Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville/Superman.

This is my attempt a way Chlois could come about.

He'd left.

Clark Kent, her best friend and the man she'd always loved, had left to start his training three years ago.

Chloe had tried, she really had, she'd tried to keep a smile on her face and that of Martha, she'd tried to bring Lex Luthor down, but without Clark by her side she really hadn't found any inspiration. Clark was always with her, always her backup, and although Ollie and her had grown closer, Ollie was no Clark.

Chloe had really tried…but she couldn't, which was why she found herself in the caves. She knew she couldn't go to the fortress, even with the key—she'd tried—but it made her feel closer to the only man that she'd ever truly loved, and as pathetic as it was, she felt his presence.

"I can't take much more, Clark." She whispered, face stained with the tears that wouldn't stop running down her cheeks as she rested her forehead against the cave wall. "I'm not asking you to stop your training--that is more important than anything I could ever do--but I miss you so much."

She sighed and moved her palm over the rough rocks that made up the cave wall, moved it over the drawing of Segeet and Numan. "Lex is getting stronger every day and I'm losing hope. He doesn't fear us now that you're gone, and I'm frightened that he's going to win--that he already has."

A short of snort escaped her as she let her palm rest against the drawing of Segeet. "I think he's intrigued as to why I'm not hounding him anymore—why I've stopped fighting him." She paused. "He owns the Daily Planet now, and you know what the most ironic thing is? Instead of firing me he's put me as a full-time reporter, has me doing all of the important articles--of course he reads everything I write carefully before having them printed—but they're being printed nonetheless."

Turning, she leaned her back against the wall, looking up at the cave ceiling yet not really managing to see it due to the darkness. "I think he likes to torture me, enjoys getting under my skin, I think it's his way of getting back at you."

She closed her eyes, tired and lifeless. "Everyone hates me at the Planet. One minute I was a no-body reporter-in-training and then I'm a big hotshot who the new boss never fails to keep back late every evening for some conference with him?" She scoffs softly. "They're all sure I've earned my new position with my back against his desk and my legs in the air."

The air rustled around her restlessly.

"And he's only aiding that little rumor by always making me attend the banquets and parties with him, says that I'm his star reporter and that it would only make sense for him to flaunt me around." She sneered. "I'm not a prize pony." Her eyes flew open in sudden indignation as she remembered something else. "Can you imagine that he had the nerve this morning to tell me that I should consider becoming a brunette?!" She stomped her foot in agitation. "What is he? My stylist?"

Of course there was no answer, and yet deep down inside Chloe felt as if Clark was listening to her.

"I don't know what to do anymore." She admitted in a small voice. "I'm still studying; maybe I should change my major. I'm so young, too young to be the star reporter, and everyone hates me and to be truthful, I'm starting to hate what I'm becoming."

The wind caressed her skin, like invisible fingers softly wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"I hurt Ollie yesterday." She hated that as well. Ever since Clark had gone, Ollie had become her rock, and yet she'd had to let go of him as well. "He asked me to go on a date with him—told me he was developing strong feelings for me—and I told him that we shouldn't see each other any more."

She hit her head back against the cave wall in frustration, closing her eyes so tightly it actually hurt. "It's for his best—all of theirs—if I cut all connection with the JL. Lex has me on a short leash--and he's been having me followed. I can't risk their identities by holding onto them and remaining their friends."

A lone tear made its way down her cheek. "Ollie came to see me the other day—before asking me out—and when I got back to the Planet after our lunch Lex was furious. He threw me into his office and started shouting at me and interrogating me about what I was doing with Oliver Queen."

Her hands shook. "Afterwards every single person in the Planet was sniggering about our 'lovers spat'. One girl, Cat Grant—she works the gossip column—made some rude remark to my face about me not being able to keep my hands off of billionaires."

She paused, a frog in her throat. "It wasn't so bad when Lo was around, but after she—was—after she was murdered while working on that story and my tears didn't work on her again, well, I've been so alone."

There was a mournful sound on the wind that caused her to slide down to the ground in near-defeat. "I--Clark--there's something I haven't told you." She trembled, head bent, tears falling freely. "My mutation—it's finally matured."

All was silent.

"I realized something was weird when I tried healing Lois and she wouldn't wake up--and when I tried healing my cat after she got into a bad cat with the cat next door. I don't heal others anymore--or if I can I've lost the control over it again." She hiccupped, her sobs causing her voice to break. "I thought I'd somehow become healed, whole, normal, again--but I'm not."

Once again the wind caressed her, and Chloe forced herself to believe, if only for a second, that Clark was reaching out to her in the only way he could.

"I've been so lonely, Clark." She hugged herself tightly since there was no one around to hug her any more. "Dad's dead, Lois is dead, Lucy's MIA, Uncle Sam was never a real part of my family…and mom…I've stopped visiting her. I can't even visit your mother because I know that Lex is unstable and might hurt her if he thinks we are in contact and know where you are." Her heart hurt. "I am alone and just wanted it to end."

She felt so ashamed telling him this, so ashamed to let him see how weak she'd become since he'd left.

"I slit my wrists—all me this time, no possession needed." She laughed softly, and yet all warmth and mirth was missing. "It hurt like hell--but both wounds closed up in seconds." She paused again. "I was desperate, furious, so I did all I could. I took pills—I breathed in gas—I stepped in front of a fucking train."

The wind howled furiously.

"I can't die, Clark." She hated it. She hated how much of a freak she truly was. "I can't die—can't even be injured for long—and I'm destined to live my crappy excuse for a life for eternity—and all alone."

She ignored the wind, ignored the fact that she probably was going insane listening to it as if it was speaking to her.

"I miss you—God—Clark, I miss you so much!" She cried out in a choked voice, in a near scream.

Her cellular began to ring.

She laughed again, and once again it wasn't a happy sound. "I don't need to look see who that is." She confessed in a sad voice. "Only one person would call me, and I don't want to talk to him. But if I don't pick up he'll try to locate me himself and I don't want him to realize where I am. Not here of all places--he might get suspicious."

And I'll always protect you…even if you're not here to protect anymore.

Reaching into her pocket, Chloe kept her eyes closed as she pulled out her cellular and answered it. "What do you want, Luthor?"

"Where are you?" His voice was clipped, irritated.

"Out." She sighed, head pounding softly against the wall behind her. "What do you want?"

"For my star reporter to be at her desk, close to my office, as she should be."

"I'm on my lunch break, Luthor, even your star reporter needs to refuel once in a while. I can't live off of coffee forever."

"I know, Chloe."

She winced, as she always did, when he called her by her first name. It just seemed so wrong for him to call her that. Why had he stopped calling her 'Sullivan' all those months ago after buying the Daily Planet?

"I've been trying to get you to have a good lunch for months now." He was chiding her.

Normally she would have given him some snippy answer, but lately she'd been too tired to fight, too tired to do anything but give in.

"I just thought it odd that you weren't by your desk."

And now he was checking up on her.

"Why don't you tell me why you're really doing this, Luthor?" She sighed, giving up, as she'd been doing around him of late. "Is it another fluffy LuthorCorp-Saves-The-World piece? I'll write it up as soon as I get back."

"No, I don't have anything specific for you to write." There was a pause. "There's an echo, where exactly are you?"

"I told you, out."

"You sound tired."

Where was he going with this? "Look, I haven't been sleeping well. Nothing big. Now, if you don't mind, I'm still on my lunch break--."

"Are you hiding something from me?"

"That's it!" She cried, opening her eyes in anger. "Luthor, I'm having lunch! Give me a break! You have people trailing me day and night, I try to give them the slip now and then, but I know that most of the times I fail. You know that I don't know where Clark is, you know that I am not doing anything against you, and you know that I spend all of my nights at home in front of the television with a carton of Ben & Jerry's!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"You have nothing to fear from me anymore." She whispered, broken. "You've won. Now let me have my lunch in peace."

There was a hesitant pause. "Then, if I've won, you'll be dying your hair brown. No one will ever truly take you seriously if you're a blonde."

She closed her eyes, defeated. "Luthor, apparently you haven't realized that I'm really a brunette, and if it keeps you quiet, I'll stop dying my hair."

"Good." There was another pause. "I'll have my secretary set up an appointment at the best beauty salon for you for this evening to get them to dye your hair back as close to your natural color as possible, that way I don't have my star reporter looking like some washed out, unkempt girl who can't even dye her roots."

"Whatever you say." She gave into him, again. "So, unless you want to use up more of my short lunch break, goodbye." She hung up on him and turned off her cellular, throwing it away from her in anger.

"I hate him." She whispered, hugging herself again, desperate for some affection. "I hate him so much." She closed her eyes, gave into her despair, and wished that Clark was there.

She didn't even realize when she fell asleep.

Waking up, Chloe stretched, feeling disoriented. Everything was white, and for a second she was terrified that she was in an asylum.

"You are awake."

Chloe's eyes widened as she recognized that voice. "Jor-El?" But that would mean…I'm in the Fortress! But why wasn't she freezing? Did Jor-EL have something to do with that?

"I have brought you here, human, because you mean much to my son, and it distresses him to hear you in such pain."

Chloe gulped. Clark—Clark had heard her?

"He cannot train if his head is on you, so I had to take matters into my own hands." He paused, as if searching for the right words. "Kal-EL needs to train if he is to be prepared for his destiny, and you need to let him do so in peace. He can hear your heartbeat—he listens to your voice when he should be learning what I teach."

Chloe smiled softly.

Clark hadn't left her…

…not completely.

"And he suffers because you suffer." Jor-EL continued in an intrigued voice, as if this concept was a new one. "I know of your future, and if you continue in this path, you will become what you fear most."

The blonde gasped, knowing what he meant. If she continued this way she'd go insane.

"But I have come to offer both peace and safety for you." Jor-EL announced. "I will rewrite your history. Neither you nor Lex Luthor will ever have gone to Smallville. You will never have met my son, you will not remember this place, nor what has happened. You will have lived another life, and will be happy."

Chloe shook her head. "No…I…I wouldn't remember Clark, he wouldn't remember me, we--."

"You once told me, human, that you loved my son."

She nodded, eyes welling up with tears. "I do."

"Then do it for him." The voice was stern. "Think of him, and of his future. Think of him instead of yourself. Sacrifice yourself for him."

There was silence.

"I will." Chloe bent her head, giving into the tears as she cried softly. "If this is what's best for Clark—--I'd do anything for your son. Even forget him--even though the thought of a life without him breaks my heart."

There was silence.

"You truly love him."

And that made her cry harder.

"He will remember you."

She looked up, gaze blurred by her tears, hope beginning to grow.

"And he will hate me for this," there was a hint of sadness in the AI's voice. "But it is what must be done." He spoke again, with determination. "Goodbye, human."

Chloe Sullivan gasped as she woke up, feeling disoriented and heady. Where was she? What had she been dreaming about? She couldn't remember, but for some reason she felt as if she was forgetting something important.

"Lois!" Jimmy Olsen stepped into her cubical, grinning broadly. "Congratulations on the last article, Perry has been grinning like a madman the whole day! What a scoop! And by our own Lois Lane! We're going to get an award for that article!"

The brunette grinned at her blonde, photographer friend. Jimmy was new at the Daily Planet, and while he was horribly shy around everyone else--especially her cousin--Chloe and him had hit it off as friends right away. "Well, let's just keep our fingers crossed."

"CEASAR'S GHOST!" Perry could be heard hollering from the door of his office. "Olsen! Where's my coffee?"

Jimmy winced. "Sorry chief! I'm going to get it right away!"

Perry White, Editor of the Daily Planet, glared at the young man. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me chief?"

But Jimmy was already bounding towards the elevator doors and hadn't heard him.

Rolling his eyes at the youth, giving him an affection smile he'd never give him to his face, Perry turned his attention to her. "Have I told you I loved you today, Lane?"

Chloe grinned brightly. "Only about a hundred times, boss."

"Well, I love you." He announced, the newspaper with her article on it in his hand. "Oh, and Lane? I saw that boyfriend of yours outside. He's probably come by to surprise you."

"Thanks for the heads up!" Chloe smiled as her boss ducked back into his office to gloat over her article. She quickly opened her bag and pulled out her mirror, looking at herself, arranging her long straight brown hair, and grinning, making sure that she looked perfect.

This was the man she loved…

…The man who'd been gone for a while and she'd missed with all of her heart.

Putting away the mirror, she straightened the name-plate with Lois Lane on it, remembering how he'd helped her pick it out when she'd told him that she wanted to write under a nom de plum. He'd cleverly pointed out, after some thought, that Lois Lane could be spelt out of the name Chloe Sullivan, and she'd loved it—something about that name seemed so familiar.

Warm hands covered her face from behind. "Guess who."

She giggled. "I don't know, my secret lover?"

He chuckled affectionately in her ear. "Now, now, who's been a naughty girl while I've been away?"

"Oh, it's my non-secret lover." She laughed when he pulled his hands from her face and turned her seat around. In seconds she was out of her seat and against him, holding him tightly as he pressed a tender, adoring kiss to her temple. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." He whispered, holding her tighter, emotion thick in his voice. "It was hell being away from you, but you know my father."

"Well, it could have been worse." She whispered against his chest. "He mightn't have liked me and not allowed me to talk to you while you were in training."

He smirked against her hair. "Yes, well, dad loved you from the moment you stood up to him and told him you loved me. He told me that a plucky girl like you didn't come along too often." His smile softened. "He confided once that you remind him of my mother."

Chloe snuggled closer to him, glad that almost everyone else was out to lunch. "I know it was only a month, but I missed you so much."

"And I you."

The brunette pulled away slightly and looked up into his sincere blue eyes. "I'm serious, Lex, I've never spent a long period of time away from you. I mean, I grew up around the mansion since my dad worked for yours, and we've always felt like we knew each other. Remember?"

He grinned brightly. "We were sure we'd known each other in a past life." His grin turned mischievous. "And you disliked me in that past life, if your attitude at first had anything to say."

"I was five, I was allowed to act like a brat." She smiled right back at him. "Do you remember the time your father wanted to send mine to work as manager of the Smallville Luthorcorp fertilizer plant?"

"I threatened with disgracing the family name the rest of his life if he did that." Lex Luthor laughed as he remembered those days. "I think that was when my father started realizing that I was in love with you…pigtails and all."

"Hey! I was way past the pigtails days at that time!" Chloe slapped his chest affectionately. She then sobered. "So, have you passed the training? Does your father think you 'deserve' to be his official heir? Will he finally allow you some freedom and say in the management of Luthorcorp?"

Lex nodded, the smile reaching even his eyes. "He was a real bastard about it too. I think he liked having me under his thumb."

"You know he loves you deep down inside," she paused. "Deep deep down inside."

He nodded. "Yeah. I guess." His gaze went to someone behind her and he pulled an arm from around her to wave. "Hey Perry."

"Luthor." Perry called back in a sheepish voice, obviously having been caught spying on them. "Have you heard about Lane's article on Wayne Industries? Something shady is going on down there and she's managed to somehow connect it with that rogue criminal, Batman!"

"Never called him a criminal." Chloe muttered under her breath.

Lex grinned at them both. "I think she deserves the rest of the day off, huh, Perry?"

"Please, take her before I steal her from you!" Perry laughed. "This will get us an award--just you wait and see!" The sound of his door closing announced his departure from the conversation.

Chloe looked up at her boyfriend of eight years--the only boyfriend she'd ever had--and grinned. "So, where are you taking me?"

"Wherever you want to go." Lex smiled, lowering his face till his lips were a breath away from hers. "I love you, Chloe."

God, she loved it when he said her name. "And I love you, Lex." She whispered and closed her eyes as his lips descended on hers and she was lost in the pleasure and love she felt with him.

Outside, ignored and forgotten, the wind howled in agony.

Don't throw any rotten fruit or vegetables, like I said, I wanted to try make it a believable hint to the Chlois Theory (as believable as any Superman-related thing can get) and to explain the Lois Lane/Lex Luthor relationship in the beginning of the Superman comics.

How about a review?