Smallville a hundred years away…

By: Kathy-Lynn Brown

The hallway was dark with just the glow of the florescent lights above. The sound of heels click across the expensive black and white marble tile flooring. It had been a long hard day at Wayne Industries and Chloe was ready to head home and take a nice long bath. She'd been employed by Bruce for two years now and loved every moment of it. It was such a different breathe of air than Smallville. There was no Lana and Clark drama. And no wandering if Lex was going to stab her in the back. She wished that she had made this move along time ago.

Bruce was out of town working on a project and although Chloe had begged to go along he thought it was too dangerous for her. So she stayed late at the office tying up some loose ends. Chloe finally made it to her car. She had upgraded from the Yaris to a Hummer 3. As she reached out to open the door a shadow cast over her. She flinched. Here she was alone in a huge almost dark parking lot and Bruce was thousands of miles away. She felt a hand on touch her shoulder and she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd know that hand anywhere.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for my friend." The familiar voice said.

Chloe turned slowly around smiling. It had been two years since she had seen or heard from him. The letter she wrote to say goodbye said everything she thought she could have said. "Clark." She hugged him tightly.

"Chloe Sullivan." He pulled her back keeping her at arms length. "I can't believe it."

"What are you doing here?" She asked. "And look at you. Oh, no, did somebody die?"

She had never seen Clark in a suite unless it was at a funeral.

"No, No. Everyone is fine." He touched her hair. "What's with the brunette look?"

"What you don't like it?"

"Na, it's cute." He smiled.

"So why the suite?"

He grinned as only Clark Kent could grin. "I got a job." He cleared his throat. "At the Daily Planet."

Chloe laughed. Was he serious she wandered. "Yeah right!"

He pulled out his press pass with his picture on it. He'd been working there for four months now and it seemed so strange walking by her desk and not seeing her there buried with work. "Back to the hair. Why brunette?"

" I just needed some change. So can you come back to the house with me for dinner. I'm starving and I want to catch up."

"I'd like nothing more."

He opened the door for her to get into the Hummer and he walks around to the passenger side.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Clark sat at the table in the kitchen of Bruce Wayne's mansion. Chloe placed a plate in front of him and took the seat across from him.

"Big step up from the Talon." Clark said.

Chloe smiled. "Yeah. It's huge and lonely when Bruce isn't here. Usually the butler plays a game of cards with me but he's out of town visiting his sister this week."

Clark sprinkled the salt on his potatoes. "So this Bruce guy he just gave you a job and a room in his mansion."

Chloe bit her bottom lip as she moved the peas around on her plate. "Not at first. I did have an apartment close to the office." She looked up at Clark. "Then Bruce and I started dating. And well we got married about nine months ago."

Clark choked on his potatoes. Surely Chloe didn't just say that she was married. Did she? He thought to himself. "Your married."

She held up the huge diamond ring on her left hand. Clark was so happy to see her he hadn't even noticed it.

"He's a terrific guy. He's everything I ever wanted in a man."

Clark's smile fell. He remembered when he was the only one that could make Chloe happy. The one that made her eyes sparkle even though he'd break her heart every day.

"He and Oliver have been working on a project together. He'll be home tomorrow around lunch. I hope that you can stay. I'd really like for you to meet him."

Clark smiled a facade smile. He wasn't for sure how to feel about Chloe being married. "Of course. I can't wait to meet the man that stoled Chloe Sullivan's heart."

"Huh,… it's Chloe Wayne now." She smiled that mega-white smile that Clark missed like crazy. "There is something about him that you should know. He's Batman."

Clark had read an article about the mysterious masked man fighting crime in Gotham City but he never would have guessed in a million years that he would be married to his best-friend. "Batman, really."

Chloe nods. "Yes. And he's the greatest super hero ever. Present super heroes not included." She grins. "He's been teaching me some of his tricks and how to defend myself. Clark, I'm not just his sidekick or his wife." She leans into him and whispered. "I'm cat woman."

"Wow." Clark couldn't believe it. Chloe had always made a point to help others putting herself in harms way. And with her meteor ability she had saved many people even him. But now she was training to fight crime and calling herself cat woman. She was so different than the Chloe that he knew in Smallville. This Chloe was happy and excited about life and he found her so at peace and full of joy.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --Too Be Continued. ...