1

Chloe watched. That wasn't her typical job description. She was a reporter and she usually asked questions, prodded until she found the hidden angles and motivations. But today was different. Today she was off-duty and her attention was directed to the unusual scene before her. Unusual was a qualified term when you were a (possibly) immortal mutant and you were kind of engaged to an alien. However, their lives had settled into as normal a rhythm as possible. By day, they went to Smallville High School and were still in a battle to see who was going to be Valedictorian (Kal-El was ahead but mainly because of his gift for math). At night, things were very different. They shared a penthouse in Metropolis and Chloe spent late nights there, often waiting for Kal-El to come back from patrol. He'd offered to take her as well. Her powers might be even more useful than his, considering that she could heal almost any illness, including extraterrestrial comas.

Still, she hesitated on that.

Even after seven months of know what she was and what she could do, Chloe didn't want to embrace it. She was still waiting for her own fall into insanity and ensuing rampage. At least Kal-El would be around to stop her if that ever happened. Chloe smiled slyly at the sight before her. Kal-El had arranged for Martha Kent to be added on as a consultant for Dr. Swann. The official title was something more innocuous, rhetoric devised to account for the fact that a housewife from Kansas wasn't supposed to be able to offer any deep insight to one of the smartest men on the planet. But it was part of Kal-El's conciliatory gestures. He'd already arranged for a stipend, for enough money to hire hands to make up for the loss of his abilities around the farm. He'd gone one step further, however, ensuring that his mother was afforded something more, something to help compensate for the son she'd lost and the boredom of farm life.

Mrs. Kent, after all, had once put her education and experience to work by being the executive assistant for one of the most powerful men in the country. Chloe wondered how odd a sight it must be for one of Swann's private jets to be waiting for her twice a week at the Metropolis airport.

Martha sat beside Kal-El at Dr. Swann's table, animatedly debating with him about the election that had just completed.

"And it's not possible to have a candidate with no marks against his integrity," she reminded.

Kal-El frowned. " You make compromises. From what my father told me, our leaders were far more honest."

"Did they treat their people as well as the AI has treated you?" Dr. Swann pointed out.

Kal-El considered the other man's point. "I am not certain. I know what my history has taught me."

"And it has been written by the winners," Dr. Swann reminded.

"Virgil, we were a people of honor. I don't always understand why some humans seem to fail in that regard."

"Flawed," his mother prodded.

Chloe's breath stilled and Kal-El blushed. They all knew by now what had been written on the inside of his ship. Kal-El took a deep breath and continued. "In some ways, perhaps. I just do not understand the failings of this system. I do not wish to do better. Despite my gifts, I sincerely doubt I could."

Martha nodded. "I know that, Kal-El. I just meant that your perspective is a little naïve."

"I want to hold your leaders to the ideals they espouse. How is that naïve?"

"It's not how it works," Dr. Swann reminded him.

"It should be," Kal-El replied and the petulance in his tone was child-like.

"A lot of things should be a certain way," Chloe reminded. "Wow that's the kind of discussion that just drains the fun out of dinner."

"You like to argue with me, Sull-I-Van."

"Too true, but no one ever comes out of a debate like that happy."

"But more enlightened, surely," Kal-El countered before turning at Martha. "Mother, do you wish for me to take you home? It is growing late and it would take me little time."

Understatement. Kal-El could be gone and back before Chloe blinked and they all knew it.

Martha sighed and pushed her plate away. "Time always flies so fast in New York. I'd like that very much, sweetheart."

Kal-El paused for a second and Chloe still couldn't tell if Martha's slip into nicknames, something she'd done since that stupid Gatorade incident, bothered Kal-El or comforted him. Martha was trying very hard to adjust, to be the mother to the little boy she'd found in the cornfield so many years ago. Part of that was treating him with the same maternal gentleness that she'd reserved for Clark. Chloe just hoped that Martha wasn't confusing the two. After how frustrating the spiked Krypto-juice had been, she didn't think so, but sometimes it was hard to keep the two separate. Sometimes it was hard for her to differentiate from the boy that was once and the man who was here now.

Except when he occasionally munched on tulips. She was going out on a limb and assuming that Clark hadn't done that.

"Of course," Kal-El replied. "Virgil, if you would excuse me one moment. I will be back."

The doctor smiled as best he could. "I assumed as much Kal-El." That was all Kal-El needed. There was a flicker and then a quick breeze and they were gone. Virgil's grin widened. "They must be taking their time."
"Or he could have gotten into an argument with Mr. Kent. It's hard to tell," Chloe replied, sighing.

"Is it still bad between those two?"

"It's not hostile, exactly, but they're both stubborn and Kal-El's deeply wounded."

"And he can be snippy."

"I didn't say that."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "I've worked on several theories with Kal-El by now. If he doesn't want to admit that he is wrong, then he can pout for several days. He's brilliant but startlingly immature."

"He's not even eighteen yet."

"Sometimes he acts like he's five."

Chloe sighed. "Being around his… Clark's father sets it off the most. It's better, but it's just more awkward than it could be."

"Jor-El's influence doesn't bother him the way it did Clark. I'd guess that it will never be what it was between them."

Chloe sighed and finished a bite of her mashed potatoes. "He has a few contenders to fill Mr. Kent's slot."

"What?"

"Never mind," she added, thinking about how attached Kal-El had become to Dr. Swann. He enjoyed the other man's company, even if he found most of his calculations "hysterical." In fact, on the evenings he came back from New York, he was always anxious to share his and Dr. Swann's discussions. It was cute but it wasn't quite right. Kal-El was using his relationship with Dr. Swann as a crutch to avoid having one real conversation with Mr. Kent. You know, the type where he didn't posture and joke about taking over the world and fly off in a huff. She and Martha were both desperately waiting for that one.

"As I said back in May, Miss Sullivan, all of these things take time. I'm just glad to see how well Kal-El has acclimated to his role in this world."

"You mean that he didn't take over Earth yet?"

"That was a thought that I was grateful for. It's all going to come. Not to be trite, but I've been around long enough to discover that circumstances work themselves out eventually."

Chloe eyed his chair. "Really?"

"I didn't say for the best, just that accommodations are always found."

"I hope so," she replied, smiling when Kal-El appeared in front of her.

He frowned. "You didn't startle."

"Not anymore. I've outgrown my scare reflex thanks to you. So, can I catch a ride on the Metropolis Shuttle?"

He grinned. "For you? Always, Sull-I-Van. Virgil, I have a term paper due on Monday."

"Is that problematic?"

"One cannot type in superspeed," Kal-El groused. "However, I can stop by on Tuesday afternoon if that is agreeable."

"It's fine, Kal-El. Chloe, until next time."

She nodded but before she could answer, she was whisked back to her apartment. It took even less time for the fearsome alien invader to have her naked.

"Kal-El!" She shouted, giggling as he started tickling her sides. "Come on!"

"I am being thorough."

"You're being seventeen again," she grumped. "We're supposed to be meeting Lois at The Talon before we all go over to see your mom."

Kal-El glared back at her. Then ferocity of his expression was marred by the fact that he still had his chin planted on her stomach. "I do not like Lois Lane."

"One, she helped save your ass with the Gatorade problem."

"Sull-I-Van," he started, averting his eyes.

She sighed and stroked his bangs back off of his forehead. "I'm not bringing it up to make you feel bad. I just meant that she's helped you out in the past and she's really gotten to like your mom. She's never like that around the General. If she needs a family to latch onto, then she can have mine."

That perked him up. "Yours?"

"Well I am technically engaged. It makes you and Lois in-laws!"

Kal-El made the same face he had that time she'd tried to convince him to eat corndogs. "That is less agreeable."

"She's family and she's good people, Kal-El. Just get over it. You're so sensitive about everything, you know that?"

"Perhaps."

"Kal-El?"

"Yes?"

She sighed and played with the silk of the sheet with her right hand. "Kal-El, we still don't spend that much time on Kent Farm."

"I've no interest in it."

"But maybe you should try it more."

"Sull-I-Van, aren't we going to be late to see your cousin?"

"You travel faster than I can blink. Stop making excuses and-" It was then that her cell phone rang. Reaching out to the night stand, she picked it up and brought it to her ear. "Hello?"
"I'm looking for a Chloe Sullivan." The voice on the other end was detached and professional and it made her heart skip a beat.

"This is she."

"This is Dr. Scanlan from Smallville Medical Center. Your cousin's just been admitted. Miss Sullivan, she's in a coma."

Chloe dropped the phone and if not for Kal-El's speed, it would have shattered on the hardwood floor. She was too busy trying to remember to breathe instead of forming coherent thoughts. Still, there was a nagging thought in the back of her mind. She'd been trying to coax Kal-El up so they could shower and dress. They weren't due in Smallville for three hours. Why would her cousin who lived several blocks over in Metropolis already be there? She hadn't mentioned anything about visiting the Kents for an overnight.

So why?

"Sull-I-Van, we have must be going," Kal-El called, shaking her out of her funk.

"I know. God, believe me I do."

Chloe had never dressed faster in her life time and then they were speeding to Smallville.