[OOM] Freak: Smallville: Chloe's Apartment

[torch_reporter]

She had heard it in the early morning from the Planet. Dr. Bethany had died of a heart attack last night. A little more digging and she quickly found signs of the Luthor cover-up mobile. Lana had apparently been there; a statement had been taken. Tobias had relocated to Star City for a corona transplant

Comments

[hero_farmboy]

It's been a long couple of days, for sure. Clark did save the day, got Lana back home safely and called Oliver to get Tobias that relocation to Star City.

Everything's been taken care of, except one.

Chloe.

Clark has his hand on the door handle to the Talon apartment before he remembers he just might not be welcome barging right in this time, so he knocks lightly instead.

It feel weird.

[torch_reporter]

It takes a moment for the sound of a fist knocking on the door to register in Chloe's ears.

She tilts her head slightly, wiping at her eyes and taking a breath. It could be Lois (supposedly away visiting her father; avoidance of lingering embarrassment from Valentine's Day) but she doubts it. Lois would barge right in.

Whoever it is, Chloe knows she ought to let them in. But she can't quite bring herself to move from the couch

(the couch is safe, she doesn't have to remember as long as she focuses on the minute details of that cactus across the room).

[hero_farmboy]

"Chloe?" Clark calls softly, opening the door just an inch. "You home?" He supposes it's possible she went back to Milliways with Riley. After everything she's been through, he wouldn't blame her for wanting some time away.

[torch_reporter]

Clark.

She can't see him yet, but she definitely recognizes the voice. Chloe smiles weakly and nods.

Quietly, "In here."

[hero_farmboy]

Okay, so she is home, and she didn't answer the door. That's not something that can really be taken as a good sign.

"Hey," he says, still quiet - Riley's asleep, he can tell - as he enters further into the apartment, stopping a few feet away from the couch. "I'm not interrupting, am I?"

[torch_reporter]

She gives the slightest shake of her head, eyes still trained on the plant. If Chloe even dares to look up at Clark, she's certain that he'll see all the anguish on her face.

He doesn't need that.

"No." Deep breath and a more proper head shake. "No, you're not."

[hero_farmboy]

A concerned frown crosses his features.

"You look dazed and confused. Are you okay?" He isn't really expecting her to be, but even this isn't usual Chloe-dealing behaviour.

[torch_reporter]

She shakes her head. It's just like yesterday, except there aren't any tears. The words come spilling out before she can stop them. Chloe looks up desperately at Clark.

"I can't sleep. I can't work. I can't think about anything else."

Riley doesn't know. He'll probably leave when he does find out. No wonder her own mother didn't want her - she can't do anything right, can she? She should have known better: her out of everybody.

[hero_farmboy]

A brief sympathetic smile appears. Boy, does he know how that feels.

"You've been through a lot," he replies, trying his best not to sound patronizing. He hates it when people do that to him, but being on the other end for once, he knows now they didn't mean it that way at all. She really does deserve to feel everything she currently is.

[torch_reporter]

Chloe shakes her head again, glancing at him for less than a second before returning her attention back to the cactus. At the rate she's been staring at it, she's surprised that it hasn't...

...okay, bad train of thoguht.

"There's a reason they took me, and we both know it's not because I was a witness." Chloe finally admits after a moment's hesitation. "Tobias didn't identify you, Clark, because you're not a meteor freak. It was me."

[hero_farmboy]

"Chloe," he starts and then stops, with a sigh. He wants to tell her it's unequivocally, 100%, no-chance-in-hell not true.

But he can't. Because he doesn't know.

So he offers what he can.

"It must have been a mistake."

It has to have been.

[torch_reporter]

"How do you know that?"

The words come out harsher than she means them to be. The fear has returned. The fear that it's true and that she'll lose everything because of it.

Chloe takes a breath before finally turning to look at Clark. "I mean, I've been exposed to more Kryptonite than practically anyone else in this town. It's not that much of a stretch to think that I could have been infected somewhere along the way."

[hero_farmboy]

"But you don't have any powers." He pauses briefly and gives her a careful look. "Do you?"

Clark would know, wouldn't he? Or has she somehow been displaying abilities that he's overlooked? After all, how many years did she know him without knowing what he could do.

He is quickly becoming not a big fan of being on this side of things.

[torch_reporter]

"No," she breathes out and pauses for a moment before continuing. "But that doesn't rule me out. There's a percentage of the Wall of Weird that were latent for years. They didn't exhibit any of their powers until long after their exposure."

It can hit her any day, can't it? Any day now and she'll become one of those freaks. Except: she already is, isn't she?

Chloe bites down hard on her lip, trying not to cry again. It was bad enough that she did that with Riley yesterday. Clark doesn't need to witness take two of her emotional breakdown.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark takes a deep breath and walks the few steps left to he couch, sitting down beside her.

"Okay. All right, let's say it's true." Clark can play this game, if he has to. "But who's to say you're ever going to develop any powers at all?" Or anything else that goes along with it, goes unspoken, but he has a feeling she'll get that part anyway.

[torch_reporter]

She will. Because it's that part that scares her more than anything. Chloe can live with powers. She's seen Clark do it every day of his life.

What Chloe can't live with is Riley's rejection of her. What Chloe can't live with is going crazy (like her mother). What Chloe can't live with is winding up in Belle Reeve with all the people she put in there.

"All I know is that every single meteor freak I've ever run into has ended up either dead or in Belle Reve."

There. There. She said it out loud. But it's not quite enough. Chloe sighs and shakes her head, defeated.

"Face it, Clark. I'm a walking time bomb."