Gift for purple_moon123, part four
Title: Masquerade, part four
Request: After Season 1, Gabe and Chloe move and she reunites with Clark on his first day at The Daily Planet
Type: Fic
For: purple_moon123
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 12, 665
Summary: Chloe hasn’t seen Clark in ten years, but some feelings never change.
Author’s Note: Per the prompt, nothing past Vortex (2.01) applies to what happened with Chloe and Clark. Also this Cat Grant is very much the Lois and Clark version and even Perry here has a bit of Elvis-inspired love.
Chapter Four
“This is something else, Lois. He gave you all of this?”
“Yup, all of it. All the stuff about his powers and training up North and wanting to help Metropolis because of the high crime rate. Every single word that ‘Superman’ said was true, swear to god.”
“Well, you’re the only one he’ll talk to so we’ll run it,” Perry said, shaking his head at the photos. “These are excellent. I just…he came to you?”
“Don’t be shocked. I’m the best reporter you’ve got.”
And I might have put the idea in his head.
Perry eyed the photo she liked the best---really highlighted the spit curl---and shut and locked his door. When he spoke, it was in whispers. “Chloe, cut the crap. Meet me at the Ace in five minutes and tell Kent whatever to leave him here. Now.”
“Chief?”
“I know, Sullivan, and you do too so let’s go somewhere that isn’t on a feed directly to the Queens, alright?”
She nodded and made some excuse to have Cat babysit Clark (that would keep him busy) and met Perry a few minutes later at the Ace of Clubs, the local bar in town and a place guaranteed to be a ghost town at only two on a Wednesday.
She sat down and ordered a huge water for both her and Perry, just in case he was tempted to get something better.
“Okay, then let’s actually talk.”
“Chloe,” he said, and she sighed.
He never called her that. It wasn’t a secret, exactly, that she had a pseudonym. After all, Lionel had been dead for years, but most of the top floor didn’t remember her answering to anything other than Lois. Perry only did it when he wanted to make a point. The last time he had, he’d warned her about following Manheim too closely. He’d been right, to be fair. She’d gotten shot that night.
Not that Perry knew that part.
No one did.
“Yeah?”
“Just so we’re on the same page, Clark’s ‘Superman.’”
She stilled. Clark clearly had some weakness, but she didn’t quite understand what it was yet. However, if anyone connected the city’s new savior, Superman, with Clark Kent, then at least villains and others could start threatening Martha and Jonathan. Hell, the government would be very interested in someone who could fly (oh and blow a tornado, freeze things with a breath, see through anything, bend metal, run around the world in under a minute, and set things on fire with his eyes). It seemed once Clark started sharing that he almost never stopped.
He still hadn’t admitted to being a meteor mutant and Chloe didn’t think he actually was. No one had ever had that many different powers. It just wasn’t possible, even with the rocks.
“Why would you think that?”
“Kid’s an idiot. He was a terrible liar in Smallville and he’s worse here.”
“You were in Smallville?”
“Was there scrounging for something when he was a junior and he hurled a tractor in front of me. He tried to get me to think it was from the drinking, but I was sober in most of it. It was the week of those weird solar flares. I had a devil of a time getting people on my cell or even being able to check my mail.”
“I see,” she said, factoring that away. That meant something, that Clark had slipped around him when the flares were on, of that much Chloe was certain. “And?”
“I wanted to put Clark on X-Stylez, a genuine article, something that I hadn’t even had to make up.”
“Perry!”
“My career was rock bottom. It was after him I sobered up and then you and I fixed the rest of it,” he conceded. “Anyway, I wanted to prove it so I jumped off a gorge. Clark saved me with a rope from his car, nothing obvious, but I shook his hand leaving town the next day and the kid’s terrible rope burns? Totally gone, like they’d never been there. I always figured Clark was strong and healed well, fast too. It’s why I recruited him.”
“Huh?”
“My turn to know things You think I’m dumb? Everywhere Clark reported there were mysterious saves. There was never a costume, but it was obvious it was Clark doing it, and I reached out to him to get him back from Bangkok. I wanted him here. If someone’s going to make miraculous saves I want it at my paper. Besides, I followed his work. You know he was a finalist for a state prize on a series he did on Belle Reve as a senior? Some hard hitting looks on ethics violations after an Alicia Baker’s death.”
“No, I…frankly, I lived in Smallville a couple years. He and I didn’t keep up.”
“I hire for reasons, Sullivan, multiple ones. The kid’s good and I owed him, but the fact we have the biggest news story working for us? I’m not an idiot, we’ll be getting the best coverage on real news win-win for us and the owners. Besides, even if Clark doesn’t know that I know, be real. He starts running off mid-day to save people, who else would let him keep a job.”
“Chief, I’m impressed.”
“I’m more than just a pretty face and encyclopedic knowledge of the King. Anyway, since when did you two hatch the interview angle?”
“We didn’t. I suggested it to Clark in a very broad way. He thinks I’m fooled by glasses and a stupid outfit.”
“That’s sad.”
“Clark’s good at denial,” she admitted. “So that’s what I got. I don’t know how he has his powers but that’s the story on Superman. We just run with it now.”
“Yeah, and then we’re going to start having the government and Lex sniffing all over us since you’ve talked to him. I run this, and everyone will be up on you too, Chloe.”
“Then that’s familiar territory,” she said, clinking her glass against his. “Come on, Chief, think of it this way. Clark clearly didn’t think this plan out very well at all. If we don’t cover for him, people will figure it out.”
“Definitely, and, well, at least it’s really getting interesting.”
**
Clark hated the headline.
Then Cat read it and started gushing and theorizing about what he looked like under the spandex and he decided he fucking loathed it.
“‘Superman?’” He fumed, slamming the copy down on the desk. “Ch…Lois are you serious?”
She smirked back at him. “That’s what he said to call him.”
Oh I did not, you liar.
“I really doubt that guy has an ego that big. Hey! Wasn’t ‘Superboy’ what you called Eric Summers?”
She smirked back at him like a Sphinx. “Maybe, but you had to see him Clark. He was pretty damn amazing. He can fly and he’s funny and, between you and me, he’s easy on the eyes. Especially in the spandex stuff? Well, Superman seemed more than apt.”
Clark tried not to blush. He focused on the rage instead. She was supposed to do a good job, now he just sounded like an idiot. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, don’t feel threatened. You’re a very nice guy. You shouldn’t be upset you’re not faster than sound or able to bend steel. I just, wow, he’s great, Clark.”
Un-fucking-believable. Chloe hadn’t answered his calls in a decade, had treated him like a junior partner moron since he got here, and now she had a rabid crush on, well, for lack of a better word him. This was cosmically unfair. He’d kill to have Chloe actually look at him, Clark Kent, the way she had at him in costume last night. Just, Jesus, how could you lose a popularity contest to yourself?
“And you decided to take some extra poetic license with ‘Superman,’ then?”
“It’s selling papers! We ran out of two printings and it’s not even five o’clock yet. I’m a genius.”
“And you’re modest,” he added, his teeth grinding. “I just…so he flies and stuff, big deal.”
“Don’t worry, all the guys hate him, well, except some of the Life and Style section. Clark, it’ll be fine; you’re still my favorite minion.”
Clark sighed and decided to just avoid the topic of him altogether. “Hey, you had other files you were gonna show Perry today. How did that go?”
“It didn’t. He said they were substantial enough to go with if we didn’t want to be sued by a certain bald scion into oblivion, even with Oliver’s purse strings. I have to go back to square one.”
Clark took slow, deliberate breaths. Step one for Chloe meant that she was going to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous to get more proof. She’d probably head back to the warehouse tonight. Damn it. “Lois, you’re not going to do anything dumb are you?”
“Define dumb? Look, I found this on my off hours, and I don’t want you taking the heat on it. Don’t worry about it, Clark. I’ll get what I need. I always do.”
“So that’s why you had to work around a serious black listing and half of Intergang wants your head.”
“Perry exaggerated that part about Manheim’s boys.”
“Cat said it was true,” he added.
Chloe pursed her lips. “If it’s for truth and justice, then it’s worth it.”
“And this is more than Coach Walt and some death threats and footballs being thrown. If you’re screwing around with Lex, then it’s serious and you know that. Can I help?”
“Nah, if I get in trouble, well, that’s a job for Superman right?”
Clark clenched his jaw tighter. “I guess, but, you know, even if someone has powers they can’t be everywhere all the time.”
Chloe nodded. “That’s why I rely on myself. Look, speaking of the bald menace, I have dinner with him in twenty minutes at Le Petite Fleur.”
Clark wondered if he could just pound his head on his desk if he were careful. What a shitty day. First, Cat was going on and on in detail he couldn’t block completely about what she’d do to Superman (yuck). Then Chloe had a crush on him but not the right him, and now she was going to go to the best restaurant in town with Lex Luthor, even if it was a lead she was working.
Kill him now.
“Fine, just be careful, Lois. I just got you back.”
She smiled and kissed his cheek. “That’s so sweet, Clark. It’s like having my brother back too. Glad you feel the same way.”
Brother?
After he got off work at five, he went to California and spent an hour punching red woods. Brother, his ass.
**
Maybe Chloe had been a little mean.
Okay, she’d been a flaming bitch about the whole thing but, really Clark, if he was going to underestimate her that much and assume she couldn’t add two and two and get “Clark Kent was Superman,” then he deserved the teasing. Besides, he’d been the one who agreed it was okay to be just friends. Sure, she’d clearly been wrong about him rushing off to save Lana but he didn’t have to latch onto the get out of jail free card so fast.
Besides, the look on his face when she’d called him her brother had been kind of priceless. Clearly, Clark might think a lot of things about her, but none of them were brotherly. Thank God.
“Chloe, congratulations. That article of yours is the talk of everywhere. I’ve heard early Pulitzer nom buzz.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right. I don’t even have a real name or where he comes from yet,” she said, letting him tuck in her chair and forcing herself not to shiver when he kissed her cheek.
She hated Lex but not the way you’d think. Once, he’d been a good man, and they’d had a real future, then he’d taken that away from both of them with his lies and his experiments. She cared about him and a part of her would always respond to his charms, but she was sickened by what she’d seen the other day. How could he do that? All those years, all that time in the safe house where he’d ranted about his father, promised never to be like Lionel.
Well, Lex wasn’t like Lionel exactly.
No, he was worse.
“You seem distracted,” Lex said, offering her a kind yet sterile smile. “What do you know about the vigilante that didn’t make the paper?”
“Why do you think I held anything back?”
“Because I know you, Sullivan, and you don’t give any knowledge away if you don’t have to,” he said, taking her hand and she let him. She needed to get him relaxed enough to broadside him. “Do you know who he is? What?”
“I promise you. He could be Thor, God of Thunder, for all I know. I got what I got and I published it. I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
His expression soured and he dropped her hand again as he perused the menu. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Besides, what do you care? You’re not a bank robber so you don’t have to worry about him.”
“We all have to worry about him. Whatever he is, he clearly doesn’t limits. That’s fine as long as he plays by the rules but the Arrow stole and that Bat-Guy has left criminals on ventilators. What could something like that do?”
Chloe tried not to bristle at the phrasing. Clark was her friend. They were in a weird place right now, but he’d always been her friend and, yes, he was odd, but he wasn’t a thing. Of course, she wasn’t supposed to be that invested in an interview subject she’d barely met. “Well, I guess we’ll have to see and hope for the best.”
“That’s not a good idea. What if he’s a Smallville meteor mutant? What if he’s as psychotic as the rest of Belle Reve?”
Chloe flinched. She’d coined the damn term, but she hated it, had for a while now. It had come back to bite her in the ass, hard. “He’s not crazy. He’s kind.”
“He stopped a few bank robberies and literally rescued a kitten from a fire today. He’s snowing people.”
“You’re paranoid.”
“And you didn’t see the aliens back in Smallville.”
Chloe stilled. She’d been busy with a final internship at The London Times after senior year. She’d heard about the mess in Smallville, the weird second shower, but she’d always assumed the “aliens” angle was from people who didn’t understand that their town was covered in mutagen. “Huh?”
“The aliens, the ones that came in the second shower. I saw them myself. They disappeared and I don’t know how, but maybe there weren’t just two. Maybe there were three.”
Chloe swallowed, hard. It was clicking so fast. His powers, the reaction Perry saw to the solar flares, the adoption of a child from nowhere…add in the crop duster who swore something else came down that day and Lex, whom she knew wouldn’t lie, swearing he’d seen others years later.
Jesus, no wonder Clark hadn’t told her where his powers came from, even with the big interview.
Chloe clutched the stem of the crystal glass so hard that it broke. She hissed as the glass bit into her palm, causing blood to well there.
Shit.
She hadn’t cut herself in years. Damn it, she had two minutes, maybe less. “Lex, I’m sorry. I wanted to talk longer but I have to go.”
“Chloe you’re hurt.”
“I…look tomorrow, we’ll talk tomorrow and if I hear anything about little green men, you’ll be the first to know.” She hurried out the door then and to the alley. She didn’t need Lex’s watchful eyes, not tonight.
Request: After Season 1, Gabe and Chloe move and she reunites with Clark on his first day at The Daily Planet
Type: Fic
For: purple_moon123
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 12, 665
Summary: Chloe hasn’t seen Clark in ten years, but some feelings never change.
Author’s Note: Per the prompt, nothing past Vortex (2.01) applies to what happened with Chloe and Clark. Also this Cat Grant is very much the Lois and Clark version and even Perry here has a bit of Elvis-inspired love.
Chapter Four
“This is something else, Lois. He gave you all of this?”
“Yup, all of it. All the stuff about his powers and training up North and wanting to help Metropolis because of the high crime rate. Every single word that ‘Superman’ said was true, swear to god.”
“Well, you’re the only one he’ll talk to so we’ll run it,” Perry said, shaking his head at the photos. “These are excellent. I just…he came to you?”
“Don’t be shocked. I’m the best reporter you’ve got.”
And I might have put the idea in his head.
Perry eyed the photo she liked the best---really highlighted the spit curl---and shut and locked his door. When he spoke, it was in whispers. “Chloe, cut the crap. Meet me at the Ace in five minutes and tell Kent whatever to leave him here. Now.”
“Chief?”
“I know, Sullivan, and you do too so let’s go somewhere that isn’t on a feed directly to the Queens, alright?”
She nodded and made some excuse to have Cat babysit Clark (that would keep him busy) and met Perry a few minutes later at the Ace of Clubs, the local bar in town and a place guaranteed to be a ghost town at only two on a Wednesday.
She sat down and ordered a huge water for both her and Perry, just in case he was tempted to get something better.
“Okay, then let’s actually talk.”
“Chloe,” he said, and she sighed.
He never called her that. It wasn’t a secret, exactly, that she had a pseudonym. After all, Lionel had been dead for years, but most of the top floor didn’t remember her answering to anything other than Lois. Perry only did it when he wanted to make a point. The last time he had, he’d warned her about following Manheim too closely. He’d been right, to be fair. She’d gotten shot that night.
Not that Perry knew that part.
No one did.
“Yeah?”
“Just so we’re on the same page, Clark’s ‘Superman.’”
She stilled. Clark clearly had some weakness, but she didn’t quite understand what it was yet. However, if anyone connected the city’s new savior, Superman, with Clark Kent, then at least villains and others could start threatening Martha and Jonathan. Hell, the government would be very interested in someone who could fly (oh and blow a tornado, freeze things with a breath, see through anything, bend metal, run around the world in under a minute, and set things on fire with his eyes). It seemed once Clark started sharing that he almost never stopped.
He still hadn’t admitted to being a meteor mutant and Chloe didn’t think he actually was. No one had ever had that many different powers. It just wasn’t possible, even with the rocks.
“Why would you think that?”
“Kid’s an idiot. He was a terrible liar in Smallville and he’s worse here.”
“You were in Smallville?”
“Was there scrounging for something when he was a junior and he hurled a tractor in front of me. He tried to get me to think it was from the drinking, but I was sober in most of it. It was the week of those weird solar flares. I had a devil of a time getting people on my cell or even being able to check my mail.”
“I see,” she said, factoring that away. That meant something, that Clark had slipped around him when the flares were on, of that much Chloe was certain. “And?”
“I wanted to put Clark on X-Stylez, a genuine article, something that I hadn’t even had to make up.”
“Perry!”
“My career was rock bottom. It was after him I sobered up and then you and I fixed the rest of it,” he conceded. “Anyway, I wanted to prove it so I jumped off a gorge. Clark saved me with a rope from his car, nothing obvious, but I shook his hand leaving town the next day and the kid’s terrible rope burns? Totally gone, like they’d never been there. I always figured Clark was strong and healed well, fast too. It’s why I recruited him.”
“Huh?”
“My turn to know things You think I’m dumb? Everywhere Clark reported there were mysterious saves. There was never a costume, but it was obvious it was Clark doing it, and I reached out to him to get him back from Bangkok. I wanted him here. If someone’s going to make miraculous saves I want it at my paper. Besides, I followed his work. You know he was a finalist for a state prize on a series he did on Belle Reve as a senior? Some hard hitting looks on ethics violations after an Alicia Baker’s death.”
“No, I…frankly, I lived in Smallville a couple years. He and I didn’t keep up.”
“I hire for reasons, Sullivan, multiple ones. The kid’s good and I owed him, but the fact we have the biggest news story working for us? I’m not an idiot, we’ll be getting the best coverage on real news win-win for us and the owners. Besides, even if Clark doesn’t know that I know, be real. He starts running off mid-day to save people, who else would let him keep a job.”
“Chief, I’m impressed.”
“I’m more than just a pretty face and encyclopedic knowledge of the King. Anyway, since when did you two hatch the interview angle?”
“We didn’t. I suggested it to Clark in a very broad way. He thinks I’m fooled by glasses and a stupid outfit.”
“That’s sad.”
“Clark’s good at denial,” she admitted. “So that’s what I got. I don’t know how he has his powers but that’s the story on Superman. We just run with it now.”
“Yeah, and then we’re going to start having the government and Lex sniffing all over us since you’ve talked to him. I run this, and everyone will be up on you too, Chloe.”
“Then that’s familiar territory,” she said, clinking her glass against his. “Come on, Chief, think of it this way. Clark clearly didn’t think this plan out very well at all. If we don’t cover for him, people will figure it out.”
“Definitely, and, well, at least it’s really getting interesting.”
**
Clark hated the headline.
Then Cat read it and started gushing and theorizing about what he looked like under the spandex and he decided he fucking loathed it.
“‘Superman?’” He fumed, slamming the copy down on the desk. “Ch…Lois are you serious?”
She smirked back at him. “That’s what he said to call him.”
Oh I did not, you liar.
“I really doubt that guy has an ego that big. Hey! Wasn’t ‘Superboy’ what you called Eric Summers?”
She smirked back at him like a Sphinx. “Maybe, but you had to see him Clark. He was pretty damn amazing. He can fly and he’s funny and, between you and me, he’s easy on the eyes. Especially in the spandex stuff? Well, Superman seemed more than apt.”
Clark tried not to blush. He focused on the rage instead. She was supposed to do a good job, now he just sounded like an idiot. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, don’t feel threatened. You’re a very nice guy. You shouldn’t be upset you’re not faster than sound or able to bend steel. I just, wow, he’s great, Clark.”
Un-fucking-believable. Chloe hadn’t answered his calls in a decade, had treated him like a junior partner moron since he got here, and now she had a rabid crush on, well, for lack of a better word him. This was cosmically unfair. He’d kill to have Chloe actually look at him, Clark Kent, the way she had at him in costume last night. Just, Jesus, how could you lose a popularity contest to yourself?
“And you decided to take some extra poetic license with ‘Superman,’ then?”
“It’s selling papers! We ran out of two printings and it’s not even five o’clock yet. I’m a genius.”
“And you’re modest,” he added, his teeth grinding. “I just…so he flies and stuff, big deal.”
“Don’t worry, all the guys hate him, well, except some of the Life and Style section. Clark, it’ll be fine; you’re still my favorite minion.”
Clark sighed and decided to just avoid the topic of him altogether. “Hey, you had other files you were gonna show Perry today. How did that go?”
“It didn’t. He said they were substantial enough to go with if we didn’t want to be sued by a certain bald scion into oblivion, even with Oliver’s purse strings. I have to go back to square one.”
Clark took slow, deliberate breaths. Step one for Chloe meant that she was going to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous to get more proof. She’d probably head back to the warehouse tonight. Damn it. “Lois, you’re not going to do anything dumb are you?”
“Define dumb? Look, I found this on my off hours, and I don’t want you taking the heat on it. Don’t worry about it, Clark. I’ll get what I need. I always do.”
“So that’s why you had to work around a serious black listing and half of Intergang wants your head.”
“Perry exaggerated that part about Manheim’s boys.”
“Cat said it was true,” he added.
Chloe pursed her lips. “If it’s for truth and justice, then it’s worth it.”
“And this is more than Coach Walt and some death threats and footballs being thrown. If you’re screwing around with Lex, then it’s serious and you know that. Can I help?”
“Nah, if I get in trouble, well, that’s a job for Superman right?”
Clark clenched his jaw tighter. “I guess, but, you know, even if someone has powers they can’t be everywhere all the time.”
Chloe nodded. “That’s why I rely on myself. Look, speaking of the bald menace, I have dinner with him in twenty minutes at Le Petite Fleur.”
Clark wondered if he could just pound his head on his desk if he were careful. What a shitty day. First, Cat was going on and on in detail he couldn’t block completely about what she’d do to Superman (yuck). Then Chloe had a crush on him but not the right him, and now she was going to go to the best restaurant in town with Lex Luthor, even if it was a lead she was working.
Kill him now.
“Fine, just be careful, Lois. I just got you back.”
She smiled and kissed his cheek. “That’s so sweet, Clark. It’s like having my brother back too. Glad you feel the same way.”
Brother?
After he got off work at five, he went to California and spent an hour punching red woods. Brother, his ass.
**
Maybe Chloe had been a little mean.
Okay, she’d been a flaming bitch about the whole thing but, really Clark, if he was going to underestimate her that much and assume she couldn’t add two and two and get “Clark Kent was Superman,” then he deserved the teasing. Besides, he’d been the one who agreed it was okay to be just friends. Sure, she’d clearly been wrong about him rushing off to save Lana but he didn’t have to latch onto the get out of jail free card so fast.
Besides, the look on his face when she’d called him her brother had been kind of priceless. Clearly, Clark might think a lot of things about her, but none of them were brotherly. Thank God.
“Chloe, congratulations. That article of yours is the talk of everywhere. I’ve heard early Pulitzer nom buzz.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right. I don’t even have a real name or where he comes from yet,” she said, letting him tuck in her chair and forcing herself not to shiver when he kissed her cheek.
She hated Lex but not the way you’d think. Once, he’d been a good man, and they’d had a real future, then he’d taken that away from both of them with his lies and his experiments. She cared about him and a part of her would always respond to his charms, but she was sickened by what she’d seen the other day. How could he do that? All those years, all that time in the safe house where he’d ranted about his father, promised never to be like Lionel.
Well, Lex wasn’t like Lionel exactly.
No, he was worse.
“You seem distracted,” Lex said, offering her a kind yet sterile smile. “What do you know about the vigilante that didn’t make the paper?”
“Why do you think I held anything back?”
“Because I know you, Sullivan, and you don’t give any knowledge away if you don’t have to,” he said, taking her hand and she let him. She needed to get him relaxed enough to broadside him. “Do you know who he is? What?”
“I promise you. He could be Thor, God of Thunder, for all I know. I got what I got and I published it. I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
His expression soured and he dropped her hand again as he perused the menu. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Besides, what do you care? You’re not a bank robber so you don’t have to worry about him.”
“We all have to worry about him. Whatever he is, he clearly doesn’t limits. That’s fine as long as he plays by the rules but the Arrow stole and that Bat-Guy has left criminals on ventilators. What could something like that do?”
Chloe tried not to bristle at the phrasing. Clark was her friend. They were in a weird place right now, but he’d always been her friend and, yes, he was odd, but he wasn’t a thing. Of course, she wasn’t supposed to be that invested in an interview subject she’d barely met. “Well, I guess we’ll have to see and hope for the best.”
“That’s not a good idea. What if he’s a Smallville meteor mutant? What if he’s as psychotic as the rest of Belle Reve?”
Chloe flinched. She’d coined the damn term, but she hated it, had for a while now. It had come back to bite her in the ass, hard. “He’s not crazy. He’s kind.”
“He stopped a few bank robberies and literally rescued a kitten from a fire today. He’s snowing people.”
“You’re paranoid.”
“And you didn’t see the aliens back in Smallville.”
Chloe stilled. She’d been busy with a final internship at The London Times after senior year. She’d heard about the mess in Smallville, the weird second shower, but she’d always assumed the “aliens” angle was from people who didn’t understand that their town was covered in mutagen. “Huh?”
“The aliens, the ones that came in the second shower. I saw them myself. They disappeared and I don’t know how, but maybe there weren’t just two. Maybe there were three.”
Chloe swallowed, hard. It was clicking so fast. His powers, the reaction Perry saw to the solar flares, the adoption of a child from nowhere…add in the crop duster who swore something else came down that day and Lex, whom she knew wouldn’t lie, swearing he’d seen others years later.
Jesus, no wonder Clark hadn’t told her where his powers came from, even with the big interview.
Chloe clutched the stem of the crystal glass so hard that it broke. She hissed as the glass bit into her palm, causing blood to well there.
Shit.
She hadn’t cut herself in years. Damn it, she had two minutes, maybe less. “Lex, I’m sorry. I wanted to talk longer but I have to go.”
“Chloe you’re hurt.”
“I…look tomorrow, we’ll talk tomorrow and if I hear anything about little green men, you’ll be the first to know.” She hurried out the door then and to the alley. She didn’t need Lex’s watchful eyes, not tonight.