Come Back to Where You Belong (Chlark / PG-13)
Come Back To Where You Belong – (Chlark)
Author: Mari2Anne
Warning: Abusive relationship/ Angst/ Jimmy fans might not like this story, but this was started because of a request...
Spoiler: Happy Ending; well at least a positive ending; actually I'm still working on it.
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine; I do not own them or Smallville
Pairings: Chloe/Jimmy - Chloe/Clark
Status: Almost complete; this actually started out as a one-shot but the ending got a little too complicated so it still needs more work.
Rating: T / PG-13
A/N: This was started a long time ago in response to Chlollie (at K-site & also here at ) who requested a story about Chloe in an abusive relationship with Jimmy. Of course, Clark finds out and tries to help her; and it was to take place somewhere in S7.
Although there might be references to Season 7, I have strayed somewhat with some references to Season 8 and earlier seasons, but not exactly in the order or in the way they happened on the show. There really is no time line. In this version: Chloe, Clark and Jimmy all still work at the Daily Planet. And I've created a new "connection" Clark has to Chloe.
Oh, just to clarify Clana is ancient history and will barely be mentioned, if at all.
Comments are SO VERY welcome! Be kind if you can, but do let me know what you think. And Thank You for reading
Come Back To Where You Belong by Mari2Anne, for Chlollie who requested it.
He hadn't meant to listen. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop.
And yet he could still hear it.
Even miles away…
Why he was connected in this way to her, he still didn't understand. He would never forget that she was the first distinguishable voice that came from the mega decibels that were his ear-splitting, headache inducing, heart pounding frightening introduction to his super-hearing back in high school.
In some ways those were horribly confusing days when each of his powers emerged at random and with no apparent reason and no rule book on how to control them; or which powers were permanent or temporary… Or even more frightening, which would increase in strength…
He tried to shake the memories. But even to this day he still thought often of the wisdom of Jonathan who helped him deal with each newly discovered 'behavior' as if it were just a normal part of growing up. He never told his Dad how worried he sometimes got during those "formative" years about whether the discovery of new powers would ever end. Nor did he ever reveal how much he had feared what they would do if one emerged that could not be controlled.
But he hadn't discovered any new powers in quite some time and thought he'd finally 'matured' to be 'all' that he could be; with the one exception of the illusive flying ability. And if it weren't for the memory of actually flying while he "wasn't quite himself," he could almost convince himself this was never going to happen.
This new 'power' was a very recent development; or at least, he'd only been aware of it for the last few months.
Since the very first time back in high school when he'd heard her talking on her cell phone to Lionel Luthor; her voice the first that wasn't a screeching pain to his new super hearing, he had never really stopped hearing her when her voice or her heart beat called out to him. Or even, as was happening right now, her tears. And just as her voice and her heart beat had become as recognizable as his own over the years, he had quickly accepted that the only tears he seemed to be able to 'hear' were hers.
But instead of calming him, as often her heart beat reassured him that she was alive and well, even as it pounded erratically calling out to him because of some danger she was in, the sound of her tears was anything but calming.
Anger filled him, helpless uncontrollable anger. Why was he 'hearing' her tears? Tears made no sound; it's what he always told himself each time he heard them. But they were hard to ignore and impossible to shut out; so great was her power over him; so intense their connection.
A connection they both continuously denied.
Denial!
Their favorite solution to every problem they didn't want to face.
And, so very obviously, a useless waste of energy.
He couldn't deny their 'sound,' especially as they were increasingly more frequent lately. It drove him to distraction and, of course, towards the uncontrollable anger. He had rushed to her side at least half a dozen times and she'd told him to mind his own business, there was nothing he could do to help her.
On the rare occasions her tears were caused by physical pain, Chloe's bruises had healed each time before Clark had shown up, even though he'd rushed to her side at super-speed. So there had been no proof of what Jimmy had done to her. And for the same reason, Jimmy didn't believe he'd really hurt her anyway, the bruises disappeared too quickly.
The last time as Clark had helplessly stormed out of her apartment after Jimmy's temper had gotten out of control, he'd overheard Jimmy yelling at her, "Quit whining, I'm not strong enough to have hurt you anyway- didn't even leave a mark, not as much as you hurt me each time you look at that boyfriend of yours!"
Chloe had avoided him at work the day after each incident. But Clark couldn't take the darkness in her eyes; he missed the smile that kept him going. He missed her voice when she was this quiet. By the end of the day after the latest useless rescue attempt he needed answers and cornered her when she went into the copy room.
He leaned against the door as he closed it. She raised her eyes from the over-sized article she was trying to turn correctly onto the copy machine and quietly told him, "Don't get involved, Clark." She carefully looked through the glass wall into the other room.
"He's not in the building," he quieted her apparent fears. Fears that he wished he could erase because the sudden knowledge of them made him sound harsher than he'd intended,
"You're my friend, Chloe; I am involved already and I'm making it my business. This can't go on. You have to talk to me."
"I don't have to do anything, Clark," she whispered evasively.
Clark continued on as if she hadn't spoken, "I thought you two were getting on so much better after you told him about your meteor abilities. Why does he think you have a boyfriend, Chloe?"
She'd finished getting her copy but Clark refused to unblock the door, so she gave in, "Because he doesn't trust me."
Clark's eyes showed his concern, "Why?"
"You know why…" she responded, resignation in her tone as she looked right into his worried eyes.
Her unwavering gaze tore at Clark as he realized how much her heart was breaking and how alone she felt. Guilt consumed him, "He thinks I – he thinks I'm the boyfriend?"
Her continued steady gaze told him his guess was right on. Something he'd hidden deep inside his soul broke free and he knew he would never be able to deny the need again. He suddenly ached to tell her that he wished it were the truth. Then, if nothing else, he at least would have a reason to pull her out of her current situation.
It took all the strength he had to not take her into his arms, confess how much he loved her and beg her to dump Jimmy. He did the only other thing he thought could save her,
"Tell him the truth about me. My secret is not worth the pain it's causing you."
"I won't ever do that, Clark. I promised you I'd never betray you!" she almost shouted at him, appalled at his suggestion.
"It's not a betrayal if I ask you to do it. If you love him, Chloe, you have to learn to trust him. And if you trust him, I will too."
His words echoed in her head, "If you love him..." If? Did she? She didn't know anymore. Had she ever known for certain? Had she ever loved him?
She dropped her papers on top of the copy machine and paced the room, the confusion she felt so evident in her eyes and also in the lack of questions coming from her. She wasn't sure what to ask and finally stopped pacing and settled for, "Why?"
He didn't have time to think of a lie convincing enough and let go of the words that filled his troubled heart, "Because the only thing I care about is your happiness. If that means adding another member to the Clark secret keepers, then it's a small price… well worth paying."
He could see the surprised look in her eyes and a new uncertainty that he feared she would want clarified, but she let it go. Maybe she didn't quite believe what she was hearing, he couldn't possibly care that much! So she simply chose to ignore it. She gathered her items off the copy machine, "I have to get back to work, Clark. I'll think about it. Okay?"
It wasn't okay; not really, but he didn't push it. It was enough for now that he'd made the offer and that she would consider it. He knew all too well how heavily the burden of his secret had often weighed on her small shoulders.
Maybe if she followed his advice she could finally find the happiness she deserved. If all else failed, he did always have the choice of telling Jimmy himself if that was the only way to convince him that Chloe wasn't cheating on him. So he smiled as he moved to open the copy room door and told her, "Okay."
During the next few weeks they avoided each other as much as possible.
Clark tried to be more conscious of how he took advantage of her willingness to drop everything and help him. He asked less of her; did more of his own research and hacking when necessary. He became more conscious of when she mentioned she had plans with Jimmy and made sure he never interrupted those plans.
He learned a new kind of patience, always waiting for her to be available to help him when he really couldn't solve something on his own; and not just barging into her space and expecting her to take care of his problems immediately. And though he really didn't need a lot of sleep, it had become a natural habit over the years to get several hours of rest whenever he could. A habit he was now trying to break and learn again how to survive on minimal hours of sleep.
It had taken him only three days to realize she would never reveal his secret to Jimmy. It caused him a lot of sleepless nights. Since he didn't really understand how this 'power' worked, he was afraid to fall asleep in case he wouldn't 'hear' her tears if she called out to him.
During the days at the Daily Planet, Clark kept his distance and yet watched them more closely; they appeared to be happier and the look of fear in her eyes that had worried him so much that day seemed to have disappeared.
Jimmy was always polite yet cool towards him at work. He never asked Clark why he'd shown up uninvited at Chloe's apartment each time while they happened to be in the middle of fighting over one thing or another. On some level that disappointed Clark as he wanted an excuse to warn Jimmy to never hurt Chloe again. But maybe Jimmy was expecting some kind of lecture and didn't want to give Clark a chance to get started on one.
But the calm didn't last.
tbc
Come Back to Where You Belong /Part Two (First Half)
It was a little more than five weeks later when Chloe and Clark were both given the assignment to research from where a local building contractor was siphoning off money for some personal projects for which he had no visible funding. They spent almost three days together looking through all available public documents covering all the listed building contracts he had with the city, trying to find out which jobs he was stealing the funds from and how he was getting away with it.
Jimmy, in the meantime, was kept busy on a photo assignment following the leading candidate in a mayoral political campaign. Even though that assignment kept him out late covering fund-raising dinners, he was still not too busy to notice Chloe's continued absence from the apartment.
The first night he was too tired to stay awake until she got home; and they were both expected at work too early the next morning and barely had time for a quick cup of coffee and a few bites of their muffins; there was no time for any questions.
The second night he was too thrilled about getting one of his pictures printed on that day's front page to be angry at how late Chloe arrived home. He barely listened to her quick, frustrated apology about being so late because she had spent the second day in a row in the city hall's records room and most of both evenings at the downtown library without finding any evidence yet of the fraud they knew existed.
But he did pay attention to her complaint that she had skipped both lunch and dinner that day and was starved. His day had also been without food so they decided on a late dinner at a diner a few blocks from the apartment. Since he spent most of the meal eagerly relaying the events that led up to the shot that made it to the front page, Chloe finally relaxed enough to enjoy the hamburger and fries she had ordered.
As much as she enjoyed working with Clark and his dedication to every detail and his thoroughness in looking through each document, no matter how unimportant it seemed; she worried how Jimmy would react to her close proximity to Clark. Would it matter that she'd had no choice in the assignment or who was assigned with her? She hoped Jimmy had stopped being suspicious, but she feared the calm even as she tried to deny that a storm was brewing.
The last few weeks had been a lot easier with Jimmy, but yesterday she realized how much she'd missed working with Clark; how easily they'd become a team again. A few times she even worried they were close enough for him to read her mind; he somehow always knew what she was trying to say or what direction she wanted to go with their work. She knew most of the time where his ideas were headed also, although she denied there was any significance in the knowledge.
She only worried about slipping up and telling Jimmy too much about what was not going on. He had a way of misinterpreting what she said or how enthusiastically she said it if the name Clark came up anywhere in the conversation. And since everyone knew she and Clark were working together on this assignment, it was only a matter of time before Jimmy would want to bring it up.
She had seen the quick flash of anger that morning as he'd passed Clark's desk on the way to get more film for his camera out of his desk. He had even ignored Clark's cordial, "Good morning, Jimmy!" as he'd left.
She quietly mumbled thanks to whatever Fates had given her at least another day's reprieve from Jimmy's jealousy as she devoured her hamburger while listening to his excited explanation of how he ended up taking that picture. She was actually proud of him; this was the Jimmy she'd first been attracted to, this happy person who loved photography above all else and delighted in sharing it with her.
Late in the afternoon of the third day, Chloe suddenly jumped up from her desk and enthusiastically hugged Clark who was standing next to her, bent over as he slowly looked through a folder of invoices they had 'borrowed' from one of the contractor's company accountants. Clark's quick reaction kept the contents of the file from being tossed to the floor by Chloe as she waved one of the invoices practically in his face.
"You were right! Here's the proof! We knew it! Oh, my God, do you know what this means, Clark?"
Without thinking he was caught up in her uninhibited delight and hugged her back.
He forgot that touching her wasn't allowed. He forgot that she didn't belong to him anymore. He would wonder later where the thought that she was ever his had come from, but at the moment the possessiveness that filled his heart felt as right as the tightly clinging arm around his neck.
What a foolish man was he to have once been the recipient of so many of her warm, generous loving hugs, to not know how much he would miss them if she stopped holding him close? How could he have forgotten how it felt to be loved by this woman? How could he have ever let her go?
He had missed being in her arms so much he forgot that Jimmy sat just four desks away uploading onto his computer the pictures he'd taken that day.
As suddenly as she'd embraced him, Chloe slipped out of his arms and directed his attention to the invoice she held in her hand, "It's a complete fake! I can't believe we didn't think of this possibility two days ago! All those boring documents we went through!"
Clark quickly realized her withdrawal from his embrace came just in time to stop an obviously very angry Jimmy from coming any closer to them and causing a scene. He gave Clark a clear 'keep your hands off my girl' warning look as he slowly returned to the desk he'd vacated as soon as he saw Clark holding Chloe much too tightly.
Clark wished for a moment that Jimmy had come at him. He would have felt better knowing Jimmy would take his anger out on him right then and there and not on Chloe later on. He was at a complete loss as to what to do and just followed Chloe's lead as she pointed out the things she saw wrong with the invoice.
He pretended the embrace meant nothing. He pretended he hadn't always known that she'd once loved him.
It wasn't the first time he'd lied about his feelings for Chloe. But it was the first time that he didn't shy away from admitting to himself that it was a lie. Even as he listened to her, his heart was lecturing him on the danger he had just put her in. Why couldn't he tell her the truth and beg her not to go home with Jimmy? His mind couldn't seem to slow down, going in too many different directions, but no solution that she would accept came to him.
His troubled thoughts were stopped as she started explaining what she was pointing at. "This invoice doesn't include any type of discount as do all the others. The company address is only a post office box and there is not even a telephone number. There is no purchase order number listed. The copy of what supposedly is the purchase order that's attached has no approval signature like all the others. No proof of delivery signature, or verification of the material count. Only a check number and date payment was made. There is no copy of a lien release. And… from double checking all the bids that were accepted for this job, this company is not listed anywhere."
She stopped to take a deep breath. Clark could tell she was trying to calm her nerves. Even though she'd had her back to Jimmy, she probably knew he had witnessed her throwing herself into Clark's arms.
In a calmer voice a minute later, she continued. "I know that one invoice, even for this large amount of money, isn't complete proof, but I'll bet there's at least one invoice from this company on every job he's involved with. What do you think we'll find, Clark, if we can track the check this invoice was paid with?"
Clark smiled as he guessed, "If he's smart, we'll probably find it was cashed, the signature probably unreadable. I don't think he would deposit it into an account that could be traced back to him. Although for that amount of money, he probably does have an account at the bank it was cashed at. More than likely a bank teller is an accomplice. And I wonder how well he covered his tracks with that post office box? Unless someone else opened it for him, I bet it can be traced back to him. I can make a field trip out to that town tomorrow to check it out."
"And I'll check all the other job invoices to see if this company name shows up on any of the others and of course, I'll find a way to research the bank statements to find that check and any others written to that company."
They both grinned with relief, "Nice work, Chloe!" Clark finally said.
"Thanks, but you know I couldn't have done it alone. So thank you, too!" she replied as she started packing all the files together, "I'll make the necessary copies and you can return all these tomorrow."
An hour later, as he watched her leave the Daily Planet basement office with Jimmy, he wished with all his heart that she was happy and that Jimmy understood what a treasure she was and would stop abusing her.
But unfortunately, he'd stopped believing that wishes came true by the time he was five years old and knew he'd be following them home and keeping close enough to their apartment just in case Jimmy was still angry.
Chloe and Jimmy stopped at a diner for a very quiet meal. Clark left the Daily Planet and took off in the opposite direction to get his own dinner. He did not listen to their conversation at all. He tried hard not to spy on them because he knew that Chloe would hate him for it. He had resolved after the last useless rescue attempt that he would only intervene if she called for his help, whether by voice, uncertain heartbeat, or by the sound of her tears.
But this time there were no tears...
tbc
Come Back to Where You Belong Part Two (Second Half - well, the very short, rest of Part Two...)
It was Jimmy's yelling that alerted Clark and a muffled scream from Chloe that sprang him into super speed racing from half a dozen blocks away.
He had only a second of clarity in the midst of his panic, and knocked loudly on their apartment door instead of crashing through it. Jimmy, with one hand holding onto Chloe's right arm, opened it and instantly turned his anger on Clark, "How the hell do you always know when we're having a disagreement? Are you stalking us? And how do you always get here so fast?"
Slamming the door shut to keep out any curious neighbors, as Clark rushed into the apartment past Jimmy, he looked from Clark to Chloe and then back at Clark, and it dawned on him, "You're a damned meteor freak! Just like her, aren't you? You people make me sick!"
He tried to toss Chloe away from him and she lost her balance. Clark grabbed Jimmy by the shirt collar and pulled him away from her and got to Chloe to catch her in his arms before she hit the floor. "I've got you. I'm taking you away; he's not getting another chance to hurt you ever again."
He searched her tear-filled eyes as she finally gave up her failed attempt at trying to stop them from falling.
She'd held back the tears.
He suddenly understood why. And it sickened him.
tbc
Come Back to Where You Belong Part Three
…She'd held back the tears…
It wasn't because she knew he was listening for them; he'd never told her he 'heard' her tears. From the look of guilt on her face he assumed correctly that she felt she'd had it coming; she felt she deserved it and had tried to be brave, probably in the hopes that Jimmy would calm down soon.
For a second Clark wasn't sure who he was most angry at:
Jimmy, for hurting her like this? At the moment he wanted nothing more than to strangle the ungrateful coward.
Himself? For letting her convince him this was none of his business and he couldn't do anything to help her? He ignored the fact that he still tried to rescue her each time he thought she was in trouble, whether she wanted his help or not.
Or Chloe? For somehow believing she deserved this kind of treatment?
She had so often helped him believe that not every wrong done in the world was his fault, but this time he knew deep in his soul that he bore a large part of the blame. How badly had he failed her if she could think so little of herself?
How could he have forgotten the vulnerable trusting soul that hid behind that disguise of toughness she showed the world? He had seen it enough times over the years how her trust in people, her willingness to give her heart had so often brought her pain. That Jimmy could become the angry jealous animal that now tried to escape his hold would never have occurred to Clark in a million years. He would not have picked Jimmy as becoming someone so cruel that Chloe would need protection from him.
He cursed himself for letting her continue protecting his secret at the cost of her own safety. He knew he should have told Jimmy the truth himself the minute he realized Chloe never would. He almost welcomed the painful headache those quiet tears were causing him. It served him right for not keeping her safe.
But this ended today. He would not let her stay a moment longer with Jimmy.
He had almost been too late because he'd foolishly listened for her tears, blocking out everything else, and by the time they'd fallen, the racing of her heart beat had drowned out the desperation in her tears.
Still holding onto Jimmy's shirt collar with one hand, while Chloe was securely wrapped in his other arm, Clark got to his feet and took a close look at her shimmering hazel eyes and trembling lips. She looked tired. Much too exhausted. Like she had reached a breaking point and didn't know how to go on.
The defiant, strong-willed Chloe who'd told him during each previous botched rescue attempt to mind his own business, that she didn't need his help, was gone. The change in her was so shocking he was torn between the feeling of losing a part of her and the gratitude that she was finally going to give in and let him help her.
As Chloe slowly maneuvered her way out of Clark's arms and stumbled onto the couch, Clark tossed Jimmy across the room with one small powerful push against his chest, "Touch her again and you're a dead man!" he promised angrily, letting go of a rage that made him realize how easily he could and how badly he wanted to fulfill that promise.
"Yeah, freak… you can have her!" Jimmy shouted back, trying hard not to show his fear of the unbelievable strength Clark had just exhibited as he tried to recover from having been thrown across the room and landing on the floor against the wall he'd literally bounced off. He was momentarily stunned as he slowly moved his arms and legs checking for any broken bones. Clark's size had often intimidated him, but it had never occurred to Jimmy that he would one day come to fear him. Who would have believed mild-mannered Clark Kent disguised such a violent strength?
In a disgusted rage he ignored his fear and continued his tirade, "You freaks should stick together. You always have anyway. You barely have to look at her and she runs to your side. She always defends you. Now I finally know why. You're just as much a freak as she is."
Clark, realizing that Chloe was trying to heal the bruise on her arm, contained his rage, only for her sake, "Get help, Jimmy, or I'll have you arrested for assaulting her."
"I don't believe you; I'd tell 'em what you are!" Jimmy reached for the only threat he thought could work.
He hadn't expected the cold angry laugh from Clark, "You think I care? To protect her, I'd do anything. You'd do well to remember that!"
"Yeah? You wouldn't dare!" Jimmy challenged as he finally recovered enough from his flight across the room and got up from the corner Clark's push had landed him in.
Clark looked at Chloe huddled in one corner of the couch trying to hide the large bruise on her upper right arm from him. Her tears were not stopping, her body shaking so hard, her self-healing slowed by her emotional trauma. He could tell she didn't have the strength to heal herself and the attempt was just making her weaker.
He went to her, kneeling down in front of her, and spoke to her quietly as he gently wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs, "Stop the healing, Chloe, please. Your body doesn't have the energy for it right now. I'm taking you both to a police station. It's the only way to stop this."
She lifted her eyes to his, the tears starting anew, "I'm sorry, Clark…" she started to say.
It tore something deep inside him. He tried to smile. "Don't apologize to me. Just come back to where you belong. Come back to me. I'll take care of you, Chloe. I'm done standing by helplessly. I can't let you take anymore of this."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jimmy attempting to leave the apartment. Clark turned his head and blasted his heat vision towards the door handle just as Jimmy reached it and instantly screamed out in pain as he looked at his hand, "What the hell? You…? What kind of monster are you?"
"Want to find out? Take another step and the next target won't be the door handle…" Clark threatened.
"I've read that you freaks all turn violent eventually. I guess you're just proving that to be true…" Jimmy accused as he backed away from the door, clearly trying to figure out how he was going to escape from this.
Clark's anger was barely under control; seeing Chloe's tears was more devastating than just hearing them; it didn't appear to matter to him what he revealed to Jimmy.
"I've been a 'damned freak' all my life, Olsen! If I'd turned to violence, you wouldn't have survived to touch her after the first time. You have two options if you want to leave this apartment: the police station or a clinic to start some serious therapy. And you have all of two minutes to make up your mind."
Jimmy, as if resigned to the trap he appeared to be in, leaned against the wall next to the door and took a long look at Chloe. He tried to remember when his world had gone so wrong.
Maybe she had loved him in some part of her heart. He now wondered why he couldn't just have been happy with what she did give him. Even if her heart hadn't been a hundred percent his, the love she had given him was more than he'd ever received before. But he'd gotten selfish and had wanted her whole heart to belong to him. And he had truly believed that he could make her love him and only him.
Or at the very least to love him more than she loved Clark.
But Clark had never gone away! Whenever he wanted something, Chloe was always there. It never seemed to matter if she had other plans with her boyfriend; she always chose Clark. As if no-one and nothing else mattered. And too many times the reasons she gave were so far-fetched he felt she was mocking him.
So he came to the only conclusion obvious to him. She'd lied to him. About everything! About what she did with Clark all the times she snuck off to be with him. And especially when she'd said she loved him, Jimmy, and that she was over Clark; that the love she'd had for Clark had only been a teen-age crush. They were only friends now. He'd soon stopped believing her and started calling her a liar to her face.
That had been the beginning.
After that his world started collapsing into a crazy merry-go-round of paranoia.
It soon turned into a life of accusations to make Chloe feel guilty enough for always causing him pain by ditching him for Clark, that she eventually stopped. For a while she didn't break a single date with him. He had been happy, especially when they finally became close enough to move in together.
But his utopia didn't last. Clark was still there in their lives! The fact that they all worked together made him hard to avoid. And even though Chloe had been more attentive to him, he still felt she was holding back a huge part of herself. There were too many secrets in her life. And a lot of them appeared to involve Clark.
Maybe if he'd been more patient she might someday have been completely his.
But his patience had run out. He'd become obsessed and his jealousy of Clark only increased. He'd turned possessive in a way he didn't recognize and he'd let it control him as he soon wanted to control her.
Maybe HE hadn't loved HER enough!
He'd just been so surprised that Clark had let her slip out of his grasp when she so obviously loved him. He'd wanted to annihilate that love for Clark. He could see that now as he saw her trusting eyes fixed on Clark, knowing without a doubt that she could trust Clark completely.
Like she never trusted him!
It had taken her forever to explain her healing ability! And even though he had understood that his attitude towards the meteor 'freaks' had a lot to do with her keeping it a secret from him, he still couldn't get over that she hadn't trusted him with it from the start! He'd also felt betrayed that she had even continued their relationship in the beginning when she knew how he felt about them. She should have broken up with him right then before he'd fallen so deeply for her!
He'd finally accepted her ability, had actually been awed by such a power even as deep down he still feared it And even though he did try hard to convey a complete turn-around of his negative attitude towards the meteor 'infected,' she'd still never trusted him with how she was also always protecting Clark's secret. The looks they had so often shared when they thought no-one was watching had raised his suspicions that Clark was hiding something and Chloe was in on it.
But he also suspected it wasn't only the secrets they shared that kept them so close together; they had a bond that he and Chloe never had. A bond that somehow grew each time Clark showed up whenever he and Chloe got into a fight. Not knowing how to create such a connection with her had only served to inflame the jealousy.
Jealousy had become the creature that now controlled him. And he had no clue how to get rid of that monster.
Maybe Clark was right. He did need therapy. He knew if he ever wanted to have a normal life again he'd need help to figure out why he'd let it get this bad.
He'd never ever hurt anyone else in his life. And no-one had ever cared about him the way Chloe seemed to. He had wanted to hold onto that at any cost and hadn't known how; and had therefore done everything wrong.
Chloe hadn't deserved that; she probably couldn't help how she felt about Clark anymore than Jimmy could stop how he felt about Chloe. He should have walked away a long time ago; probably the very first time she broke a date to go help Clark.
She may have convinced herself she was over Clark, but he'd known better. He'd had no right to guilt her into staying with him. He could fix that now. It was probably the only thing he could fix; he certainly would never be able to make up for how he'd treated her.
He stared at his hands for a moment, surprised there was nothing more than a slight redness on his right palm, the door handle had literally sizzled. Slowly he raised his eyes towards Chloe and then to Clark.
"Okay, you win," he said quietly. "I don't want to go to jail. I'll accept the second choice. I won't ever bother you again, Chloe. I know words won't ever be enough, but I am sorry for hurting you so much. And for what it's worth, even if you don't believe me, I swear I won't reveal your secrets."
-to be continued-