For Clark [Warning: Graphic torture ensues]

[downsidedarling]

Normally, Eight-Hour's front door doesn't open into a cave.

A lot of things, however, are abnormal about this situation.

"...Ooops," she says as it shuts behind them with a depressing sort of finality. "Um, shit."

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[downsidedarling]

Anna Reeve is tired, more than anything else.

She doesn't know where to go beyond 'out and away', so it's little surprise when she finds herself materializing on the roof of the Daily Planet, curled up beneath the comforting presence of the globe. She barely has the presence of mind to tuck herself into an out-of-the-way corner before her head drops to her chest and she sleeps like, well, the dead.

[hero_farmboy]

Back in Clark's room in Smallville, Kal-El watches her fade away and then relents to his mind's demand for rest.

Slipping beneath the covers, he falls asleep almost instantly and remains so for several hours. It's fitful sleep, however, and on more than one occasion he thinks he remembers his mother soothing him, stroking his face and telling him everything will be all right in worried tones.

At least he thinks it's his mother. She didn't seem to mind him calling her Lara during his few, brief, conscious moments, anyway.

[downsidedarling]

Eights wakes up. It's midnight.

While she was asleep, someone found her - wrapped her in a blanket and brought her home, tucked her into an unfamiliar bed, dressed her in a nightgown.

She doesn't deserve this. There's a pen and paper on the nightstand. She scrawls a shaky "THANK YOU", leaves it on the pillow along with the discarded gown, and slips out the window.

A naked woman prowling the streets is quite a cause for comment. Inevitably, there is an attempt-- she doesn't care, doesn't think about it; he leaves, unsatisfied; the words "like fucking a corpse" ring endlessly in her ears. She continues like this until morning. Dawn sees her secreting herself in an abandoned warehouse to sleep on cold concrete, still exhausted from her series of lengthy fire-moves the day before.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark doesn't know what time it is or how long he's been sleeping when he finally wakes up, but it feels like forever. The first order of business is a long shower and many silent thanks that he doesn't feel a thing after everything he'd been through. The memories, on the other hand, are something else entirely.

Afterward, he lets his mom fuss over and feed him while he explains - in as little detail as possible - what happened. Martha Kent may never want to see Anna again.

Anna. Clark doesn't know what to think. She helped him, brought him home and then just left, back to her world, he assumes. As he tries to fit himself back into his regular routine of things, he wonders if it isn't for the best.

[downsidedarling]

Anna is fairly certain that not a single thing has been for the best since she came back from securing that vacation. Possibly not since she and Clark walked out of that cave.

She doesn't spend much time thinking about it, however. She doesn't spend much time thinking about anything. The abandoned warehouse is a home to her until someone arrives to conduct a drug deal in it, whereupon she gets shot and politely staggers outside to die. The transactors are somewhat surprised to find a bloodstain but no corpse when they eventually exit the warehouse; they shrug and move on, figuring little harm can come from a crazy naked girl who sleeps in a warehouse

[hero_farmboy]

Clark fakes being okay rather well. He's done it enough, although his mother hovers a bit more than she used to and Chloe knows there's something up but getting him to talk about it is next to impossible so she drops it.

When he runs into Lex at the Talon one day it's... strange. And then Lex has to bring up Anna ("So how are Smallville's newest lovebirds doing?") as soon as Lana arrives, who looks at Clark in shock and then forces herself to be happy for him. Clark actually manages to reel off some answer about Anna having gone home and leave without punching Lex through a wall, considering it the 6,249th time he's saved Lex's life.

After that, he spends most of his time at home, throwing himself into farm work and reassuring his mom and Chloe that everything's fine.

[downsidedarling]

Anna sees Lex pass by on the other side of the street. He doesn't recognize her - an unwashed, starving bum, ill-dressed and barefoot, walking like the world is a dream and she wants to wake up. She's not surprised, really. But from then on she avoids the four blocks around Luthorcorp and the Daily Planet strictly. It's not hard. Metropolis is a big city

[hero_farmboy]

Clark has grown used to tuning out the babble that tends to come along with spending time with Jimmy Olsen. He doubts Jimmy actually notices he's not paying attention, mainly because Chloe's pretty good about interjecting with an appropriately timed "Right, Clark?" or kicking him under whatever table they all happen to be sitting at when he needs to nod or otherwise indicate he's following the conversation.

It isn't until one day Jimmy starts talking about some woman he's seen on the streets, and tells Chloe he's sure it's the same woman they rescued days earlier from the roof of the Daily Planet (a story Clark only vaguely remembers hearing about and only from Jimmy) that he perks up and gives Chloe a clearly questioning look. She was involved and didn't tell him?

"You've been running around town in a daze lately, Clark. I could have told you I was the naked woman Jimmy rescued and it wouldn't have penetrated that thick skull of yours." They're alone, of course, in the loft when he confronts her about it and her answer just

[downsidedarling]

Now that she's seen him once, it's as though this stranger has a thousand faces. Anna can't turn a corner without spotting him - buying his groceries, walking to and from bus stops, drinking coffee. She becomes very proficient at avoiding the man, though she couldn't possibly tell you why. It's instinct by now. She hasn't spoken a word to another human being since those fateful three - "I should go." - and by this time it feels obscurely wrong to let herself interact. The rats, squirrels, and pigeons of Metropolis gain, as a collective, a new conversational partner

[hero_farmboy]

"These babies are my ticket out of the basement," Jimmy says proudly, holding a folder of photographs out for Chloe to inspect. It's not hard for Clark to look at them at the same time, as Chloe's shoulder is about a foot below his eye level. They're blurry; not because Jimmy isn't a good photographer - even Clark can tell the kid has talent - but because the subject was obviously startled and on the move, and more than likely, Jimmy was caught off guard.

"Jimmy, these aren't going to prove anything." Chloe uses her gentle tone, the one she pulls out when she's really trying not to stomp on someone's feelings. Clark bristles slightly because he hardly ever gets that from her

[downsidedarling]

What happens once is sure to happen again, eventually. Anna looks up from the unconscious body through whose pockets she's rifling and freezes as the same photographer from before ambles into view around the corner. There's a moment where their eyes meet; hers are wide with irrational fear, his with shock. He whips out his camera and starts snapping; she sprints forwards, a move he clearly doesn't expect, and snatches it before fleeing up the wall of a nearby building, using windows as handholds

[hero_farmboy]

Clark has heard the story twenty times now. He's kept track and Jimmy just won't shut up about it, cradling the offended camera like it was a long lost child. Mercifully, Chloe interrupts before he can launch into retelling number twenty-one.

"And you're positive it was the same woman we found on the roof?"

"Absolutely. I can't believe I didn't recognize her the first time, but I guess I was just too worked up about possibly getting a good picture of the vigilante. But I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? If she's still living out on the streets, she's gotta take care of herself to survive." Jimmy sighs and pets his camera again. "And I had that shot this time. Clear as day. And she stole them

[downsidedarling]

Anna sees Clark from hundreds of feet away, walking down a back street at night. Later, in retrospect, she'll wonder what he was doing there; at the time she's more concerned with getting away. Luckily she was already on a roof. It doesn't take much for her to cross ten more, going higher each time. Eventually she improvises what can only be described as a nest, somewhere in a place she's heard called Suicide Slums, and cowers there until morning, when she jumps off the side and falls thirty feet to the ground, breaking her neck

[hero_farmboy]

"It was so surreal, Clark," Chloe paces in the loft, recounting the story for him once more. He doesn't seem perturbed at hearing this one a few times. "She knew my name and God, I can still hear her screaming." She shivers at that and Clark finally moves from his place near the window to pull her in for a quick hug.

"She probably remembers you from the night you and Jimmy found her on the roof," he assures her, offering a small smile. "And it doesn't exactly sound like she's all there, either."

"She needs help, Clark. Before the police get to her and decide she should spend the rest of her life in Belle Reve. Crazy or not, no one deserves that

[downsidedarling]

He's right (and she doesn't). Anna is pacing the floor of the abandoned warehouse she slept in that first night, scratching her arms absently (there's blood splattered in patches across the concrete floor; people will think there's been a murder here, or several), wondering why she doesn't just get the fuck out of this town already. Her hair hangs from her head in matted clumps; she pushes it absently out of her eyes, contemplating for a moment the prospect of bleeding herself out completely in the hopes that a good torch will restore it to order.

At a slight noise, she bolts out the door like a frightened squirrel. So intent is Anna on her mad dash that she doesn't even notice who she passes on the way.

It's highly probable that he notices her, however. The effects of starvation and poor hygiene can do little to disguise the face of Anna Reeve from the eyes of Clark Kent.

[hero_farmboy]

It's hard for Clark not to notice. Once he's certain there's someone on the run from the building, he zeroes in their heartbeat, the easiest way for him to track someone. What he isn't expecting is for it to be a pattern he already knows.

He positions himself a few steps ahead of her, so she'll have no choice but to run into him and catches her easily by the arm, strong enough that she won't be able to get free, but gentle enough not to hurt her.

"Anna?"