The Bittersweet Ballad of Pete Ross ~Chapter Fourteen~
Title: The Bittersweet Ballad of Pete Ross
Author: The Satyr Icon
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Set in Icon AU; Freshman Year
Classification: Smallville; Chloe/Clark; Pete Ross; het_fic
Disclaimer: All characters, references, and other things pertaining to 'Smallville' are property of the WB, DC Comics, Tollin-Robins, Al Gough & MilesMillar, and J. Siegal & J. Shuster; I am just writing for fun, and if I owned them, all would be good and clean in the World.
Summary: Pete and Clark go camping, but why is Chloe coming along? and why does that infuriate Pete?
Word Count: 46,164
Written: Start: Plot: December 2004 Actually Writing: July 2006 Finished: August 2007
Chapter Thirteen
http://the-satyr-icon.livejournal.com/130298.html
~The Bittersweet Ballad of Pete Ross~
~CHAPTER FOURTEEN~
"Oh man...My neck...My back...My neck AND My back," Pete moaned, his voice raspy as he finally regained consciousness. He didn't know for how long he that had been passed out. He rolled in the mud, sitting up slowly, his hands rubbing the painful areas on his body. "Damn," he whispered roughly; he craned neck and shielded his eyes from the torrential rain falling on him. The hole above him was at least 35 feet off the ground or more. Thankfully, the earth that he had been cowering on had softened the landing somewhat; a branch of the tree that he was up against when the sinkhole happened did jab into his neck, however, and made hard for Pete to speak, let alone shout. Pete got up, wiped off the mud from the back of his pants and the sleeves of his jacket, still looking up at the hole, still amazed at his luck: He got away from The Shaggy Man...but was now trapped in an abyss. "I thought only Chloe got in this type of jam." His shoes sunk deeper into the mud on the ground. "Damn," he said again. The pit was flooding.
Instead of wanting to be far away from his friends as possible, Pete desperately wanted to be with them again. He hobbled around and felt around for his lantern in the dark, and groaned when he felt the broken pieces. Desperately, he grabbed some mud and started to toss handfuls out of the hole, hoping to get their attention. "Find me guys," he whispered. "I know that you can, Clark."
Clark and Chloe moved through the woods as easily as Pete did before, thanks to Clark's powers. He bypassed any thickets that Chloe herself could not pass or he when he felt the affects of the meteor rocks somewhere in the woods. Clark scanned the woods, not worrying about the rain and cold, but Chloe was still feeling the effects of the nasty weather; the trees did act like a buffer to the wind somewhat, but the cold was penetrating her wet clothing and chilling her skin, the raindrops were still pouring heavily from above, soaking her even more and making the ground all muddy, and hard for her to walk in; her boots slogged with every step. Yet, despite all the crap that Pete put her through, wherever Clark scanned and moved towards, Chloe followed, just as interested in finding her friend, too. She was happy that the Midol that she took was working overtime in her system.
"You'll hate this, Clark said, turning to his girlfriend, "but I think we need to cover more area." He pointed at two tracks in the bush: one path was created by Kawatchee years ago and still used by hikers in the woods and another that was made by Pete and Clark over the years and The Shaggy Man was on earlier; Clark didn't smell anything odd; the rainstorm and wind obliterated the foul scent of the beast. "That one seems to go down that way and this one goes up that slope..."
"You mean..." Chloe sputtered, looking at the rain water streaming down the hill, "you mean... split up?" She swung her lantern around, into the Cottonwoods. "Are there meteor rocks around here messing with your brain, Kent? Are you nuts?"
"Nothing will happen to you," he reassured between a chuckle, wiping the wetness from her face. "You know, Chloe, that I always come running if you say my name."
There was no need for Clark to remind her; at the carnival the previous Fall, she screamed out his name when she was abducted by the meteor rock mutated beast, Beppo the Missing Link. With superhuman speed, he zipped to her side, fought the creature to its death, and saved her life. "You're never too far from me."
Chloe flashed a huge, toothy smile when she heard him say that; she was always surprised when he said something or did something romantic for her. Clark, for all his powers and abilities, one thing her boyfriend wasn't exactly blessed with was the gift of romance: while his gestures were sweet and genuine, not smooth and practiced like Pete's approach with the girls at Smallville High, he was still shy about making them. Her wistful gaze at Clark ended when droplets flicked hard against her cheeks. She winced. That brought her back to Earth. "But Clark," she realized, rubbing the ache from her cheek, "if I have to yell for you that means something bad is happening to me."
"Yeah...that's true," Clark nodded in sad agreement; he didn't think of that. "But what if something already happened to Pete? We're taking up valuable time!" He's voice was frantic, full of worry. He felt like a mustang in the stables, all pent up with energy and nowhere to run.
"I know...I'll do it, baby," she said softly, reaching out and touching the front of his rain-soaked jacket. Chloe looked at her boyfriend, watched his eyes penetrate the timber with his super-vision, and knew this would be his reaction if she were the one missing, and knew that he'd rally his friends to look for her. In quiet moments in the Loft up in his barn or in the den at her house, she'd joke to him that he was her own personal search and rescue unit, but sometimes, like now, she'd forget that her boyfriend was also Smallville's life-saver. "Just letting you know to keep a look out for my light and listen for my voice ...okay?"
"Of course," he said with a grateful smile. He surprised her with a kiss, flush on the lips that lingered long after he stepped away from her. "I'll do more than that. I'll be right with you in a way." When she tilted her head quizzically, he added, "I can hear your heart beat a mile a way....literally."
With that, Chloe carefully trudged up the muddy hill, brazen with that knowledge that Clark was attuned with her every step. She called out Pete's name when she tentatively peered around tree trunks and at where she shined the lantern; she found nothing but the shiny eyes of raccoons. Every once and a while, she muttered Pete was a jerkwheat under her breath, especially when she looked back and saw the light from Clark's lantern was farther away and the woods seemed creepier with each muddy boot step.
Annoyed that he couldn't use his super speed (because of the awful footing), Clark navigated slowly down the hill, calling out Pete's name, too. His voice was loud, but not too loud, nothing that Pete would find too suspicious; if Clark wanted to, he guessed that he could shout Pete's name and be heard in Metropolis or even over in Fawcett City. He yelled out again, wishing he could all his powers. He wanted to find his friend fast, and get both Pete and Chloe out of the crazy weather
"Pete...Pete, where are you, man?" Clark shouted. Then he groaned, and clutched his head before he leaned against a tree. 'Oh no! There must be some meteor rock somewhere,' he thought, scanning the ground for any of the tale-tell green rocks that may have washed up on ground or that were embedded in the trees close by. He felt a little dizzy and stomach felt like it was being wrung out like a wet towel. He stumbled away from the area, intent on finding his friend and not succumbing to the rocks. His body seemed to snap upright when he was away from the meteor rocks, where ever they were, and he still called out for Pete, eyes straining for a glimpse for his lost friend. Clark also watched for the glow of Chloe's lantern, looked at it swinging this way and that. He followed her make her own way up the slope, and he had to laugh when he heard her call Pete a jerk.
Then he smelled it before even he could see it move silently in front of him.
It was The Shaggy Man.
Instead of being filled with fear like he might have been when he was younger, Clark looked at the beast and said, "Wow!" The teen's eyes looked at the creature with amazement; it was what he had hoped the legend would really be, and more. Unfortunately, that 'more' turned out to be the smell; Clark actually needed to hold his breath, as the rain increased the already substantial stench of the creature.
The Shaggy Man looked at Clark oddly; the thing in front of him didn't cower in fear, but just stood there. But there was territory to defend. The creature moved as quickly as it could at Clark. The teen, still geeking out that he was looking at the legendary creature, let the beast get close and land the first punch. That was all that Clark needed....to lose track of Chloe.
"Pete? Pete?" Chloe repeated, anxiously listening for a yell or a scream back, or worse, as she looked on the ground where she aimed her lantern's light, her friend's body while she made her way through the path. 'No, don't think like that,' she thought, while she guarded her eyes from the strength of the wind and the rain drops that made their way between the branches. She trekked in the mud, her thighs straining and cold. Her boot squished, and she almost slipped. 'Thats a heck of a lot of mud', she frowned. She caught a whiff and hoped that she didn't trample over where she went to the bathroom. "Damn it!" She frowned; it was one of her spots. "Pete! When I find you, you're gonna by me some polish for my boots!" She scraped her boot on gnarled tree root and continued the march up the slope.
As she inspected a shape on her left hand side that she thought was Pete (it turned out to be a small pile of rocks), she heard a something make a plopping sound faintly on her other side. She spotted the beam in that area and bravely walked into the thicket where she thought she heard it. "Pete? Is that you?" She kept hearing the faint plopping, louder as she moved towards it. She pushed down some brush and stepped into a clearing. "Hello? Pete?...And not some hopped-up-on-meteor-rocks killer squirrel?"
Something mushy passed over her head and plopped against a tree behind her. "What the freak?"
Then a handful of mud splattered on her face, the dirty slop getting into her eyes and up her nose. Then another glop struck her. She spun and reeled at mucky impacts, in shock. Her usually trusty Doc Martens boots had lost their traction. She twirled and she slipped and landed awkwardly, the breath knocked out of her. Rather than finding the sinkhole, she rolled into it.
"Chloe!" Pete rasped, all set to toss up another handful of mud. He dropped it and readied himself to try and catch his friend. Instead, he broke her fall with his face as her boots crashing into his forehead. They laid in the mud, passed out.
Clark glared at The Shaggy Man, circling it, mad that it struck him, upset at himself for letting the creature do that in the first place. Then he noticed something other than the hairy creature in front of him: he had looked and he didn't see the light from Chloe's lantern anymore. He knew something had to have happened to her, even if she didn't scream. "I don't have time for you," Clark said simply, rushed at the beast, and shoved The Shaggy Man with all of his strength. The Shaggy Man turned into a shaggy hairball flying between the trees, over the brush. Clark didn't bother to see The Shaggy Man smash into the mud, skid, collide into a tree and wobble away. Clark zipped up the slope; he had a girlfriend and a brother to find.
"Aww crap," Chloe moaned, rolling onto her side. Her eyelids opened as her fingers sank into the mush. "Not crap...Just mud...Still...Blah," she whimpered pitifully; it was one thing to be soaking wet and cold and starting her time of the month, another to be completely muddy too on top of all that, and Chloe was like that now, caked in the dirty slime from the soles of her boots to the tips of her matted down with gunk hair. She sat up gingerly, hurting from the rough landing; after her boots collided with Pete's cranium, she flipped in the air and rammed her 'Chloevage' first into the soggy ground, bounced after impact and came to a rest on her back, unconscious. Chloe's body had been taking a lot of punishment since moving to Smallville, and incredibly, the drop and impact were among her least traumatic.
She sat in the mud, her mind slowly doing a checklist of her body parts and how they felt. She figured that her pains weren't anything that the Vicodin that she already had at home for a previous batch of injures couldn't suppress. Her lantern was still working and she smiled. In its glow, she saw her friend crumpled by her feet, and, mud be damned, she crawled to him "Oh my god! Pete!" She took a sigh of relief when his hand moved. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so," Pete groaned, eyes fluttering at the sound of her voice. He, on the other hand, hadn't suffered any major injuries when he helped Clark fight "meteor freaks", just a few sprains and bruises that he could hide from his parents. Falling into the sinkhole and stopping Chloe's drop with his head were the worst things to happen to him yet. "Nothing feels broken. I just feel all jacked up." He rubbed the imprint of her boots on his skull. "Thank God you don't play football, Chloe. That was some hit."
"I'm all in one piece," she smiled when he asked how she felt, "just muddy...What the freak happened? One second, I'm looking for your butt. Then I'm in this trap."
"It was my fault." Pete explained what he did, tossing the mud out of the hole to get her or Clark's attention. "I guess it worked."
"That was a good pretty idea," Chloe nodded, "until I got nailed in the face."
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice still raspy, but she could hear the sincerity that rumbled from him. "That wasn't part of the plan....none of this was planned," he said, waving his hand around, gesturing at the mud, the rain that still showered them, the hole that they were stuck in. "I'm especially sorry for how I treated you."
Chloe smiled at Pete's grin, and they hugged, no longer caring about the bickering and fighting between them before or if that they were dirty as pigs in mud. They held each other tight. "I'm so glad to see you," she said when Pete let her go.
"I'm glad to see you, too," he smiled, and wiped some mud from her forehead. "Even if you look like a mess."
"Jerkwheat," she said, but this time she said it as an endearment; she plucked some twigs that was caught in his curly hair. They got up to their feet. Both teens were on shaky legs from the collision, so they leaned on each other.
"I know I was a jerk," Pete admitted (Chloe corrected him by saying "Jerkwheat" but he continued on with his apology). "I was just mad...cuz...the camping trip was just Clark and my special thing, you know?" Chloe chuckled. "Nothing weird," he said looking at her expression. He continued. "When everyone, and I mean everyone, Chloe, in grade school thought that he was a total spazz, a nerd, and a real Melvin, I knew he was...a great guy." He took a breath and rubbed his throat. "It's just now there's you and Lex...and just I feel like the third wheel...or even the forth wheel." He sighed. "And I was there first."
"Pete, you're my best friend," Chloe whispered, just now fully grasping the hurt, "not Lana...and Clark...he cares for you like a brother."
"I know...and he's my brother, too." He stood up prouder. "Hey, even my brothers sometimes fight."
Pete and Chloe hugged again, laughing despite their aches and pains, both shivering, feeling the cold and rain. They looked up, shielding their eyes from the elements coming down hard on them, listening to the wind that whistled. She promised, "Clark will be here soon...CLARK! CLARK!"
"Your hero worship is at full blast again," Pete laughed, hurting his throat, listening to her shout out his name.
"But he will, Pete..."
"I know he will, Chloe." He looked up at the opening, expectantly. "I know...that's his gift."
Clark heard his girlfriend's voice, clear despite the rainstorm and howling wind. He darted with superhuman speed, slamming through the brush, knocking down whatever that got in his way, his boots crushing logs and undergrowth. By the second shout out of his name, Clark located the hole, his x-ray powers highlighting the open pit in the dark, seeing two figures and a light source. He slowed down and walked carefully, making sure he didn't cause another sinkhole to happen, and crush his girlfriend and buddy that his super-vision let him to see down below. He peered down into the pit, shining his green lantern by his face. "Oh hey guys...you both okay?"
"YES!" Chloe clapped her hands and hugged Pete. "It's Clark!" It was one of the few times she could really enjoy being rescued by her boyfriend; usually she was too thrashed or unconscious. Pete just smiled up at Clark and waved, his throat hurting too much to yell up to him. Chloe shouted, "Yes! We're okay, I guess! Just muddy as heck!"
"I'll have to get rope to pull you guys up," Clark lied. If it were just Chloe in the hole, he'd easily use his powers, since she now knew that he possessed them. Or if Pete were knocked out. Now, however, with Pete conscious and grinning up at him, Clark fell back on his old habit of fibbing to his best friend to cover his alien abilities. "I'll go back to camp!"
"No way!" Pete yelled out, wincing in pain. "Just jump down, man!"
"You're being silly, Pete," Clark chuckled nervously. He looked down, and saw Pete fold his arms over his chest, glaring up at him. "That's like a 40 foot drop!"
"That's crazy talk!" Chloe looked at Pete and grabbed his shoulders. "You have a concussion...I know the symptoms...I've had a lot of them since moving here." She grinned like a dopey child, letting some drool spill to make her point. "I still have one from last time...hee."
Pete shrugged away from Chloe's hands and looked up. "Clark! We're hurting, cold, wet, and covered in mud! Get us out of here! Just use your damn powers!
Clark stared into the hole, Pete's voice hitting him harder than he'd ever been hit in his entire life. Chloe gasped. Somewhere, a wolf howled balefully as the rainstorm continued to rage on. Finally Clark spoke.
"Pete...You know?"
Chapter Links
Prologue ~ One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ Eight ~ Nine ~ Ten ~ Eleven ~ Twelve ~ Thirteen ~ Fourteen ~ Fifteen ~ Sixteen ~ Epilogue
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