Title: The Sands Of Time

Author: Dustmite

Pairing: Chlark

Spoilers: None

Disclaimers: Don't own them but I wish I did.

I hope you enjoy!

"You know." Said Chloe contemplatively, briskly straightening out her clothes and running a hand through her tangled blonde hair. "We've got to stop meeting like this." She stopped adjusting her clothes for a minute and looked up at him as she spoke.

Superman didn't reply. Arms folded across his chest, he just raised an eyebrow. Although super-flight always left his passengers in disarray, he was always completely unruffled, Chloe noted with a hint of annoyance.

"Oh come on." Chloe continued, irritation at his indifference, now colouring her voice. "It's becoming a bit of a habit. Even you've got to admit that."

"If you stopped getting yourself into life threatening situations Miss Sullivan, there would be no need for me to save you" Superman spoke coolly. Avoiding her gaze, he strode to the other end of the room and glanced out of the window at the rising sun as it coloured the sky in brilliant hues of red and orange.

"I don't understand you." Chloe said slowly, coming to stand besides him, her arm brushing his. "You're always there, you always save me and you always act as if you'd rather be anywhere else."

Superman exhaled loudly and moved away a little, increasing the distance between them. "I can't choose who I save."

Chloe laughed curtly. The sound was harsh and unfamiliar coming from her. "Oh right, is that how it is?" She said, all hints of softness gone, worn down by his indifference. "Well for future reference, I don't need saving. Not by you. Not by anyone."

She turned abruptly to walk away, pausing only to add. "And if you don't mind, I'd like you to leave now." She tilted her chin up slightly as she spoke, to keep the tears that threatened to fall at bay. People spoke of his heroics and generosity, his willingness to help others but Chloe only saw the cold and aloof man who saved her time after time and seemed to resent doing it.

"You remind me of someone." Superman said abruptly, stopping her in her tracks with his words "Have I ever told you that?" He came and stood in front of her blocking her path.

Chloe shook her head, surprised by his sudden willingness to talk. "No, but then you've never really stopped to talk before." She said acerbically.

A smile flickered across his face at her tone. "Don't you want to know who?" He asked softly, eyes scanning her face rapidly.

Chloe looked at him through narrowed green eyes. "You're acting weird." She told him flatly. She wasn't at all sure she wanted to play this game. Not on his terms anyway.

Superman shrugged ambiguously but didn't defend his actions.

Chloe struggled for a minute but her natural curiosity won out in the end. "Who?" She asked finally, prompting a small victorious smile from him.

"My best friend."

Chloe's eyes widened in disbelief. "Well that's weird." She could think of nothing else to say.

He laughed suddenly, and some of the sadness left his face. "Believe me." He said. "You have no idea." He shook his head as if to emphasize his point and his eyes clouded over again. "No idea at all."

"Your best friend." She mused out aloud. "Sometimes it's easy to forget that you must have another life away from the heroics." She looked up at him, curiosity sparkling in her eyes. "What's she like then, this best friend of yours?"

"Amazing, she was amazing." His smile didn't quite reach his eyes and he lowered his eyelashes concealing the sudden flash of pain in his eyes.

"Was?" Chloe asked cautiously. "I'm….I'm.. Sorry." She wasn't quite sure how she got from being absolutely furious at him to wanting to comfort him. There was something familiar about him that haunted her thoughts long after their every meeting and she knew it had nothing to do with his face gracing the news stands every morning.

Superman didn't say anything. He didn't respond to her condolences at all, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

"Is that why you dislike me so much..?" She asked carefully. "Because I'm a painful reminder."

Her words jolted him out of his trance and he looked at her evidently puzzled. His eyebrows drew down in confusion. "I don't dislike you." The shock in his voice was unmistakable. "Why would you think that?"

Chloe looked down uncertainly, suddenly very uncomfortable. "Because of the way you treat me." She whispered. "You're always so curt, so dismissive."

"I don't dislike you" He repeated firmly "And don't be sorry, it's not what you think, she's alive and well."

"But…."

"I had to make a choice once, to save her life and lose her in the process or to let her die with her memories intact." He shifted slightly. "I chose the first."

Chloe tilted her head and frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. "I'm not even going to ask what that means but," She hesitated, licking her lips, "But I can see how much, what you did for her, hurt you."

He gave her a long measuring look. "Her death would have hurt me more. Much much more."

"Kal-El." Jor-El's voice echoed off the icy walls of the fortress of solitude. "Don't let everything you have sacrificed be in vain."

Clark pretended ignorance. "I don't know what you mean."

"One of the conditions of our bargain was that you would distance yourself from Chloe Sullivan."

"She doesn't even know who I am." He couldn't quite conceal the sorrow in his voice.

"That does not matter. Your destinies are entwined and to stop them from joining you have to fight against fate otherwise what occurred before will come to pass again and this time I will not be able to alter time and space to bring her back."

Clark dropped his head and sighed. "I know."

"She dreams of you Kal-El." Clark's head snapped up at Jor-El's words. "It is a blessing that she does not remember these dreams because for her, they are memories of a different lifetime."

Clark fought down the feeling of satisfaction Jor-El's words stirred in him. She dreamed of him, oh god, she dreamed of him.

"I can't let her die. I save everyone else, how can I not save her?" He defended himself.

"I'm not asking you to stop saving her, but to talk to her as you did today is too dangerous. You put her life in danger with every moment you spend with her."

"Did you know?" Clark demanded suddenly. "Did you know from the beginning that this would happen, that one day I would lose her?"

"The curse of the house of El is to lose what means most to you in order to achieve greater things. We have all made great sacrifices and yours was the loss of Chloe Sullivan as you once knew her."

Clark laughed bitterly. "The irony is that I had no idea what I had and what she meant to me until she was taken away from me."

Jor-El's voice softened. Clark didn't'even know that was possible. "The love you shared with her didn't need defining. It was there, it was constant and you both felt it but now you need to let her go."

Clark sighed. "I will, but not yet. Not yet." He could almost feel the force of Jor-El's disapproval at his words but at this moment in time he didn't care.

He waved a hand and the crystals around him came to life and shimmered with images of a time long gone. More real then any movie screen, the crystals showed snatches of a life he missed with an ache that never left him.

His eyes honed in to a particular crystal and he watched the image move and become real. Chloe at the Daily Planet with a camera, an impish grin adorning her face, as she gleefully took pictures of him in a bright red Santa hat.

He watched in awe and lost himself in the memory.

Chloe woke up with a jolt, trying desperately to hold on to the broken fragments of a dream that was slipping away to the edges of her conscious. Blinking back tears of frustration she pushed her head further in to the pillows. The dreams were becoming more and more frequent and her inability to remember them left her heartbroken for reasons she couldn't explain.

It felt as if she was living her life on a knife-edge. And sooner or later something would have to give.