that Chloe had only kissed him once before and this was nothing like that. It was skillful and wanting, years of passion and desire clearly bottled up for him. At some point, it felt too good to resist and he melted into her embrace, his tongue working in time with her own.
He almost moaned when she pulled back from him.
He never knew Chloe could feel like this.
“I thought I’d never see you again…I---“
He wanted to say a million things, to promise her that it would be alright, that they’d come out of this like they always seemed to. He wanted to hold her close to him and keep her safe especially after a car had almost creamed her not five minutes ago. He wanted so many things, but Clark settled for inching into the phone booth and answering the call and then there was Lex’s voice, oddly distorted, and the world blurring away…
**
He wasn’t staggering back this time, was used to being in an out of scenes, to the worlds that were different but not quite from his own. He was grinning broadly. Yeah, maybe it was selfish of him. He’d been shown a vision of the future where the world was being destroyed or at least threatened by alien possession and evil androids---and what did it say about him that his planet was capable of these things?---and all he could think about was the best kiss of his life.
And the damn thing hadn’t even happened yet.
Okay so not counting his mom on the cheek, Clark had only been kissed before by Chloe that day in the loft but he was pretty sure even if he’d kissed a dozen girls that this kiss he’d just seen would stand out. He’d felt passion flowing through him, the racing pulse of her heartbeat, and the sweet scent of her. It was making blood rush even now for him and, oddly, his eyes itched more than he had before he’d visited with Cassandra.
Clark didn’t want to focus on the reasons behind that.
Taking measured, even breaths, he sat back in his seat and tried---yet failed---to prevent his blush. It wasn’t that Cassandra could see that, but he felt his delight must be obvious no matter what. She was smirking so pointedly at him.
“So you see that maybe things with Chloe might not be so bad?” The laugh was just barely kept out of her voice.
Clark sighed. “Maybe I understand more the good parts of hanging out with her, of dating her. I still feel like I’d still be far more than she’d ever really bargain for. There’s considerations…”
“It seems to me that she’s been more than ready to make them. Like I said, you don’t have to tell her anything now or tell her some but not all, but I think anything you have to tell her. It will and always was her choice to make how to handle it. You can only put out who you are and she takes it or doesn’t. Seems so far she will or has.”
He chuckled at that. “The tenses are crazy. I saw her accept this, sort of, because I saw Gene and that kiss and everything else, except what if I screw it up somehow and it’s some paradox.”
“You’re a very nice young man. I think I’m a decent judge of character, Clark. Besides, you’re not hard on the eyes either.”
“Cassandra!”
“I was young once too,” she lamented, setting up her radio to her preferred 40s broadcast. “Now do we play Mancala or not?”
“I can’t. I have deliveries but tomorrow I promise a full hour and I’ll even let you win.”
“You wish. I could whoop your butt forty ways to Sunday.”
Clark smiled and squeezed her shoulder as he stood to leave. She wasn’t wrong. Cassandra was a fierce competitor and had nailed him every time they’d played so far.
**
“Clark, you look like a man deep in thought,” Lex said, stepping into the kitchen and grabbing an apple out of the crate the younger man was dropping off.
He nodded. Clark had saved the mansion for last but had almost broken speed limits getting through the rest of his load. Maybe Lex was a bad influence. Maybe not. It was more this overwhelming drive to get home so he could get permission to go to Chloe’s. He wasn’t sure what she’d finally decided or figured out after school with the county court records and he was hoping stopping by her place would be a way to technically talk strategy about Volk but also to maybe talk about them.
No matter how curious she seemed, how open to every mystery out there as exhibited by the Wall of World, he knew Chloe wasn’t ready for the “I’m an alien” spiel. Besides, Clark didn’t know much to add to that himself. All he had was a ship he couldn’t open and a tablet that he couldn’t read. He could be related to those little worm guys who made coffee in those Men in Black movies for all he knew.
Maybe, though, he could at least do something he’d never tried with anyone, even Pete before. Maybe he could at least let her see his powers, even start off with just the speed and strength and get a read on her before unearthly origins made the mix. He just had to do it the right way and that kiss---Dear
God that kiss---really would be his someday.
Hopefully just like a certain boy with mischievous green eyes and a tendency to roll them often.
“Well, I’ve been hanging out at the Senior Home.”
“I heard a certain young candy striper was working there now,” Lex replied, smirking.
Sometimes, Clark didn’t quite get why Lex hung out with him. Oh there was the obvious that Lex was still far too curious about the car crash, that maybe the billionaire was angling to get proof of Clark’s powers. Still, there were easier ways to do that if that was what Lex truly craved. Clark had heard a few pointed comments when dropping off supplies to Fordman’s or the feed store. A few people in town made really crappy assumptions about both of them. That was immature as Hell. Sometimes, though, Clark wondered if Lex had always wanted a little brother.
It would explain the big brother-come-matchmaker act.
Although, sometimes even in just the few months since they’d met, Clark wondered if Lex didn’t just wish Lana was older and was trying to set him up with her as a proxy.
It was all so complicated.
Then again, what in his life wasn’t?
“It’s not actually about Lana,” Clark stammered.
“Oh that’d be new. Have you decided to give it all up and let the quarterback have her?”
“Lana’s her own person and after Sean Kelvin and the not-a-date, well, she can make her own decisions.”
“That sounds more resigned than usual,” Lex said, leaning against the counter.
Clark shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Maybe I just have perspective on things. Lex?”
“Hmm?”
“What would you say if I told you there was a woman at the Senior Home who can see the future?”
Lex smirked. “And is this like Chloe Sullivan’s theories on the meteor rocks, like why Tina Greer could look like me?”
“Yeah, Cassandra Carver doesn’t really make a secret of it. She’s given me a reading or two and she’s read Lana, although she won’t say what there. She has a lot of confidentiality or ethics or something.”
Lex laughed and bit into his fruit. “You asked about Lana, huh?”
“Maybe a little, but she showed me things and they made me start thinking about stuff.”
“Stuff like college or career or stuff like Lana?”
“Stuff like maybe I had the crush all wrong?”
The other man set the apple down and stood up straighter. “This must completely serious. Last week Lana was the possible love of your life and now you’re thinking about someone else from the future.”
“Well it’s not like it’s a girl I’ve never met or something, not some random glimpse of a college or office woman, no.”
Lex beamed back at him and Clark was sure his cheeks were red. Lex was a Luthor after all and, even now, he was beginning to realize how good Luthors were at hearing everything you hadn’t said as well.
“So Cassandra at the Senior Center---“
“Home actually.”
“Mrs. Carver thinks you and a certain reporter are destined for each other?”
“She doesn’t think. She saw. She touched my hand and saw the future and told me about it,” Clark lied a bit about the how. There was definitely a difference with being told second hand but since being an alien was the only reason she could envelope him in the vision too, Clark thought it was best not to mention it.
“Wives’ tales then. Just because people in Smallville have abilities and there’s a real scientific reason for how, well, it doesn’t mean she can see futures. That’s fairly out there. There are so many variables and time might not even work that way.”
“I’m telling you that she sees things and she’s good at it. Lana went to her. Cassandra said she’s had people come to her for about a decade. She saw me and Chloe kissing once and the other time,” again lies wouldn’t hurt anyone. “The other time it was us with a kid in a city apartment.”
“Your child, I assume?” Lex asked but he was still as dismissive as he ever was in any meeting with his father.
“I just know what Cassandra sh…told me.”
“That you and Chloe are soulmates so now you’re like ‘Lana Who?’”
“It’s not funny! I was being honest. What if someone really can see the future and now I know things and what should I even tell Chloe? I know it sounds nuts but it’s Smallville and she founded the Wall of Weird and the meteor rock theories anyway. I just…what if I scare her off or go on too strong?”
Clark wanted to say more, wished he could explain the extra bit nagging at him. No matter what he and Cassandra had both seen over and over again, no matter what he’d felt, it didn’t mean that somehow he’d mess it all up anyway in execution and Chloe wouldn’t like all of him. Hell, most days, especially since he’d seen his ship, Clark didn’t like himself either.
“Well,” Lex mused, stroking his chin. “If you think what she saw was true, then I think you don’t need to rush anything. Assuming she saw a kid and marriage in the offing, it’s not like you’re going to propose tomorrow over homeroom---“
“We’re actually in different homerooms.”
“That’s not my point. Maybe you could start with an actual date for coffee and go from there. After all, one of the things I’d be least likely to believe about a person is that they have the gift for prognostication.”
“Because of the theory of relativity and Einstein and a million other things?”
“Something like that. You know, I think that the Greek philosopher---“
Clark had never been more glad to get a cell phone call than at that moment. “Chloe, hey what’s up?”
“Clark? Oh God, you have to call the police or help me or something.”
Her voice was shrill and she was panting so loud that it startled him. He gripped the phone more tightly and struggle to keep himself from shattering it in front of Lex.
“Chloe! Calm down. What’s going on?”
“It’s Volk! He tracked me down at the courthouse and he’s chasing me. I’m hiding in an archive room in the basement but Clark, please…”
He wanted to ask why she just didn’t call the police herself but he knew why. He wouldn’t ask and risk Lex overhearing her answer. Still, he’d saved her from Walt and then again from Sean Kelvin. That second one had been a truly impossible save. Maybe Chloe knew a lot more about his powers than she said to his face.
He could handle whatever problem Volk was, but the police might not be suited to crazy meteor infected (?) serial killers on the loose.
“I’ll be right there. Chloe, I…just hang on,” he hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket without tearing it. “Lex, call the cops. Chloe’s in trouble at the courthouse.”
“And what are you going to do?”
“Drive down there and, um, be there when they pull her out. I don’t want her being barraged by cops and twenty questions alone or until Mr. Sullivan can show.”
“Or maybe you’ll---“
“Lex, just do it!” Clark shouted, as he rushed to his truck.
**
Clark ditched the truck a mile out from the mansion, at least conscientious enough to keep up that much of an appearance. Hopefully Lex would do as he was told for at least once in his life and call the police. All Clark had to do was get down to the basement and pull her out. He didn’t even have to use powers for that, just sneak her out and let the police shut the building down and close in on Volk.
That was the plan until he’d heard a scream while racing at top human speed down the stairs toward the files. He’d wanted to do it normal as possible, in case there were cameras---God, don’t let there be cameras---but that wasn’t an option now. He’d heard Chloe’s panicked shout and then silence.
He’d have to hope there wasn’t any eye in the sky as Clark put on all the speed he had and raced toward where he’d last heard her.
When he got there, he found a guy maybe a little older than he was with dirty blonde hair looming over her with a piano wire tightening around her throat. Her eyes were bulging wide and blood was streaming a bit from the cut the wire made into her throat but Chloe was still conscious.
For now.
She started fighting anew when Clark showed up, reaching out toward him.
Volk stopped and shook his head. “I didn’t invite you. I have a few more jury members to repay for their crimes and this bitch is trying to ruin that.”
“And I’m not big on murder,” Clark said before rushing forward at an impossible to follow pace and knocking Volk away from Chloe and into a collection of file cabinets. The metal dented from the impact and Volk groaned before passing out at their base. Without waiting, he made his way over to Chloe and gently unwound the wire from around her throat. Reaching up, he stroked a strand of hair back from her cheek. “Are you okay?”
Fat tears rolled down her face but Chloe nodded. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and strained but at least she could still speak, at least Volk hadn’t done to her what he’d managed to do to poor Candy or the others.
“You might have some explaining for later.”
“I…”
“You need to go. I figure you did at least call the police and my dad will know. Maybe the cops shouldn’t be here to ask you too many questions.”
“I have explanations,” he said but even then his voice seemed flat and pathetic. “I do, honest.”
She smiled through her tears. “I believe you have a lot to say. Get out of here and I’ll cover, alright?”
“Chloe---“
“Just do it!” she said, shoving at him. “I got this.”
He blurred out of there even as the sound of sirens started echoing through downtown. He believed that Chloe could talk her way out of just about anything.
**
She didn’t call him that night, and Clark figured she had to go to the police station to file her report and then spend some time reassuring her dad that she was alright. He was already waiting for her for once at The Torch office when she walked in at seven a.m. the next day.
“So,” she said, a whir of motion in Doc Martens and a blinding neon green jacket. “I’ll get the Dragnet stuff out of the way first.”
“Huh?”
“You never watch any TV ever, do you?” she said, taking a seat on the desk in front of him and swinging her legs up and down a bit.
“Not really. Mom and Dad say it rots your mind.”
“Blasphemy!” Chloe shouted. “Volk is under arrest. It was hard at first because they went to file papers with me and then they got back to him an hour later and he was eighty instead of eighteen.”
“Huh?”
“Parrot much? Basically he had an accident while Lana was watching him. Basically he had meteor rock and electricity mixed together in order to make him young, as long as he kept dosing himself. He was out for trying to take down the descendants of the jury that convicted him. Zoe’s grandfather was on it. Actually, so was one Hiram Kent.”
“Jeez,” Clark hissed. “I wish he’d just come for me first. Then Zoe wouldn’t have been scared and Candy and the others would be alive. Jesus, you wouldn’t have been hurt.”
Chloe nodded. “Well, they did fingerprints and they still match so Mr. Volk is going to spend his golden years behind bars for Zoe's attack and mine. Then there's the three victims he actually did get to. He'll be away for the rest of his life, easy. Also," she added, laughing uneasily. "I’m basically three for three this month with meteor mutant madness.”
“Don’t joke. He was really close.”
“I know, but you got there and I was pretty sure you would. You saved me from Sean and then you always do beat the bus to school on foot. You were a safer bet than the cops.”
“Yeah, but if I hadn’t…” he said, clenching his hands into fists at his side. He didn’t trust himself to have his hands near a mouse or keyboard then. They might be shattered by him. “You almost died.”
“See Fire Coach and Ice Boy this month. I’m a reporter, Clark. It’s what I do. I investigate and find things people want to keep hidden. If I don’t get death threats, I’m not doing my job.”
“You’re fourteen and at The Torch not the star reporter for the DP, not yet. You need to pace better.”
Chloe shrugged and pushed her bangs out of her face. “I have my own superhero. I might be good.”
“So I’m good to be used?” Clark asked, and his throat was tight. That’s not what it felt with that kiss or talking to a much older Chloe in the farm’s kitchen. It felt deeper than that, not like he was convenient for her. Pushing back his panic, Clark asked her another question. “I mean, sorry, that’s not really why you came here this morning, is it?”
“Of course not. I’ll try to limit my death defying stunts to monthly. I just mean, don’t martyr yourself. I have a dangerous hobby and one day a career. I’ll be smarter but I’d be in trouble if you weren’t here, okay?”
Of course all her biggest troubles would be gone if there’d never been a shower. There were only meteor freaks to attack her because he’d come, just like Lana’s parents would still be alive and Lex wouldn’t be bald and changed as well. It was all his fault and he was a fool in some ways. The world would be better mostly, if that damn shower had never happened.
“I guess. I bet you have a lot of questions, right?” he sighed then and let his bangs fall over his eyes.
For all his discussions with Cassandra and Lex, Clark was still scared she’d reject him. Anything was possible; he knew that better than anyone. “About me, I mean.”
“I always figured you were fast, ever since that book appeared in the loft from nowhere during our first k…the first day we met.”
“Oh.”
“You’re not as smooth as you think,” Chloe said, grinning.
“I’m fast, yeah and pretty strong.”
“Like strong enough to punch through a foot of ice. I definitely noticed that,” she said and then she hesitated, biting at her lip.”
That scared him a little. Chloe never hesitated. “What?”
“You’ve been more honest with me in the last twelve hours than in the rest of our friendship. I’m scared if I press then you’ll clam up again.”
“I wasn’t that much. You saw me.”
“But usually you go off to chores or class or deflect. You could have tried lying again, and I truly appreciate that you didn’t.”
“Maybe I’ve been getting better advice than usual.”
“Maybe you should have started hanging out with the elderly much, much earlier,” she conceded.
Clark smiled and reached out and squeezed her hand gently. “You can ask. I promise I’ll try and answer as best as I can. I…some things are too much right now and some things, honestly? I don’t even understand about myself.”
She nodded but still didn’t quite make eye contact. “But you’re not just strong and fast, are you?”
“How so?” he asked. It would sound stupid to say he could float since he could do fuck all to control it anyway. It wasn’t an ability he could prove and he’d only done it very badly about four times.
“It takes a lot to hurt you. Not just because punching through ice didn’t seem to hurt, but I saw some of the accident reports on Lex’s Porsche.”
“I dove in after---“
“But you didn’t, did you?” she asked. “He hit you but you survived. I’m right, aren’t I?”
Clark sighed and thought of those sharp green eyes maybe twenty years down the line, maybe even longer. If Gene ever really was going to happen, then he had to trust Chloe just a little bit more to start. “I guess a car can’t really hurt me now either. Uh, don’t ask about the wood chipper.”
She was up then, pretty fast for a human girl, and running her hands all over his chest and arms. Chloe stepped back and blushed when she realized what she was doing. “You’re kidding! Say you’re kidding.”
“I got mad at Dad and did something pretty stupid to make a point. It didn’t do anything but it was a shitty stunt to pull cause I wasn’t positive it wouldn’t. Yeah, I’m fast, strong and very tough and it’s definitely related to the shower.”
I was the shower…
“Some days, I really wonder if this town wouldn’t have been better off without it. There are some great people with abilities out there in my files. Obviously we can add one clairvoyant granny to our list and not just hometown freshman heroes.”
“Thanks.”
“But,” she said, sitting back on the desk and sighing. “I’m sorry. I don’t…the meteor freak thing, it’s just that term would never be about you. Do you get that? I think you’re amazing.”
He nodded and digested her smile. She believed that now. If five years down the line she knew the alien part of things, he hoped she still would. He had a lot of reassurance she would but anything could change and his life never came with fulfilled promises before, had it?
“Thanks and I’m just glad you’re okay. You scared me, and a lot of stuff’s been going on this week. Cassandra showed me some things but maybe Volk really just drove the points home. You could have died last night.”
“But I didn’t. One hundred percent tip-top shape Chloe.”
Clark stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’ve been an idiot for a long time. I don’t want the next time this happens to feel this much regret. If our lives are this dangerous and they’re definitely only going to get worse if you’re, um, at The Planet.” Oh she’d be there soon too. And then there’d be possessed Lex and killer computers from outer space. There was no way Clark was even remotely ready to fight that off. “Chloe, this seems stupid the way I’m saying it. We’ve been through so much already, but would you like to go out with me? We can borrow my dad’s truck and go to a movie in Granville, even one of those stupid Oscar contenders you like.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really really,” he said, leaning closer to kiss her.
Chloe pulled back and he wanted to scream. “What about Lana?”
“Lana’s not a part of this,” he said, kissing her for a long time. It wasn’t the Daily Planet basement and the world wasn’t ending around them but it was pretty good too. When he pulled back, Chloe was blinking up at him but not saying anything. Beyond a rarity for her. “I want to try being us. It’s just a movie and if it doesn’t work out, okay, but I want to try.”
“Jeez, Kent,” she said finally pulling herself together and slapping at his shoulder. “I thought you’d never ask!”
**
Epilogue
Clark had to track down Lana at the Senior Home. He was beyond confused when he got there to find her room empty and cleaned out, all her personal items gone and her bed with fresh neutral linens. That didn’t make sense. He’d been there three days ago. Had she gone home to live with one of her daughters and just not told him that was coming?
That wasn’t like her at all.
He found Lana at the reception desk and the look she offered him was unusual for her. They were getting to be friends. He’d found that her no longer wearing a necklace he was deathly allergic to and him actually saying words was helping that on both sides. However, she’d been confused by him or nice or sometimes just annoyed but she’d never looked up at him with her large eyes brimming with tears.
Pity.
“Lana,” he started, not sure he wanted to know the answers to any of this. “Where’s Cassandra?”
“Clark, I didn’t know how to tell you. I’m not good at giving bad news and it’s hard---“ she started.
“She went to live with her daughter right? I know homes can be very costly so it’s a money saving thing and she’s back in Missouri, right?”
Lana shook her head. “Cassandra had a stroke three nights ago. I’m very sorry.”
“No, she was fine. I saw her. We talked and I went to finish deliveries for Lex. There wasn’t anything wrong.”
Lana sighed and started rummaging under the desk. “Sometimes it’s like that. Mr. McKinnon on the second floor didn’t have any history of heart issues and he had a heart attack last week. You can’t always tell when this is going to happen.”
“But she was fine! Did anyone else see her? Did she, I don’t know, get a shock or something?”
“As far as I know, you were the last one to see her that night. My supervisor went in to give her her pills at about ten o’clock and she was passed out in her chair. Well, Margie thought she was…and then she figured out it was worse.”
“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” he said and it felt dumb to be saying it. Not only because he’d only known her a couple of weeks but also because he was talking with Lana and that was somehow callous even if her parents had died over a decade ago.
She nodded. “You don’t always. Aunt Nell says that people know even if you can’t say it. I have to believe that.”
“I guess,” he said, feeling terrible nevertheless. He had been honest with her that he agreed that too many glimpses were wrong but he’d never had a grandparent or someone like that in his life, let alone someone who could understand what it was like to have some kind of ability. He’d really been planning on visiting her for years to come. “I guess her family came and cleared everything out by the looks of it. If you see her daughters or if they call again, I just, let them know I’m sorry, okay?”
Clark was turning around when Lana put a soft hand on his shoulder. “She left you something.”
“It was sudden,” he argued, standing back to face her.
“She left you a letter anyway. Maybe she had it just stored up in case. I had a great aunt like that, planned everything for ten years before she actually died. Sometimes old people are like that.”
Lana handed him both the Mancala board they’d used so often and the letter. “I didn’t read it. It was shut and I made sure it’d get to you. I’m sorry, Clark.”
He nodded and started walking away, not getting all the way to his truck like he’d planned. Instead he sat in one of the over-sized rocking chairs on the porch and opened her letter. He reread it a few times, digesting things:
Clark,
I have one of these and have had for years for my daughters and my grandchildren, and I feel a bit silly having one set aside for a boy I’ve only known a week, but I bet I know you a bit better than most people in your life.
Funny how that works.
I also think you’re going to need everyone in your corner that you can get. Also, this is where I apologize. Sometimes, I can see things when people aren’t aware I’ve seen anything at all. You’ve seen that desolate field, that hint of how long you’ll live, and an adorable if exasperating son so far. I’ve seen something else, something far greater, and I’m already proud of you.
Again, odd, but my life has been that since the shower.
Somehow, I suspect you can relate.
Be good, Clark, and hang in there. You have such things waiting for you that I’m almost jealous.
Cassandra
**
Folding the letter up and shoving it in his jeans pocket, Clark stood and set out to leave. Despite his strength, the game board he carried felt oddly heavy. He was almost down the stairs when a man with a hugely bushy mustache laughed as he passed by.
“This intern program with all the candy stripers…at least we have a lot of new kids around. Those nice new girls and you, son, but I never thought I’d see Lex Luthor come by here too.”
Clark stopped then and frowned back at him. “He did? When?”
“Few nights ago. Didn’t stay long and lit out of here like a house on fire. But, I have to say, I like this. Nice to see someone notices us once in a while, right?”
Clark nodded and hurried to his car. “He noticed something, I’ll give you that.”