Title : Coming Home

Fandom: Smallville X-Men crossover
Characters/Pairings : Chloe/Scott
Words : 999

Warning/Spoilers: X Men – the last stand

This fic is set some time after the X Men Movie: the Last Stand. I believe firmly that Scott Summers is NOT dead… because even if he was winey and arrogant at times, I liked him. And I believe he deserves a second chance at being happy, or semi-happy.

Firstly I want to say that no, there is no Storm/Cyclops romance in there. They are pretty good friends, but that's about it… and I really don't know how many chapters or one-shots or continuations or what-ever are going to follow this fic. … I liked the Chloe/Scott pairing… I remember reading it once, and thought that it was sweet. So this fic is really something totally spontaneous. Besides, I hope that it helps to get over the writers block…

Coming Home – chapter 1

There had been a knock on the mansion doors. Then another one.

Storm hadn't expected someone to come in the middle of the night. But now at midnight another knock sounded through the halls of the mansion of the Xavier institute.

She descended the stairs to the front doors and opened it cautiously. What she saw, or better said who she saw, made her widen her eyes in disbelief. Her throat constricted and she could feel the unshed tears for the man in front of her pooling up in her eyes.

Instead of offering him to enter she threw herself at him and sobbed into his neck. Her hands were clawing at his leather jacket, trying to identify if he was real. And with a shacking weak voice she said the first thing that came to her mind. "We all thought you were dead. That you were killed."

She, just like everybody else, couldn't get herself to even think that Jean Grey had killed her boyfriend Scott Summers. But him standing here in front of her meant that Phoenix hadn't killed Scott. That at least some of the things that had scared and scarred everyone over the last couple of months hadn't happened the way everyone believed it to be.

She felt Scott lift his hand and stroked her hair in a comforting gesture. All that came from him was a small "I'm sorry." But it was enough. Because Storm knew that Scott Summers had returned to the X Men. And that thought alone was enough to make her hug him tighter and start sobbing again into his shoulder.

It was the clearing of a throat which startled her out of her unexpected reunion with an old friend. She took a hesitant step away from her old friend and tried to asses the situation as she should have done before her emotions took over her better judgment. That was when she noticed two things. One was that there was a petit blond girl standing next to him, and two was that Scott Summers had a tie bound around his head, specifically around his eyes.

Storm looked at the girl with a suspicious glare. Not that the girl looked like their typical enemy. It was just Storm's usual habit to be suspicious of anyone new that came to the Xavier Institute without a former invitation. She assed the girl and gave her a once over.

The girl had short blond hair which was in disarray. She had a shaky and sad smile on her face and her make up was clearly smudged, a testimony that she had just before cried. Her clothes were dirtied covered in mud and grass, but at the same time looked to have been new before what ever happened, happened to her.

"What happened?" asked Storm with her authoritarian voice. The same voice she had perfect some time ago, being the new head of the X Men. She turned her head to Scott and tried again when no one of the two tried to break the silence. "Where have you been all this time Scott? Why do you look like you have been through a war zone?"

At that the tiny blond next to him winced. Even though Storm was sure that Scott couldn't see the reaction of the blond girl next to him because of his covered eyes, he seemed to have felt it. Because he reached his hand out to her and the girl stepped into his protective embrace. He gave her silent squeeze to the shoulders and rested his cheek on her the top of her head.

Scott released a heavy sigh before he said slowly "It's a long story, Storm. I could use a little coffee. What do you say?" The corner of his mouth was curled up in an almost smile, and Storm was wondering again what the hell had happened. Because that cocky and relaxed man standing in front of her was nothing like the man that had left the institute a couple of months ago, in a disarray of emotions and psychologically broken.

Instead of pestering him into telling her a short version to satisfy her curiosity she nodded her head. It was only after she had done so, that she remembered that he couldn't see her. So she said "Yeah, sure." She stepped aside and watched the blond guide him in by taking his hand and threading her fingers through his. She noticed that they even while walking together to the kitchen were always physically very near to each other. Like it was something normal, something that shouldn't be questioned. And again, just like the multiple times before Storm really REALLY wanted to know what had happened to Scott over the time of his disappearance and why he was so comfortable with the blond girl next to him.

They arrived in the kitchen and Storm watched the girl taking a seat next to Scott. She was sitting right next to him, so she rested her head on his shoulder with obvious fatigue. Feeling like she should make herself scarce for a few minutes Storm faced Scott and said "I'll just go and get you your extra glasses." He gave her a dismissive nod of the head and a breath taking grin that had Storm's eyes widening again. She felt her cheeks turning a shade or two. She gave an amused shake of her head and said before exiting the kitchen "I am glad you're back, Cyclops. Everyone missed you."

With that she turned around and went straight to his once banished room to look for his extra pair of glasses. On her way to and back, she wondered who the blond girl was with him. She was wondering if his relaxed behaviour and the girl had anything to do with why he never until now came back to the institute. And what was more important was why everyone, even the deceased Prof. Xavier, believed him to be dead.