Pros and Cons
Title: Pros and Cons
Author: Matt Shine
Type: Clark/Chloe relationship fic
Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, nor do I belong to the WB or DC Comics.
Spoilers: If you have watched the show, you're covered (lol), otherwise "Hot Head"
and "Hug" are the two major ones.
Summary: Following a rash of strange events regarding Chloe, Clark has a series
of dreams that help him to understand what he is TRULY feeling.
Pros and Cons
Prologue
Clark Kent
had been having trouble getting to sleep lately. Actually, to put a finer point
on it, the problem occurred when he actually fell asleep and the subsequent
battle to remain asleep. Dreams that he couldn't explain had been haunting him
lately. It wasn't totally unexpected after all; there had been some pretty
close calls with Lana, Lex, and…Chloe.
Chloe. That name had been
getting to him after he went to bed. Oh no, not those dreams that common males
had of a sexual encounter; if it where it only that, Clark could simply enjoy
it and take them at face value. These were stranger, his sense of helplessness
was acute, and he always knew that he was dreaming.
Lucid dreaming was not the consolation
here it would be in most cases. Chloe seemed to be a metaphysical sticking
point. Twice he had almost lost her. Granted, Lana seemed to be the fixation of
the local 'oddities,' but none of those encounters and subsequent saves had
mattered in the grand scheme of things. Lana had always talked about them with
at least somebody (even if it weren't him). Lana gotten over them with Whitney, which, while it didn't help
Clark out much, was healthy. Chloe, on
the other hand, refused to talk about her issues, preferring to bottle them up
until god knows what happened.
This refusal to open up topped
off with the kiss she had given him was a brew that Clark didn't know how to deal
with. He could no longer overlook the fact that Chloe had kissed him, and she
didn't seem to be overreacting about it either. He knew that the spell she was
under made her actively show emotions that she actually had, not conjure up new
ones.
All of this thinking (ok,
Clark conceded, obsessing) had done the one thing that not even sleeping pills
could achieve, get him mentally ready to go to war with his subconscious.
Upon lowering his eyes, the
last thoughts Clark could later recall was the sudden ambition to take up some
psychology classes and read some Freud.
Chapter 1 – 4:30AM (New in Town)
Clark opened his eyes prepared
for whatever lay before him. It was always some fire where those damned green
rocks would be placed in a ways that would hinder him, while Chloe would be
decked out in some typical outfit in the middle of a rapidly burning circle of
grass. What Clark actually saw took his breath away.
It was a beautiful Kansas
afternoon. Clouds hovered at a good 24,000 ft and none looked remotely
threatening. He did a quick spot inspection of his clothing and immediately
recognized them as his favorite pair of jeans with his red flannel button-up
shirt with an embroidered 'CK' on the pocket. He had outgrown them years ago,
yet they fit fine now.
Slowly getting to his feet,
Clark took stock of his immediate surroundings and saw his best friend Pete
sitting a few feet away clearly engrossed in some book. Deciding that the
questioning could wait a minute, Clark ventured into pockets and found a piece
of paper with the date written on it. He had remembered that his mother used to
put the month, day, and year on a little note pad, as Clark had a very hard
time remembering the proper date. He had gotten that down years ago, so he
figured briefly that perhaps his dream had sent him back in time.
Confirming his hypothesis, the
date read September 7, 1998. Working on the continued theory that this was
accurate, Clark reasoned that he was in the 7th grade. A few other links were
made to this date as well (such as the closing of the Smallville library that
had served many years to the opening of a new one), but these were
insignificant to the one event that had obviously yet to taken place: his first
meeting of Chloe Sullivan.
A shrill of a bell cut Clarks'
pondering short. Wondering what was going to happen now, Pete snapped his book
shut and jumped to his feet.
"You almost ready," Pete inquired softly. Clark had forgotten how
much his voice had actually changed over the years. He almost sounded like Michael
Jackson.
"Um, yeah. Hey, isn't today that the new girl comes in?" Clark
honestly didn't wish to arouse Pete's suspicion, but if this dream was going to
turn on him, he needed to be prepared.
"Holy god! Kent, you actually
remembered something that required you to have some sort of chronological
linkage. Wait, I have to write this down. Hold on, what's the date…" Pete
looked at Clark with the look of utter glee.
"My inability to remember the date on a semi-consistent basis is
not the issue here. Is that girl coming in today?"
"Well, unless there has been yet another natural disaster and it
hasn't been announced yet, yes, she will be coming in today." Pete looked at
Clark a little worried, but that quickly transformed into comic fodder. "Why
the interest? Do you think she will be another Lana Lang, only this one won't
be drawn to the jokes, I mean jocks?"
Clark been so baffled by this
dream, Lana had completely slipped his mind. Looking toward the quickly
draining kick-ball field, Clark saw a young Lana Lang fawning over the person
Clark would resent/envy in a few very short years: Whitney.
Picking up their belongings
and heading toward the brick building, Pete decided that he hadn't drawn enough
blood from Clark's ego yet. "It's amazing, that guy has been MVP of that game
since school started this year." Not getting the reaction he would have
normally would have received, namely a scowl, Pete was about to try at another
shot when Clark uncharacteristically shot back.
"Considering the school year
just started mid last week, that is no great feat." Clark knew that he never
used to hit back like that, but his mind had other things on it and verbal
fencing was right now a waste of time.
Entering the seemingly massive
green double doors, Clark felt like he had just walked into Shawshank prison
from the Stephen King movie. Yup, everything felt just it used too. All of the
same smells assaulted his nose, the same teachers paced about getting
head-counts; the same childish graffiti adorned the walls. Clark's heart almost
broke at the knowledge that this was only a by-product of his mind. His body
was in bed right now, and these times were never going to come back. No 'Wall
of Weird' existed yet. The people who had been given their powers had yet to go
on the rampage; leaving only him to defend those he cared about. Gone in this
time too was the knowledge that HIS abilities would never go away. He didn't
know of his roots yet, he lost a lot that night.
Making their way through the
seemingly endless mass of heads, Clark made it too his designated classroom
that he would call his interim home for the next academic year. Luckily, memory
wasn't needed at this point as all of the desks had name plates taped to them
so in the event of a substitute teacher, they would be easily identified.
Sitting in the back row of
desks with Pete, Clark watched a teacher that he didn't recognize hush the
students into silence. The teacher of his memory was a man in his late 50's
with a mustache and a beer gut that normally knocked over pens and pencils.
This man seemed to be in his mid 20's with longish dark brown hair, blue eyes,
over 6ft tall, and no gut or facial hair whatsoever. He was dressed in a black
silk suit, but with a simple black t-shirt under his jacket, which was pushed
up at the sleeves. The finely polished belt buckle shown just above his waist,
and his shoes clicked when he walked.
"People, people. Can we please
settle down, there is some business that needs to be attended too?" The unknown
man had a very deep voice, which sounded all of the necessary letters in words
out and no signs of any sort of accent, but it sounded familiar, like something
Clark had heard many times in the past. As the class noise faded into
nothingness, the teacher continued. "Today we have a new student from
Metropolis joining us." Quickly making his way to the large wooden door, he
opened it and in came a tallish blond girl wearing a burgundy velvet skirt and
white dress button-up shirt. She didn't have earrings, but did have a solitary
gold ring on her left index finger.
Clark had remembered what
Chloe had worn when he first laid eyes on her, but he didn't remember the
erection that came along with this encounter. Closing his eyes and counting to
ten, he slowly took her in again, prepared for whatever was about to attack
her. Attacks never came, only the muttering of a few of Clark's immediate
surrounding peers.
Waiting for silence once more,
the teacher directed Chloe to the one seat available in the room, the one next
to Clark. Having never put her things down, Chloe had nothing to retrieve when
she silently nodded and approached the empty desk. She was quietly reciting her
blessings at being put next what she considered the most handsome guy in the
room. Sitting down, she heard herself be talked too once again.
"Ms. Sullivan, I took the
liberty of placing you next to Clark Kent for a few reasons. One, he and you
have the identical schedule as far as classes go, so you can get notes from
him. The other reason is that Mr. Kent is the only boy (shoots Whitney a
sidelong glance) that I would trust to give you a tour of our school. Here I
have a pass that will get you two both out of the first portion of you next
class, so I would suggest that you understand the lay of the land so to speak."
Seeing Chloe's odd look, he added, "How I have that ability is that 'I' am your
next class teacher. I am your English homeroom teacher, you travel to math,
science, gym, etc which are done by other faculty members. I would like you two
to please hurry up and do this now."
Getting the message, Clark and
Chloe both to their feet and headed to the door. Clark remembered this tour; he
and Chloe had a nice long talk that basically cemented the concept of their
friendship. In fact, he had heard from Chloe that this was the talk that had
opened up the floodgates for her and how she had made up her mind to stay in
Smallville. Clark knew that if he didn't do this, he would probably not be
friends with…
He could get out of it right
now if he wanted. If he refused, they would never have gotten close and she
wouldn't have been put into danger. She would have gone back and that Coach
would have never tried to burn her, or that freak who tried to steal her body
heat. All he had to do was say 'No.'
Chloe had noticed that her
would-be tour guide was no longer walking beside her. Upon turning around,
Chloe noticed that Clark had stopped just shy of the doorframe with a confused
look on his face. Did he not want the job? Was she being rejected already? God,
this was the biggest fear of hers; actually that wasn't correct. She hadn't
feared anything; she liked being herself, independent, misunderstood, alone…
"Is there a problem Clark?"
Clark turned and saw his teacher looking at him with an odd expression on his
face. "Don't you want to do this?"
Clark
turned and saw the look on Chloe's face. Had he not known her for years, he
could have been fooled into thinking that she didn't care one way or another.
But, the part that knew this was dream knew that he could use that as an ignorance
plea. He saw the look of tentative heartbreak on her beautiful face. He
couldn't just say no. How could he face her when he woke up?
"Yes, I do want to do this."
Clark saw the relief flood Chloe's features as they looped arms and walked out
of the room.
"Hey, Clark!" Clark turned and
saw the teacher address him with a slight smile on his face. "This is only a
dream, your decision wouldn't have really mattered. Or would it? By the way,
wake up!" He snapped his fingers.
*********
Clark eyes snapped open and he
sat up as he took stock of his surroundings. He was in bed. The dream was over.
WHO in the hell knew was that and HOW in the hell did he know it was dream?
Characters in dreams are just figments of our imagination, sometimes based on
people we really know, so how did one know it was dream.
Settling back down, Clark felt
his eyes grow heavy once more as a warm blanket of unconscious settled over
him. In the darkness, Clark saw a light.