"Hey, Mrs. Kent!"
"Chloe! Hi!" said Martha Kent, fussing around some files on the kitchen table. The blonde woman smiled.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
Mrs. Kent smiled back, and replied "Sure! Come on in!"
Chloe crossed the door and closed it, entering at the Kent's kitchen.
"How are you?" asked Martha, sympathetically.
"Oh, fine, you know, I just got here from Metropolis."
"Well, sit and have some coffee, you look exhausted." offered Mrs. Kent.
About to answer, Chloe was distracted by something with a horrible appearance, decorated with the colors red, blue and yellow. She smiled.
"I'm surprised to see Lois's cake is almost untouched."
Mrs. Kent followed her gaze and smiled too. "Yeah... actually, I ate a piece earlier, it's not THAT bad…" tried Martha, but seeing the look on Chloe's face, she stopped. "Oh, well, I guess it is, but come on, it DOES look better than the first two…"
Chloe couldn't help but laugh. "Well, you know what people say, it was worth the intention."
"It really was." smiled Martha, leaning against the sink. "It was so sweet of Lois to plan this whole birthday party for Clark…"
"Yeah… what was her excuse again?"
"That Clark had been moping around that freakin' barn for too long and she couldn't stand his puppy-dog-face any longer." laughed Martha. Chloe joined her.
"That's Lois. Always pops with something surprising when you least expect it." Chloe shook her head. "Truth is, she does care about him, whether she admits it or not."
Martha's smile grew wider. "I know."
"I just thought Clark would be a little happier about it…" commented Chloe.
"I guess he was already touched when we surprised him with the party, and when he saw Jonathan's card he kind of… cracked down." Martha concluded.
"Well, it has been a tough year for him…"
It really had been. First, the whole thing with the aliens from Krypton. Then, Chloe herself had found out about his powers, then, he lost them, got them again, his father died, then he broke up with Lana… No wonder he was 'moping around that freakin' barn' for too long.
"Hey, by the way, is Lois here?" asked Chloe, suddenly. "I think saw her car out there."
"Yeah, she got here a few minutes before you did." explained Mrs. Kent, filling a cup with coffee to herself.
"Where is she?" "
"She's at the barn, with Clark, I guess." said Martha. "Sure you don't want some coffee?"
"I would love, Mrs. Kent, but I really have to talk to Clark about something." explained Chloe. "Besides, I better hurry, before they bring down the whole place with their arguments." Chloe looked at the red/blue/yellow cake, and so did Martha.
"Hey, why don't you take this, and see if they want to share it with you?" offered the older woman. Chloe made a face.
"Really?"
"Oh, just take this out of my view." Martha joked, smiling. Chloe laughed.
"Alright, I think I can do this." Chloe took the cake and started to leave. "Bye, Mrs. Kent."
"Goodbye, Chloe."
She walked silently towards the back door, holding the folder she had brought. Opening the door, Chloe looked at the barn. She could see a few lights on, they were probably there.
She almost had the will to go back and drink some coffee with Mrs. Kent. Oh, what Chloe wouldn't give for some hot and black coffee… Unfortunately, she had most important things to do. She had driven all the way from the Daily Planet, where she had been researching about the symbols Lionel wrote in the papers Clark had handed her earlier. It was quite weird to research about something she had no idea what it was about, thought Chloe, as she crossed the barn's door now. All that she knew is that there were three signs that repeated thirty-two times. And, again, she had no idea of what it meant. That's why she had come, to talk to Clark, hand him the results and see if he could tell her exactly what it was.
Already inside the dark barn, Chloe heard voices coming from the barely lightened loft. They were definitely there.
On her way upstairs, Chloe was interrupted by Lois's voice.
"You've got to trust your gut that you did this for a reason."
Curiosity took over her. She was unable not to hear what they were talking about. So she stopped where she was and decided to listen.
"Whatever reasons guys have for dumping hot, smart, fun girls these days." Lois was concluding.
So they were talking about Lana.
It would sure be interesting to see how Lois reacted to this having no clue about why exactly Clark had broken up with Lana.
From where she was, Chloe could see that Clark was sitting at the couch, and Lois was standing beside it, looking at him, waiting for an answer. It didn't come. Clark just kept looking at some spot at the floor, swimming in his own thoughts.
"Look, just give her some space, Clark." said Lois. During her next sentence, Chloe couldn't help but think about the way her cousin had breathed out in exasperation, when she told Chloe she had entered at Lana and Chloe's dormitory at Met.U., and had found Clark fussing around Lana's papers, the same way she was breathing out now. "Your whole night stalker routine," Lois shook her head. "That is going to ruin any of the good feelings that Lana has for you…"
"If there are any..." Clark answered. He was facing a different spot now, still looking upset and desperately in need of someone to give him advice, which wasn't her cousin's best quality. Chloe smiled.
Let's see how Lois behaves on this one.
"Look..." started Lois, and Chloe, as she watched her cousin sit down at the couch's arm, could tell that was one of the moments she had previously quoted to Mrs. Kent, where Lois popped with something unexpected. "Sometimes, you've gotta tuck your feelings away until it's the right time." Okay, that is certainly unexpected., thought Chloe. "Like…" continued Lois. "Stuffing dollars into a piggy bank for a bike you can't quite afford."
Had Lois just compared Lana to an expensive bike? Chloe shook her head, focusing on the scene in front of her.
Clark was finally looking at Lois, and he said "Except… I can't quite imagine there is anyone else out there..."
"Well, you never know, Clark." answered Lois right away, now looking to some spot at the floor. "Maybe when you finally crack open that piggy bank, you'll find that all this time you haven't been saving for a bike." She looked at Clark again. "You've really been saving for a Harley."
Chloe could not help but forget for a moment about the strange signs she had come to talk about with Clark. The skies could fall down and Hell could freeze over. Lois Lane had given Clark Kent a serious good advice. And more:
Chloe didn't know exactly why, but on that moment, she felt something really strange.
Clark smiled appreciatively at Lois and looked down for a moment. When he looked back at her, was with an admired face.
"There are times when I think you don't know me at all." he said. For a moment, Clark faced Lois amazed, and then shook his head. "And then others when I think you know me better than anyone..." Chloe watched Clark frown confused, but still smiling.
"Well, that's what I'm here for, Smallville." Chloe didn't know her cousin's voice could be that soft. "One save at a time..."
Or that Lois could make Clark smile in that different way. It was a different smile. A smile he had never given to anyone. A smile that, like the mocking one, he seemed to save only for Lois.
Chloe was having a weird feeling. The same feeling she had when she first saw Clark and Lois together when they weren't bickering, on that dunk tank, still in High School, almost two years ago. A feeling stranger than all the meteor-freaks put together.
Like if there was more about those two than her eye could reach.
What if… what if that "Harley" Lois had talked about and that Clark had been looking for was closer than they thought?
Chloe could only see Lois's back from where she was, but she was sure Lois was giving Clark the smile SHE saved only for him.
That megawatt smile.
Maybe the Harley wasn't so far away, after all.
Chloe shook her head. Or maybe she was wrong. Maybe that strange feeling was just her imagination. Maybe there wasn't anything extraordinary about them. She didn't quite know.
However, she knew her instincts were very precise. She was always right.
Chloe smiled suspiciously.
She continued her way to the loft and climbed the left-over steps, arriving at the couch where Clark and Lois were sitting, interrupting their smile exchanges with a sentence of her own. Interrupting it, before the weird feeling, the weird thing she had felt on the air got too complicated for her mind to think about.
Right now, she had more important things to do.
She would solve THAT mystery later.
Maybe.
Chloe smiled again as she saw Clark watch Lois for a second as she left.
It really was a strange feeling.