A/N: Well, this is finally the end. I'm not sure if I want to go any further with the characters in this incarnation… but I did leave the big bad very nebulous. Hmmm…
Chapter 22
When Chloe opened her eyes, the world seemed too bright for comfort. Am I in heaven? she wondered inanely. She could feel a tear trickle down her cheek at the thought. The possibility of a future with Clark had been brutally ripped from her grasp by a conniving alien computer and she couldn't express her sense of utter loss and agony. She moved her eyes to the side and realized that she was lying in a bed and the room she was in was somehow familiar to her. Then the scent of antiseptic filled her nostrils and she sat straight up in bed. "Am I in the hospital?" she managed to croak.
"Chloe?" a sleepily urgent voice moaned by her side. She felt her hand captured somehow and knew that her hand was being held by someone… someone dear to her.
She turned toward him with eagerness. "Clark? Clark, we made it?"
Clark snapped totally awake suddenly. She was saddened to see the exhaustion written on every line of his face. "Chloe?" he asked incredulously. "Chloe? Chloe! CHLOE!" With each repeat of her name, he jumped up and down in joy and finally gently swept her into his arms as much as he could with her being in a hospital bed. He kept murmuring her name in her hair and Chloe allowed the tears to flow freely.
When they were able to get a hold of themselves again, Clark gently laid her back on her bed and sat back in his chair. Chloe noticed that he refused to let go of her hand again. "Clark, what happened? Did we do it? Is everyone back to normal?"
"You did it, Chloe," he said, his eyes shining with an emotion that Chloe was suddenly too shy to name. "You saved everyone. You destroyed the Transmission. You saved me. You're the hero of the day."
She blushed hotly but couldn't lower her eyes from Clark's admiring gaze. "Clark, stop teasing me. What happened?"
He smiled slowly and the room seemed to brighten even more with that. "The machine that we saw was totally obliterated. It's a pile of sludge and no one, not even Lex, would know that it almost took over the world. They don't remember anything, but time did pass. I told them that they must have been brainwashed or something while I was away because when I came back, everyone was acting out of character. And that I'd gone to get you because I didn't know what to do."
"Close enough to the truth to throw Lex off the scent. What'd they make of that?" Chloe leaned back into her pillows, ready to hear the rest of the story.
"Lex and Lois have united in their desire to find out what military or government used them for their experiment and are pooling their resources. A more unnatural pairing I couldn't imagine. But everyone else is suppressing it. Enough odd things have happened in this town that they're kind-of just writing it off."
"Very Sunnydale of them, isn't it?" Chloe snarked wryly. "But since there's absolutely no way they could connect it to you, we're safe."
His face fell. "You almost weren't, Chlo." His voice sounded choked with emotion and Chloe wasn't sure if she could deal with a crying Clark. In her current state, that would guarantee her own tears and that was just too exhausting currently.
She looked at him sternly. "Clark, apparently I'm fine… I don't know how…" She looked at him with questioning eyes. "The last thing I remember is getting hit by that electric bolt. How can I still be alive?"
Clark looked at her in concern, his eyebrow lifted in confusion. "Chloe, I don't know what you're talking about. The doctors just say you have a mild concussion. They didn't even bother hooking you up to an I.V. for crying out loud."
Chloe sat up again in protest. "Clark, I'm not imagining things… I was tugging the door shut and that machine flung an energy bolt at me and knocked me into the wall."
"I don't know, Chlo. I was totally out of it and Mom was too focused with dragging me further from that room to have seen anything." He shrugged. "Does it really matter?"
Chloe thought about it. It was important… maybe more important than she thought at this precise moment. But if he didn't know anything, it wouldn't help to make him dwell on it. I guess my guardian angel was just on overtime, she thought with a smile. "OK, Clark. It's not a big deal…"
He looked at her in disbelief, but allowed it to pass. His face got even more serious. "Chloe, we have to talk…" She closed her eyes. If he was about to say that he was under the influence of the Transmission and now didn't feel anything for her, she'd resurrect that kryptonite butt idea with a vengeance. "About what happened in the loft… I can't apologize enough… I would understand if you never want to see me again…"
Chloe felt a level of relief almost orgasmic in nature. She held up a hand and looked him square in the eye. "Clark, stop being a big, fat idiot!" He looked at her in shock. She wasn't surprised because she rarely spoke to him like that. "Listen, Clark. I know you're feeling really guilty about that, but there are extenuating circumstances. Our hormones were already on high from our previous encounter so when your evil alter-ego had the same urges, it wasn't terribly surprising."
"But…" He was shocked and she expected that he'd remain that way for the rest of her explanation.
"Clark, let's look at the facts. Normally, you would have run off to Lana's rescue on your own and left me to find my own way to your house. Instead, you took me with you. After you saved Lana and she put that damn necklace on you, you kissed her… until you saw me. I'm actually thinking it's a high compliment. You've never before dropped Lana on her butt before because you were overcome with desire for me."
He blushed hotly. "You know that the Lana and me thing is totally over…"
Chloe shrugged. "Whatever, Clark. That's not the point of this discussion." She looked away from him for a brief moment. "Maybe if you'd succeeded I might feel different. But as soon as I was able to throw away that necklace, your lovemaking became gentler and more passionate. I knew in that exact moment that you would never normally force yourself on me. With all your inhibitions and morals removed… the things that make you human… you might have. But that's not what happened. It may be hard for you, but I don't hold anything against you."
His face was exactly what Chloe had expected. It held untold amounts of shock and disbelief but a hint of hope was starting to appear. She gave him her best smile and knew that the tide of guilt was starting to turn. "Listen, Clark. If we continue in the way we were heading, we'll take it really slow. We'll make sure that neither of us are being influenced unduly."
He smiled sadly and looked at the floor. "It may take me awhile, Chlo. I'm not sure…"
She swallowed hard. "I'm not saying we have to be in a relationship, Clark. I'm just saying that we'll play it smart if we still feel that way." All of her insecurities hit her full force and she had to really tamp down on her feelings so she didn't cry in front of him. She blessed whatever gods there were that he wasn't looking at her.
He breathed in deep and she steeled herself for another Clark turnabout. "It's not… I just…" He took another deep breath and it was like he was refusing to look at her. "Wouldyouliketogooutmaybethisweekend?"
Chloe blinked. Never before had she heard Clark slur an entire sentence together and she wanted to make sure she hadn't heard wrong. "Excuse me?"
He looked at her and she felt humbled at the extreme vulnerability she saw in those eyes. Suddenly, she realized that at that moment she held his heart in her small hands. "W…w…w…would you like to go out with me? Maybe this weekend if you're feeling better?"
She smiled brilliantly and he blinked. "Oh Clark!" she sighed and pulled him quickly to her. She kissed him with all the passion and need she'd been feeling for him for over four years. She could feel her body heating up with need. When she realized what she was doing, she opened her eyes before she let him go. A little smoke curled up from the curtain and she wondered if it was too close to the heater.
"Wow…" he smiled. "That was the best yes I've ever heard!"
She laughed with complete joy. "I aim to please…"
His brow knit slightly for a moment. "Have you been working out, Chlo? I didn't realize you were so strong…"
She fell back against her pillows as scenes from the last couple of days (Or was it weeks?) paraded across her memory. Everyone automatically assumed that she was Clark's avowed mate. Jor-El had implanted her with kryptonian technology with that disappearing Band Aid. The Transmission's certainty that it could create Kryptonians from humans…
She looked at Clark with wide eyes and she knew that she was as pale as a sheet. He looked at her in concern, but before he could say anything further, she blurted out her question. "Clark, do you know anything about humans being genetically altered to become more Kryptonian-like?"
The End
A/N:
I had a lot of fun with this fic and I'm a bit sorry to see it go. But 22 chapters is a lot… usually. We'll see what happens, right? And now, on to last chapter's reviews…
chloedouble1011: I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Of course they won't remember. That seems to be the stand-by for every real episode where Clark shows way too many people his powers.
MacGateFan: I'm so glad you liked it. I feel kinda' bad that you got hooked the next to the last chapter. Ah, well. Ce la vie. (La vie!)
KatmuEllon: I'm so glad that you've discovered me and liked my work. I work really hard at the grammar thing and I have a fabulous proofer in MarkMark261. Without him, it wouldn't be quite so tight.
The Chloe –v– Lana thing… Well, I usually go off on how much I dislike the role Lana has in Smallville currently to my friend that reviews the episodes for the Superman Homepage. If you ever read those reviews, you'll see my comments attached to Neal's reviews… under Sara. ;D
MadDogLane: Yea! I didn't let the Man get me down and ya'll get an update. I was trying to do minor cliffies at the end of most chapters, but this one was a hard core one. I'm evil… I know.
samiosam: I'm so glad you still like it. And I had to hit Chloe with that electric bolt. Otherwise, it was almost too easy for them.