Author's Note: Okay, sooooooooo sorry this took so long to get out. School started back a few days after the last one and just kinda drained me of creativity. And when I did finally finish writing it yesterday, my internet spazzed out and wouldn't let me do anything other than get onto Yahoo. Anywho, enough excuses. Here's the chapter, hope you like it. A lot of it was written when I was more than a little ticked at the internet, so I may have over looked a few mistakes. Thanks for reviews, read and enjoy.

Chapter 8

Chloe finally reaches Smallville. On the way there, she had told him about everyone he was most likely going to be meeting on this trip. He had to be prepared, there was no telling what he would be asked. "We're here." She says, pulling up outside the Talon. Looking over at him, she asks, "Are you ready/ Do you remember everything I told you?" Chloe sounds like shes starting to panic. 'Oh god, this was such a bad idea,' she thinks to herself.

"Calm down, Chloe. I remember everything you said. It'll be fine. But if you keep acting nervous and panicking, their going to realize somethings wrong." Chris says, trying to calm her down. 'Why did I agree to this?' He asks himself. 'It's to late to back out now.' He really wasn't sure why he agreed, all he was supposed to was protect her. Yet here he was, acting like her boyfriend.

From her spot in the car, Chloe could see Lois trying to be discreet staring out the window at them. "Guess thats our cue to in," she says, gesturing to the window, while looking at Chris. After saying this, she gets out of the car, before she makes the decision to run off and never come back. Walking into the Talon with Chris behind her, she heads straight towards Lois.

"Hey Chloe." Lois says when she sees them coming toward her. Stepping forward, she hugs Chloe in greeting. Holding her hand out to Chris, she introduces herself. "Hi, I'm Lois Lane. Chloes cousin." As she says this, she does a quick inspection of him with her eyes. 'Could be worse,' she thinks to herself. He looked like an okay guy to her, but appearances are deceiving. To her, there was just something about Chris. She wasn't sure what, it was just a feeling in her gut.

Chris shakes Lois' hand. "Yea I know, Chloes told me a lot about you. I'm Chris." He says, smiling, trying to make a good first impression for Chloe.

"I wish I could say the same about you. Only I didn't even know you existed until last night when I talked to Chloe on the phone."

"Oh." Is all Chris can come up with because he's not sure what else to say to that.

"Why is that by the way, Chloe?" Lois says, turning her attention to Chloe and waiting for an answer.

"Wish I could say the same thing. I just found out about you." Lois says looking at Chris. "Why is that by the way Chloe?" Lois asks, turning her attention to her cousin.

"Uhh..." Chloe says then thinks to herself. 'Dammit Chloe, your a reporter, your supposed to be quick on your feet.' "I wanted to keep it to myself for the time being. Didn't wanna jinx anything you know?" She says, giving a nervous little laugh. 'What the hell's your reason for keeping Clark and you from me?' She thinks to herself, somewhat bitterly. "So you and Clark? How long has that been going on?" Chloe asks, to change the subject.

Before Lois answered, she ushered them all over to a table, taking a seat since it wasn't very busy at the moment. Once Chris and Chloe were sitting down, she replies. "Just didn't seem like the right time. Plus it never really came up." 'And I didn't want you to hate me.' She adds silently in her head.

Chris sits there beside Chloe, remaining silent. It wasn't really his place to get involved in this conversation, so he would just sit and observe. So while their talking, he scans the Talon with his eyes, looking to see if there was anyone out of place, like a demon, just waiting for the time to get Chloe away from everyone then attack. Not seeing anyone, he turns his attention back to Chloe and Lois.

"Didn't seem like the right time and never came up? How does that not come up? You couldn't have just said, 'Oh Chloe by the way, I'm dating your best friend.' instead of going behind my back? Hell I would've even taken a letter, as long as you told me instead of finding out by mistake." Chloe says, starting to rant a little. She was more hurt by the fact that they didn't think enough of her to tell her. Yeah, she figured they probably thought they were 'protecting' her. But dammit, she was an adult and she didn't need to be protected. 'Well atleast not by them.' she thinks, remembering that Chris was there protecting her from demons.

"Chloe, I think your blowing this out of proportion. Smallville and I haven't even been together very long and we didn't want to hurt you. Your feelings for Clark aren't exactly a secret." Lois says bluntly, not caring that Chloe's 'boyfriend' was sitting there listening. This needed to be gotten out of the way, she didn't want Chloe to stay mad at her for a long time. Being honest about why they kept it a secret was just the best option in Lois's opinion.

"Blowing it out of proportion? Two of my best friends, one of whom is my cousin, lied to me. And all because they didn't want to hurt me. Yet I'm blowing it out of proportion? And in case you haven't noticed Lois, I have a boyfriend." She snaps at her, angry.

At that moment, Lana chooses to walk into the Talon with Lex. Seeing Chloe, Lana and Chris, she smiles and heads towards them, Lex right behind her. "Hey guys." She says cheerfully, unfortunately she was completely oblivious to everything that had just happened. Which put her in Chloe's line of fire.

"Did you know too? That would be great wouldn't it, then I'd be 3 for 3 on lying friends." Chloe says, turning her anger towards Lana.

"Know what? What's going on?" Lana says, looking confused.

Lex looked just as confused, neither of them sure why Chloe was upset. He notices the unknown man sitting next to Chloe and silently wonders to himself who he was. He didn't think Lana had mentioned anything about Chloe having a boyfriend, so he was curious.

Chris decides to intervene before Chloe ends up saying or doign something she'd regret. Standing up, he looks at Chloe. "Maybe we should go. After all you did promise to show me around town." He says, lying. He needed to get her out of there, witches power's were tied to their emotions. Chris only knew about her deflection ability, he didn't want to take the chance of a dormant power to come out, especially not in a front of people. Chris gives Chloe a look telling her not to argue with him.

Chloe is about to object when she see's Chris's face. "Fine." She says standing up. She was only leaving because she owed him.

She storms outside, shoving past Lex. Getting into the drivers side of the car, she waits for Chris to get out there.

Back inside, Chris gives them all an apologetic look. "Nice to meet all of you?" He says before leaving the Talon and going and getting into the passenger seat.

Chloe barely gives him a chance to shut the door before she drives off.

-Back inside the Talon-

Lana looks over at Lois. "Okay what just happened here?" She asks as her and Lex take a seat in the seats previously occupied by Chloe and Chris.

Lois sighs, staring at the door, where Chloe had just left, upset. "Clark and I have been...dating. And Chloe kinda found out by accident. I'm not sure what she's more upset about, the fact that we didn't tell her or that we're dating." She says, finally tearing her gaze away from the door and over to Lana.

Lex decides to cut in when he hears whats going on. "You and Clark are dating? Since when?"

"Yea, for about a month now. We've been keeping it a secret because we weren't sure how to tell Chloe."

"A month? You've been dating Clark for a month and you haven't told anybody? No wonder Chloe was upset." Lana says. She wasn't upset with Lois though, she had already figured out something was going on with Lois and Clark. She just didn't figure they were dating.

Before Lana finishes her sentence, Clark walks in without anyone noticing. Walking up behind them, he catches the last part of Lanas statement. "Chloe's upset? About what?" He asks, forgetting that Chloe had found out about them last night.

AN: Okay, this chapter kinda ended up being more about Lois and Clark's relationship than anything else, but theres a reason for that. And for Chloe freaking out like she did.