Interlude (Being) and Chapter 5
Interlude- Being
May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.
May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism.
Sandra Sturtz Hauss , excerpt from “May You Always Feel Loved”
After Chloe had revealed herself to Lois, they had spent the day just talking and knowing each other again. Chloe could see the wide gulf that had been between them. It had never really been there before…even when they were younger and Lois and Uncle Sam were constantly on the move. They had been like sisters. And while Chloe was no slouch in the hyperactivity department, Lois took it to a whole new level. She was outgoing, brash, and daring. Chloe was all those things too, but she could take control of it. Own it so as not to alienate people.
Lois simply didn’t care. She barely had impulse control. It was both endearing and frustrating beyond believe. But none of that had mattered until the wolf. The wolf came and forced Chloe to look at Lois like a new entity. Forced her to look at Lois not with the lens of being a cousin or a sister, but objectively and the wolf had found her lacking. It was a new and scary feeling. Yes, she and Clark had been close and rejecting him had hurt badly, but it was nowhere near the feeling of rejecting Lois. Lois was family. She was there before Clark and would be around long after him.
By mutual agreement, they chose to not begin searching for the hows and the whys. They chose to just be together. Even now, after Lois had left, Chloe’s apartment held faint traces of Lois. The kitchen counter where they both stood and talked and put food together to eat. The couch where they had sat and watched movies. The only place where Lois’ scent didn’t linger was the bedroom.
Chloe hadn’t been ready to have her scent there, but it was a start. Sometimes baby steps were the way to go and sometimes charging madly and wildly was the way to go. The day had already been emotional, so it was a fairly easy decision to not push her luck with what she could and could not do.
No matter how small the step, it had been a big thing to feel content with someone else’s scent all over. It wasn’t obtrusive. It was comforting because Lois was once again family. She wasn’t a loud talking stranger that she had visions of maiming horribly. She was Lois again and that meant everything. It meant that even though her father wasn’t around, some part of him was with her, however removed.
She didn’t know that she could feel this level of peace. Even before whatever was done to her was done to her. Lois was understandably freaked. Chloe was a tactile person before and even more now that she was a wolf.
She had eventually run Lois off with a promise to call her soon. Chloe wanted to be alone and process everything and she didn’t think she could do it with Lois around keeping up an endless stream of chatter. So it was with quiet reflection that Chloe watched the sunset.
Since becoming the wolf, sunset and sunrise became something of a spiritual experience…even when she was color blind. She might not have been able to see the brilliant hues now, but she could take note of the tree that was across the street. It was as if the absence of color forced her to note everything else. She could see the dips and hollows of the leaves. It was like she was holding the leaf in her hands. It was that vivid. The experience became so much more when could see the colors and be focused on them.
Chloe remembered the first time she had just sat and looked at something with her new sight. She’d been doing the dishes and the sun had caught this bubble. And there were just so many colors refracted and reflected back at her. It was then that it was really and truly hammered home that everything about her was different. Everything. The whole changing into a wolf was something almost abstract. It happened and then she was Chloe again, but this meant that it was with her even as Chloe. It was a surreal moment.
She disliked the fact that she was color blind but at these moments she could stop and try to appreciate everything else. It was the only way to adapt to the circumstances of her new life and all that entailed. Chloe was left with the earthshaking knowledge that she could not be what she was, could not remain in her present condition, but had no clue how to move forward. She did know that it began with Lois and Clark. Her family. Eventually her new life would include her father, but not now. Baby steps.
Chapter 5
“The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”
Gloria Steinem
Chloe was awakened by the sound of her phone ringing. She rolled over and looked at her clock. It was 8 AM on a Sunday. The past few days had been emotional and she hadn’t been sleeping well so she was annoyed that she was being disturbed this early in the morning. “I don’t even have coffee to make it better. I think this deserves an evisceration.”
She had discovered that she could no longer have her alarm clock or her phone in her room. The noise of an alarm clock or phone was jarring. One minute she’d be asleep and the next she’d be wide awake and casting her glance about the room frantically. Her heartbeat racing. Her breathing rapid. The response was the same as if she’d been awakened from a nightmare. It happened every time. She couldn’t get used to.
After the fourth time this happened, she reduced the volume on the phone and alarm clock. It hadn’t helped. After that, she placed her alarm clock and the phone in the drawer of the night stand next to the bed. That only resulted in her attacking her nightstand before she was even fully aware of what she was doing. Claws out and viciously ripping into the wooden nightstand. Chloe had to go to the hardware store and buy a new nightstand. She cried as she put her newly bought nightstand together. She also found that she couldn’t stand the constant ticking of analog clocks. Chloe had to change every ticking clock in her home to digital. She only set the alarm clock in the living room and the volume was turned off on the phone in her room, but not in the living room.
The action of rolling over and answering her phone put strain on her side where she’d been shot. The wound had healed a month over the span of a day. “Fast healing makes no sense.” Sure most werewolf movies and lore say that werewolves healed quickly, but there was no scientific basis for such healing. It was one more thing she needed to know the hows for.
Her voice was hoarse from sleep and tinged with annoyance when she greeted the person on the phone.
“Hey, sweetheart. Sorry to call so early.”
It was her father. His voice immediately calmed her. Whatever dark thoughts she had been thinking, whatever irritation she might’ve felt left her. Love and devotion was left in its wake. “Alpha.” Gabe Sullivan might not have been a werewolf and she was more than positive that killing him would be a trivial thing, but he was her father. Gabe Sullivan was still the boss of her, but it made her feel safe.
She didn’t have to be afraid if her daddy was there. She definitely wasn’t alone despite the fact that he had a job in Metropolis. His voice called to mind every good thing, every bad thing that she had experienced with him. When he disciplined her. When he comforted her and told her stories. When he smiled at her. Superior physical strength meant nothing if the mental strength wasn’t there. And she was strong mentally when he was there.
“Chloe, are you ok?”
She realized that she had zoned out on him because was on the edge of parental worry, “Sorry, daddy. The gray matter isn’t working this early. What’s up?”
Her reassurance settled him because his voice was soothing in her ear, “I’m headed out of town for a couple of weeks on a business trip. I leave in about an hour so we won’t be able to have dinner this evening. I didn’t know I was going on the trip until late last night. I’ll make it up to you as soon as I get back.”
Chloe was disappointed. She had been looking forward to going to Metropolis and being in her father’s home. He always smelled nice. She belonged with him. In his place. There were times when she thought it slightly ridiculous how much she depended on him for her emotional well-being but she felt she had a good excuse with the whole werewolf situation. The only consolation was that he didn’t sound enthused about missing dinner with her.
She made sure to inject her voice with levity. He couldn’t know that it hurt badly to miss this time with him, “I can’t believe you’re ditching me for work. I’d skip work for you. It would be a sacrifice but I’d do it.”
Gabe chuckled a little, “I remember a certain delinquent daughter ditching me to chase leads on a story. Chloe, are you sure you’re ok? I feel like I’m missing something.”
Unbelievable. It was scary how well her family knew her. “First Lois and now my father.” Chloe would be eternally grateful to whatever providence gave her people in her life that cared enough to worry and nag. Even if it was annoying sometimes. “It just means that if I die in my apartment my corpse will be found in a timely manner. None of those icky gas explosions for me.”
“I’m just feeling a little stressed. Ya know. The usual. Go. Have fun on your trip. Well as much fun as a business trip can be. Bring me back something pretty.”
For the next 30 minutes they caught up on what each was doing and he gave her the details of his trip. He was headed to San Diego for some kind of symposium. Chloe hung up the phone with her father feeling much renewed.
********
Her watch said it was two minutes until noon. Chloe sat in her car outside of Clark Kent’s barn. She was about to have a rather difficult conversation with him and didn’t look forward to it. After her talk with her father, Chloe had to find something to do for the day. She had planned on going to Metropolis early and hanging out with him but he deep-sixed that plan. Since he was going to be out of time for at least two weeks, she figured that she might as well face the elephant in the room, which was why she was sitting in her car. Chloe realized that she really couldn’t involve Clark in what she was about to do. Clark could be as emotional as the best of them and his judgment had always been clouded when it came to Lex. “He means well.”
Clark would distract her. Would make her back off when her judgment told her to strongly push forward. She couldn’t afford to dance around the answers she needed. She couldn’t let ethics or morality cloud her mind. Chloe needed to be unerringly ruthless in the pursuit of this truth. In the pursuit of Lex. This situation was as deep as the one she found herself in with Lionel. She hadn’t gone too far in taking him down because Lex had. She let him do the dirty work so that she didn’t have one more thing to feel guilty about.
Besides, in any endeavor with the Luthors plausible deniability became paramount to self preservation. Chloe still wanted to preserve that kernel of innocence that she had. The entire ordeal had taught her a very valuable lesson. “Life is like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today will burn your ass tomorrow.”
At any rate, Chloe didn’t want to put him in a position of having to choose between his friendship with her and his principles. It wasn’t fair to him. Lex had already forced that issue; and while Chloe knew that she and Clark had a much stronger foundation, she didn’t want to put it to the test. More than that, she didn’t want him to look at her differently. Clark was one of the best people she knew and she loved him. It was why his possible rejection had hurt so badly.
If for even one moment, he looked at her in fear or hatred or as if she were a monster, Chloe knew she wouldn’t be able to handle it. It was what happened when you willingly bound yourself to someone else. For that reason, she could feel pity for Lex. Chloe could almost track the exact moment that Clark stopped looking at Lex as a friend. It may seem like she was forever sacrificing herself on the altar of Clark Kent’s regard and getting nothing in return, but she was a willing participant. And at the end of the day, she got someone who loved her. No matter how dumb his execution was.
She knew her place in his life and the wolf made her content with it. Besides, when he needed help or needed anything he came to her. She had power over him. She just chose never to abuse it. Clark Kent was the kind of person destined for great things and that meant that sometimes the rules had to be brutally murdered in the town square. He was someone that came into being only once in millions of tries.
Chloe knew that he was worth it and so she could never bring herself to resent whatever hold he had on her. She embraced it because the man he would become would be inevitably shaped by the people he was close to. It meant that no matter what he did or where he went she, Chloe Sullivan, had a hand in it. Great people were measured by their deeds, and those deeds were forged by the people who knew them best. In a round about way, that meant that when Clark Kent’s greatness was measured, they would actually be seeing her greatness. And Martha’s, Jonathan’s, Lex’s, and even Lana’s.
The subject of her thoughts walked into view. He took the choice of meeting him right out of her hands. Never let it be said that Clark Kent lacked decisiveness. Once he had a course of action he bulldozed right on through to the end. His lack of focus and indecision would fade away with time and confidence. Every now and again she saw it in him. No doubt it was that spark that kept Martha and Jonathan, when he was alive, going and the people who knew him close. Clark Kent was going to be a legend.
His stride was long and purposeful with a hint of the small town farmer that he would’ve been had he not been a super- powered, beautiful alien.
“You’ve been sitting out here for ten minutes.”
Chloe got out of her car, “Yeah. I know. I’ve been trying to find the words to tell you something you’re not gonna like.”
There were times when Clark knew that Chloe Sullivan might possibly prove to be more deadly than green kryptonite. Usually it came on a tail end of a vague statement that spelled doom. Now was such a time, “And why is that?”
She watched as the grin left his face and he got serious. It changed his demeanor entirely when he did that. It was like he was becoming someone new. Someone who was unburdened by the cares of a teenager. “Trading one kind of burden for another.”
“Because I know that you want to help me take down Luthor and I can’t let you.”
Chloe knew the exact moment when Clark shut down on her. The exact moment she knew that he was gonna dig in and be as hard-head, as stubborn as a mule. Worse than a mule. “Maybe a camel.” It was when his impressive jaw law clinched and set into a hard expression. She remembered when they were younger and he would do that. It was so adorable. Now, however, it wasn’t. He was a man now.
Clark looked away from her. He was trying to gather his composure, “Why? This isn’t something you can do alone. I can help you.”
Chloe knew where he was coming from. She’d be hard pressed to let accept such a rejection if she were in his shoes, but she had to stay firm on this, “Because Lex is either a massive blind spot or he flares so brightly in your view. Your judgment has never been right when it came to him.”
Clark flinched away from her words. She had hurt him.
“Clark, I can’t do this if I’m afraid that you’ll do something drastic. I don’t need you to protect me. And I’ll say that until you believe it. I’m here for you because I love you. You don’t need to do anything for me. If this is about your sense of right and wrong, know that it won’t get out of hand,” she moved to stand in front of him again, put her hand on his cheek, and met his eyes, “You’ll be the first person I call if I need anything. Clark, part of being what you are means knowing when you can’t interfere. Trouble will find you, Clark. It will forever be a part of your life. There is no need for you to go hunting for it. This one time, Clark, you can’t go where I’m going.”
Chloe thought she might cry at the expression on his face. Many emotions raced across his face. He was torn and hurt.
Clark enveloped her in a hug. He held her tight as if she would slip away, “You’re the best person I know, Chloe. I don’t know what I would do without you. One of the worst moments of my life came when I thought I had lost you forever that summer. I always expect you to come back to me. And it’s only recently that I realized that you’ve never left me.”
He let her go and walked back to his barn. In so many ways he didn’t fit with the image of a barn, but in the only way that mattered he belonged there. He belonged there because the people around him carved out a niche he could fit. “Clark Kent is one in a million.” Chloe knew that dragging this out and running to him would not have made things better so she got back into her car and drove away. It was the beginning of something new. “Change is a hurtful bitch.”
Chloe called Lois. She told Lois to meet her at a cyber café in Metropolis. It was time to find the answers she was looking for.
********
It took Chloe and Lois three hours to get the results they were looking for. Chloe had denied Lois access to the information she had helped her acquire. Chloe didn’t want Lois deeply involved until she knew the depth and width of the opposition. Lois pouted. She threatened, and whined until Chloe’s eyes flashed gold. That shut her up in record time. “I should abuse the fun eye change more often.”
Chloe left Lois with vague promises of filling her in later and headed home. As she sat and read her computer screen, the world faded away. A quarter of the way through, Chloe let loose a roar of rage. She didn’t care about neighbors hearing. They’d probably think it was the radio anyway. Chloe had only felt this out of control the first time she had changed into the wolf.
She couldn’t control this. Her heart was racing, her breathing was rapid and she knew that the change was at the surface. Chloe ran from her apartment, gunned her car engine and pointed it in the direction of Lex Luthor’s mansion. There were no thoughts in her mind. Only fury and pain. She was going to murder him and paint his walls red with his blood.
“Lex Luthor will die for this.”
Back to Chapter 4
Onward to Chapter 6
May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.
May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism.
Sandra Sturtz Hauss , excerpt from “May You Always Feel Loved”
After Chloe had revealed herself to Lois, they had spent the day just talking and knowing each other again. Chloe could see the wide gulf that had been between them. It had never really been there before…even when they were younger and Lois and Uncle Sam were constantly on the move. They had been like sisters. And while Chloe was no slouch in the hyperactivity department, Lois took it to a whole new level. She was outgoing, brash, and daring. Chloe was all those things too, but she could take control of it. Own it so as not to alienate people.
Lois simply didn’t care. She barely had impulse control. It was both endearing and frustrating beyond believe. But none of that had mattered until the wolf. The wolf came and forced Chloe to look at Lois like a new entity. Forced her to look at Lois not with the lens of being a cousin or a sister, but objectively and the wolf had found her lacking. It was a new and scary feeling. Yes, she and Clark had been close and rejecting him had hurt badly, but it was nowhere near the feeling of rejecting Lois. Lois was family. She was there before Clark and would be around long after him.
By mutual agreement, they chose to not begin searching for the hows and the whys. They chose to just be together. Even now, after Lois had left, Chloe’s apartment held faint traces of Lois. The kitchen counter where they both stood and talked and put food together to eat. The couch where they had sat and watched movies. The only place where Lois’ scent didn’t linger was the bedroom.
Chloe hadn’t been ready to have her scent there, but it was a start. Sometimes baby steps were the way to go and sometimes charging madly and wildly was the way to go. The day had already been emotional, so it was a fairly easy decision to not push her luck with what she could and could not do.
No matter how small the step, it had been a big thing to feel content with someone else’s scent all over. It wasn’t obtrusive. It was comforting because Lois was once again family. She wasn’t a loud talking stranger that she had visions of maiming horribly. She was Lois again and that meant everything. It meant that even though her father wasn’t around, some part of him was with her, however removed.
She didn’t know that she could feel this level of peace. Even before whatever was done to her was done to her. Lois was understandably freaked. Chloe was a tactile person before and even more now that she was a wolf.
She had eventually run Lois off with a promise to call her soon. Chloe wanted to be alone and process everything and she didn’t think she could do it with Lois around keeping up an endless stream of chatter. So it was with quiet reflection that Chloe watched the sunset.
Since becoming the wolf, sunset and sunrise became something of a spiritual experience…even when she was color blind. She might not have been able to see the brilliant hues now, but she could take note of the tree that was across the street. It was as if the absence of color forced her to note everything else. She could see the dips and hollows of the leaves. It was like she was holding the leaf in her hands. It was that vivid. The experience became so much more when could see the colors and be focused on them.
Chloe remembered the first time she had just sat and looked at something with her new sight. She’d been doing the dishes and the sun had caught this bubble. And there were just so many colors refracted and reflected back at her. It was then that it was really and truly hammered home that everything about her was different. Everything. The whole changing into a wolf was something almost abstract. It happened and then she was Chloe again, but this meant that it was with her even as Chloe. It was a surreal moment.
She disliked the fact that she was color blind but at these moments she could stop and try to appreciate everything else. It was the only way to adapt to the circumstances of her new life and all that entailed. Chloe was left with the earthshaking knowledge that she could not be what she was, could not remain in her present condition, but had no clue how to move forward. She did know that it began with Lois and Clark. Her family. Eventually her new life would include her father, but not now. Baby steps.
Chapter 5
“The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”
Gloria Steinem
Chloe was awakened by the sound of her phone ringing. She rolled over and looked at her clock. It was 8 AM on a Sunday. The past few days had been emotional and she hadn’t been sleeping well so she was annoyed that she was being disturbed this early in the morning. “I don’t even have coffee to make it better. I think this deserves an evisceration.”
She had discovered that she could no longer have her alarm clock or her phone in her room. The noise of an alarm clock or phone was jarring. One minute she’d be asleep and the next she’d be wide awake and casting her glance about the room frantically. Her heartbeat racing. Her breathing rapid. The response was the same as if she’d been awakened from a nightmare. It happened every time. She couldn’t get used to.
After the fourth time this happened, she reduced the volume on the phone and alarm clock. It hadn’t helped. After that, she placed her alarm clock and the phone in the drawer of the night stand next to the bed. That only resulted in her attacking her nightstand before she was even fully aware of what she was doing. Claws out and viciously ripping into the wooden nightstand. Chloe had to go to the hardware store and buy a new nightstand. She cried as she put her newly bought nightstand together. She also found that she couldn’t stand the constant ticking of analog clocks. Chloe had to change every ticking clock in her home to digital. She only set the alarm clock in the living room and the volume was turned off on the phone in her room, but not in the living room.
The action of rolling over and answering her phone put strain on her side where she’d been shot. The wound had healed a month over the span of a day. “Fast healing makes no sense.” Sure most werewolf movies and lore say that werewolves healed quickly, but there was no scientific basis for such healing. It was one more thing she needed to know the hows for.
Her voice was hoarse from sleep and tinged with annoyance when she greeted the person on the phone.
“Hey, sweetheart. Sorry to call so early.”
It was her father. His voice immediately calmed her. Whatever dark thoughts she had been thinking, whatever irritation she might’ve felt left her. Love and devotion was left in its wake. “Alpha.” Gabe Sullivan might not have been a werewolf and she was more than positive that killing him would be a trivial thing, but he was her father. Gabe Sullivan was still the boss of her, but it made her feel safe.
She didn’t have to be afraid if her daddy was there. She definitely wasn’t alone despite the fact that he had a job in Metropolis. His voice called to mind every good thing, every bad thing that she had experienced with him. When he disciplined her. When he comforted her and told her stories. When he smiled at her. Superior physical strength meant nothing if the mental strength wasn’t there. And she was strong mentally when he was there.
“Chloe, are you ok?”
She realized that she had zoned out on him because was on the edge of parental worry, “Sorry, daddy. The gray matter isn’t working this early. What’s up?”
Her reassurance settled him because his voice was soothing in her ear, “I’m headed out of town for a couple of weeks on a business trip. I leave in about an hour so we won’t be able to have dinner this evening. I didn’t know I was going on the trip until late last night. I’ll make it up to you as soon as I get back.”
Chloe was disappointed. She had been looking forward to going to Metropolis and being in her father’s home. He always smelled nice. She belonged with him. In his place. There were times when she thought it slightly ridiculous how much she depended on him for her emotional well-being but she felt she had a good excuse with the whole werewolf situation. The only consolation was that he didn’t sound enthused about missing dinner with her.
She made sure to inject her voice with levity. He couldn’t know that it hurt badly to miss this time with him, “I can’t believe you’re ditching me for work. I’d skip work for you. It would be a sacrifice but I’d do it.”
Gabe chuckled a little, “I remember a certain delinquent daughter ditching me to chase leads on a story. Chloe, are you sure you’re ok? I feel like I’m missing something.”
Unbelievable. It was scary how well her family knew her. “First Lois and now my father.” Chloe would be eternally grateful to whatever providence gave her people in her life that cared enough to worry and nag. Even if it was annoying sometimes. “It just means that if I die in my apartment my corpse will be found in a timely manner. None of those icky gas explosions for me.”
“I’m just feeling a little stressed. Ya know. The usual. Go. Have fun on your trip. Well as much fun as a business trip can be. Bring me back something pretty.”
For the next 30 minutes they caught up on what each was doing and he gave her the details of his trip. He was headed to San Diego for some kind of symposium. Chloe hung up the phone with her father feeling much renewed.
********
Her watch said it was two minutes until noon. Chloe sat in her car outside of Clark Kent’s barn. She was about to have a rather difficult conversation with him and didn’t look forward to it. After her talk with her father, Chloe had to find something to do for the day. She had planned on going to Metropolis early and hanging out with him but he deep-sixed that plan. Since he was going to be out of time for at least two weeks, she figured that she might as well face the elephant in the room, which was why she was sitting in her car. Chloe realized that she really couldn’t involve Clark in what she was about to do. Clark could be as emotional as the best of them and his judgment had always been clouded when it came to Lex. “He means well.”
Clark would distract her. Would make her back off when her judgment told her to strongly push forward. She couldn’t afford to dance around the answers she needed. She couldn’t let ethics or morality cloud her mind. Chloe needed to be unerringly ruthless in the pursuit of this truth. In the pursuit of Lex. This situation was as deep as the one she found herself in with Lionel. She hadn’t gone too far in taking him down because Lex had. She let him do the dirty work so that she didn’t have one more thing to feel guilty about.
Besides, in any endeavor with the Luthors plausible deniability became paramount to self preservation. Chloe still wanted to preserve that kernel of innocence that she had. The entire ordeal had taught her a very valuable lesson. “Life is like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today will burn your ass tomorrow.”
At any rate, Chloe didn’t want to put him in a position of having to choose between his friendship with her and his principles. It wasn’t fair to him. Lex had already forced that issue; and while Chloe knew that she and Clark had a much stronger foundation, she didn’t want to put it to the test. More than that, she didn’t want him to look at her differently. Clark was one of the best people she knew and she loved him. It was why his possible rejection had hurt so badly.
If for even one moment, he looked at her in fear or hatred or as if she were a monster, Chloe knew she wouldn’t be able to handle it. It was what happened when you willingly bound yourself to someone else. For that reason, she could feel pity for Lex. Chloe could almost track the exact moment that Clark stopped looking at Lex as a friend. It may seem like she was forever sacrificing herself on the altar of Clark Kent’s regard and getting nothing in return, but she was a willing participant. And at the end of the day, she got someone who loved her. No matter how dumb his execution was.
She knew her place in his life and the wolf made her content with it. Besides, when he needed help or needed anything he came to her. She had power over him. She just chose never to abuse it. Clark Kent was the kind of person destined for great things and that meant that sometimes the rules had to be brutally murdered in the town square. He was someone that came into being only once in millions of tries.
Chloe knew that he was worth it and so she could never bring herself to resent whatever hold he had on her. She embraced it because the man he would become would be inevitably shaped by the people he was close to. It meant that no matter what he did or where he went she, Chloe Sullivan, had a hand in it. Great people were measured by their deeds, and those deeds were forged by the people who knew them best. In a round about way, that meant that when Clark Kent’s greatness was measured, they would actually be seeing her greatness. And Martha’s, Jonathan’s, Lex’s, and even Lana’s.
The subject of her thoughts walked into view. He took the choice of meeting him right out of her hands. Never let it be said that Clark Kent lacked decisiveness. Once he had a course of action he bulldozed right on through to the end. His lack of focus and indecision would fade away with time and confidence. Every now and again she saw it in him. No doubt it was that spark that kept Martha and Jonathan, when he was alive, going and the people who knew him close. Clark Kent was going to be a legend.
His stride was long and purposeful with a hint of the small town farmer that he would’ve been had he not been a super- powered, beautiful alien.
“You’ve been sitting out here for ten minutes.”
Chloe got out of her car, “Yeah. I know. I’ve been trying to find the words to tell you something you’re not gonna like.”
There were times when Clark knew that Chloe Sullivan might possibly prove to be more deadly than green kryptonite. Usually it came on a tail end of a vague statement that spelled doom. Now was such a time, “And why is that?”
She watched as the grin left his face and he got serious. It changed his demeanor entirely when he did that. It was like he was becoming someone new. Someone who was unburdened by the cares of a teenager. “Trading one kind of burden for another.”
“Because I know that you want to help me take down Luthor and I can’t let you.”
Chloe knew the exact moment when Clark shut down on her. The exact moment she knew that he was gonna dig in and be as hard-head, as stubborn as a mule. Worse than a mule. “Maybe a camel.” It was when his impressive jaw law clinched and set into a hard expression. She remembered when they were younger and he would do that. It was so adorable. Now, however, it wasn’t. He was a man now.
Clark looked away from her. He was trying to gather his composure, “Why? This isn’t something you can do alone. I can help you.”
Chloe knew where he was coming from. She’d be hard pressed to let accept such a rejection if she were in his shoes, but she had to stay firm on this, “Because Lex is either a massive blind spot or he flares so brightly in your view. Your judgment has never been right when it came to him.”
Clark flinched away from her words. She had hurt him.
“Clark, I can’t do this if I’m afraid that you’ll do something drastic. I don’t need you to protect me. And I’ll say that until you believe it. I’m here for you because I love you. You don’t need to do anything for me. If this is about your sense of right and wrong, know that it won’t get out of hand,” she moved to stand in front of him again, put her hand on his cheek, and met his eyes, “You’ll be the first person I call if I need anything. Clark, part of being what you are means knowing when you can’t interfere. Trouble will find you, Clark. It will forever be a part of your life. There is no need for you to go hunting for it. This one time, Clark, you can’t go where I’m going.”
Chloe thought she might cry at the expression on his face. Many emotions raced across his face. He was torn and hurt.
Clark enveloped her in a hug. He held her tight as if she would slip away, “You’re the best person I know, Chloe. I don’t know what I would do without you. One of the worst moments of my life came when I thought I had lost you forever that summer. I always expect you to come back to me. And it’s only recently that I realized that you’ve never left me.”
He let her go and walked back to his barn. In so many ways he didn’t fit with the image of a barn, but in the only way that mattered he belonged there. He belonged there because the people around him carved out a niche he could fit. “Clark Kent is one in a million.” Chloe knew that dragging this out and running to him would not have made things better so she got back into her car and drove away. It was the beginning of something new. “Change is a hurtful bitch.”
Chloe called Lois. She told Lois to meet her at a cyber café in Metropolis. It was time to find the answers she was looking for.
********
It took Chloe and Lois three hours to get the results they were looking for. Chloe had denied Lois access to the information she had helped her acquire. Chloe didn’t want Lois deeply involved until she knew the depth and width of the opposition. Lois pouted. She threatened, and whined until Chloe’s eyes flashed gold. That shut her up in record time. “I should abuse the fun eye change more often.”
Chloe left Lois with vague promises of filling her in later and headed home. As she sat and read her computer screen, the world faded away. A quarter of the way through, Chloe let loose a roar of rage. She didn’t care about neighbors hearing. They’d probably think it was the radio anyway. Chloe had only felt this out of control the first time she had changed into the wolf.
She couldn’t control this. Her heart was racing, her breathing was rapid and she knew that the change was at the surface. Chloe ran from her apartment, gunned her car engine and pointed it in the direction of Lex Luthor’s mansion. There were no thoughts in her mind. Only fury and pain. She was going to murder him and paint his walls red with his blood.
“Lex Luthor will die for this.”
Back to Chapter 4
Onward to Chapter 6