Come on Clark

Between the stress of planning a wedding and coping with her new found hobby working with the meteor challenged, Chloe had been glad to be heading back to her apartment in Smallville. It had been a long day and her head was spinning. "Hopefully this is not another brainiac induced brain splitter" she mumbled.

After getting Clark and Kara out of the Phantom zone she was starting to notice an increase in the headache medication that filled her purse. She would be fine though. She would make sure she was fine – 'Clark shouldn't have to worry about this… He's already got the whole world to think about… and Lois…' she thought as she smiled to herself.

Well at least she had been smiling at these thoughts before her phone rang. It was Jimmy. And the news was not good.

"Are you sure you saw what you thought you saw? You know Clark was meant to be helping Lois move in at the farm today – they wouldn't have had time to go meet a source – Lois has a lot of stuff to move, it would have taken them all day." Especially since Clark couldn't super-speed in front of her Chloe added silently.

"Yes Chloe, I'm sure, I mean my memories a little foggy for some reason but I can not shake the sight of Lois getting… Chloe you have to go check, make sure, for me?" Jimmy sounded extremely panicked. If he was starting to babble like a member of her family he'd either spent too much time near Lois at the office or… this was real…

"Don't worry Jimmy, I'm gonna check in at the Kent farm, I want to know for sure they're OK too…Jimmy did you see who shot at them? Jimmy?"

"…shsh-she just… and the… Clark was yelling…"

"Jimmy focus for me, alright?" She tried to keep her voice calm but Jimmies mumbled commentary was flooding her with fear. She tried to ask him again but before she could, she heard him whimper "They were gone…"

"Who was gone Jimmy?"

He seemed to regain some composure again as a lot of information came spilling through the phone to her.

"Chloe I-I saw the shot, I saw what it did! I was getting down from my spot on one of the warehouses and when I got there – there was no Lois and Clark. They were gone!"

She could hear him start to freak out again but all she could do was sit in shock as he continued.

"I got down and all I found was that lowlife who shot Lois Just lying there unconscious, Clark he-I remember…he he chucked him against the wall… Chloe I've never seen Clark so mad. A-a-nd then I phoned the cops and I used some of the wire fencing near by to tie him to one of the warehouse fire-escapes, and the cops came and – Chloe there was another body!"

Slowly drowning under the weight of what Jimmy was saying Chloe quickly resurfaced to focus again.

"Who was it?"

"I think it was their source Chloe…"

"You think? What do you mean?" Chloe had a feeling she didn't want to know as Jimmy paused, silence emanating from the phone and filling her with dread. "Jimmy…"

"Chloe, whatever was in that bullet it… I don't know what it did, but whoever it was is completely unrecognisable. By the time the police showed up the body had almost completely deteriorated. Chloe this was no ordinary gun shot wound. I saw Lois take that hit…"

"She wouldn't have much time…" Chloe felt like breaking apart. Her cousin could be dying and her best friend was missing. She could only hope that Clark had taken her to get help…

"Did you check the hospitals Jimmy? What did they say?"

"They never made it to a hospital Chloe, and I checked with them all. What if someone else came and took them? I should have got down quicker to help!"

"Jimmy, don't go there." Chloe was at least sure that they hadn't been taken away – Clark would never let that happen. But then why had Lois even got shot? Clark was faster than any bullet… unless there was kryptonite there, which could mean…

No Chloe, now you're going there. "We'll find them Jimmy" She said a little surer than she felt "Just keep trying to get information in Metropolis and I'll check to see if Clark is home, I'm nearly there now. We'll call each other if we hear anything…"

She heard Jimmy respond with a quiet "yeah…" before they hung up.

Putting her hands back on the steering wheel and gripping it tightly, Chloe blinked the silent tears out of her eyes.

"Come on Clark, please be home…"

000

"Come on Clark! You're kidding me right?"

"Nope, I'm not"

"You said we were gonna test your stamina."

Clark chuckled, moving away from Lois, who was still standing at the back door, and moved across the kitchen calling back to her "What did you think that I meant?"

"You know fine well what I thought you meant Clark Kent. You are the only guy I could possibly ever meet who would lie to keep a girl out of his bed." Clark flushed slightly at that but recovered again because he knew more was on the way, and he wasn't disappointed.

"When you said you had 'other things' in mind I kinda thought you actually had 'other things' in mind." She stated angrily before relaxing and adding seductively, "Less travel by coach, more mile high club."

The tone of her last sentence wasn't lost on Clark, as he watched her move towards him. Lois Lane was no easy woman to dissuade from something she'd set her mind on, he was going to have to play this out carefully.

As she approached Clark, he found that possibly the first thing he had to worry about was making sure he'd completely dissuaded himself out of the situation. This could be very difficult as Lois knew she was good at pushing all the right buttons.

His momentary lapse in concentration had already let her come too close and when he broke from his daze of watching her body sway towards him, he realised that she was staring up at him, letting a knowing seductive smile play across her features as he swallowed nervously. If he wasn't much mistaken there was probably a goofy looking grin all over his face. 'How is it that she does that?' he wondered to himself managing to shake his head clear again.

"Lois, we should be taking things slowly – you've just moved into the house, and that's when we were just friends. Now that we're…"

He gestured between Lois and himself to make his point and all she could do was sigh in exasperation as she moved herself off him.

"I knew I should have taken advantage of you when we were airborne Smallville."

Clark smiled as he watched her move to sit at the kitchen table before he headed to one of the cupboards in search of two mugs.

"Oh really? And how would you have done that?"

"I have ways… But none of these you will see tonight as I am officially cutting you off."

"You're cutting me off? Lois I was the first one who said we should take things slow you wer…"

"Yes you said take things slow, but I am making it official Smallville and I am cutting you off."

Was there any point in arguing with her? Did he ever really win?

Clark could feel the frustration building inside him the way only an argument with her could do it. But he had suspicions of what she was trying to do, and aggravating him like this was only part of her plan. He slowly attempted to let the mounting frustration drain out of him as he added with a tightened smirk "I know what you're trying to do Lane. You think your gonna make me crumble on this?"

"Why whatever do you mean Clark?" She asked in mock sweetness, all but batting her eyelashes at him as she leaned across the table towards him.

A silent battle of wills began as they each tried to stare the other into backing down. Before the stare could evolve into one of longing Clark managed to pull himself back.

"You are a real piece of work you know that?"

"Well I'm glad we got that settled." She smirked confidently at him before he turned to reach for their beverage of choice this evening. "Fire up the hot chocolate Smallville." Lois enthused before she added in an audible undertone, "If I can't have what a girl wants I'll have the other thing a girl wants. That's chocolate before you get any ideas farm boy. Not that you would…"

She leaned against the table hoping to drum out her frustration onto its surface with her finger tips, resting her head in her other hand.

Clark meanwhile was glad Lois couldn't see the look of uncertainty that was on his face as he got their drinks ready. He wondered if he was going to make it much longer without doing exactly what she wanted.

He had hoped that Lois would agree with him about the situation, but if she kept bringing his attention back to the fact that they both wanted each other and were completely alone in a cosy farm house, miles away from the nearest disturbing neighbour and only a matter of meters away from a comfortable looking couch let alone a bed…

It was going to be all on him to make sure this relationship didn't get rushed, and Lois wasn't gonna make it easy…

000

"Clark! Clark! Come on please tell me you're home… Clark!"

"Chloe! I'm here – what's wrong?" Clark was stumbling down the stairs in his jeans and pulling his blue t-shirt back on over his head.

Chloe rushed at him and threw her arms around him.

"Thank goodness you're alright! I was so worried! Is Lois OK? Is she here – I need to see her!"

Momentarily startled by Chloe's reaction Clark managed to pull back just a little so he could see her face. It seemed pale and a worried expression was only slowly beginning to disappear at the sight of him.

"Lois is fine, she's upstairs – Chloe what's happened?" He spoke slowly to her and watched her calm down in front of him. Her body slowly pulled away from him and she put her hand to her head as she began to collect the thoughts that had been running through her mind since Jimmy's phone call.

She turned towards Clark again who was still staring intently back at her, waiting. "Clark, I heard Lois got shot tonight, and then that you guys had just disappeared and you've been missing for a day! I didn't know where you were! I thought they might have had Kryptonite!"

She paused long enough to inhale "OK deep breaths Sullivan – Clark what's going on?"

Clark placed his hands on top of the kitchen table for support as he traced his thoughts back over everything that had happened.

He lifted one of his hands and ran it through his hair, suddenly looking considerably drained, his voice sounding a bit broken as he began. "Lois got shot, she ah… She jumped in front of me, to protect me and she got shot… she nearly…"

Chloe felt numb and she could understand why Clark now looked so pale. "Is Lois OK now? I mean is she still hurt?"

"No she's fine." He let out a sigh of what seemed to Chloe like relief, but then he met her eyes again. "She was injured really badly Chloe, they were experimenting with Kryptonite! So far it doesn't seem to have any effect on me, but humans? Chloe it destroys the body, it takes everything of life away… there was no cure… I had to take her to the fortress…"

The shock of all this information at once was coming of Chloe in waves but she finely managed to process the last sentence of what Clark had said. "You took her to the fortress? As in Jor-El?" Clark nodded in response waiting. "So does this mean…"

"Lois knows my secret" He allowed a smile to form and it seemed to remove the drained look from his expression and bring life to him again. "She knows everything…"

"wha, am, well… wow… what was her reaction? How did she take it? Wow I really wish I was there for that!"

Chloe seemed faintly amused by all this revelation that she had no idea about; and judging by the rather flustered look Clark was sending her she had an idea that it was only going to get more entertaining.

"She was fine with it – do you want some coffee?" Clark said as he moved by her awkwardly, avoiding her investigative stare.

A little bemused Chloe was now even more curious to find out the truth.

"Clark what did she do? Did she threaten to reveal it? Cause I would never have thought her capable of that!"

"No…she'd never do that, I know it's safe with her"

"Well did she throw things at you; did she throw herself at you? What?"

Clark had blushed at that but he collected himself in time hoping that the moment would not be noticed by Chloe. "I think she took it pretty well… surprisingly it wasn't the whole 'I'm an alien' that brought the mad dog out, in true Lois fashion she'd rather jump on some tiny insignificant detail like why I was pretending to be green arrow or what happened on the night of red K that she can't remember."

Chloe giggled to herself she was now sincerely disappointed she hadn't been there – it was obviously quite a show.

"Did you…tell her?"

"Like I said… She knows everything…"

"mmhmm"

Clark was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable under Chloe's searching eyes and was beginning to worry she was reading him like a book.

Chloe continued to hold him in suspense before she finally said "I think I will have that coffee." She smiled roguishly at him "And you better make an extra one because I want to have a word with my cousin."

000