Title: Decisions
Author: DuMont
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Unsafe and Pariah
Summary: Chloe contemplates her decision.
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters here.
"Lois, if- if you found out something, something someone didn't want you to know about them, would you tell them?" Chloe asked.
"That depends. Is the person someone you care about?" Lois inquired, moving over to her cousin.
Chloe hesitated briefly before nodding, "Yeah."
"And does keeping this secret hurt anyone?"
Chloe thought about it, "No."
"Then my answer is no," said Lois. "If I really cared about someone, I wouldn't tell them that I knew. But I would go out of my way to be supportive of them so hopefully, one day, they would be comfortable enough to tell me themselves."
Chloe sat in the Torch office, staring at the stack of articles she had removed from the wall. She ran through Lois's response to her question in her head, and her decision that it would be better to follow that advice rather than tell Clark his own secret.
Would it be so bad for her to tell him? It could tighten the bond between them that had been slowly coming apart for so long.
What if I did tell him? Would he deny it, even though I saw him catch a flying vehicle with barely any strain.
He caught a car. As in a full-sized automobile.
What on earth was he?
Then there was the speed. He would be the only person ever mutated by the meteors two have more than one ability. But then...
He wasn't affected by the meteor rocks; Lana had once mentioned that he blatantly stated that fact. So what was he?
Back to where she started. To tell Clark, or not to tell Clark- that is the question. She snorted at her pathetic attempt to subconsciously lighten her mood.
She would tell him. Today. She nodded resolutely and stood, turning to leave the office.
Chloe sighed, and sat back down on the desk chair. Maybe it wasn't a good idea after all.
No, she chided herself, she needed to tell him. He deserved to know, especially considering it was his own secret.
Chloe stood again, grabbed her purse and coat, and strode purposefully out the door.
Chloe found Clark in his barn loft, stoically sitting on the tattered sofa.
"Clark?" she asked softly, walking over and seating herself next to him.
He didn't move to look at her but replied, "Chloe."
She looked at him sympathetically for a moment, before saying, "Clark, there's something you should know. Or rather something you should know I know, because I know that you know it already."
He glanced at her, and she continued, "Okay, that made no sense. A few days ago, Alicia called you, and she said that there was something wrong with her car." Chloe paused, gauging his reaction. He sat up slightly and shifted to face her. "She wasn't in the car... when you- you caught it."
Clark sat up all the way. He chuckled uneasily and said, "Chloe, what are you talking about? How I could I have caught a huge vehicle?"
Chloe ignored his excuses and finished, "Then you disappeared, or rather ran away so fast you were nothing but a blur."
Clark put on his best "That's a great joke" face before retorting, "Come on, Chloe. Okay, ha ha, you got me. I'm really just not in the mood for jokes, okay? I'll see you later," he told her, a suggestive silence following as he watched her, waiting for her to stand up and leave.
Chloe gave a resigned sigh and rose from the couch, saying, "Fine, Clark. I just thought you should know what I saw, deny it if you want to. If you change your mind, I'd really love it if you would talk to me." She headed for the stairs.
Just before Chloe reached the top step, Clark stopped her, "Wait, Chloe." She turned to face him. He open and shut his mouth a few times, before finally saying, "You... saw that?"
Chloe's lips turned up in a small sideways grin, and she nodded.
Clark stood silently for a moment, before beckoning her back to the sofa. She walked back over and sat down, and he joined her. He looked out of the loft window and the sun moving below the horizon and the few lone stars beginning to show higher up in the sky. He looked back to Chloe before speaking, "I won't lie to you anymore. What you saw was the secret that I've hidden from everyone. But I don't think you need to know everything, at least not at this point in time." Before she could interrupt, he continued, "Pete knew about me, and what I can do, and he left. He was kidnapped and beaten because of the knowledge he possessed, and I don't want to place the burden on you. I can answer a few questions, but the entirety of my secret is so huge, my friendship with Pete barely managed to survive, and losing ours isn't something I'm willing to risk."
Chloe looked into Clark's eyes, seeing the honesty and pain behind them. She nodded slowly.
Clark smiled at her understanding and pulled her into a gentle hug. They parted and he said, "Come by tomorrow and I'll show you a little bit more of what I can do."
Chloe saw the smile on his face and mirrored the expression. She knew that she had made the right choice in coming clean with Clark. She would keep his secret and accept anything he wanted to share with her, and knew they would be close for a long, long time.