March 2006, Evening
Smallville
Chloe used her shoulder to gently push the door of the Talon open and stepped out into the cold evening air. The two cups of coffee she held, one in each hand, made it difficult to open the door, but she managed anyway. She'd been pulling similar maneuvers for years. On most occasions, however, both cups would have been for herself. Today, she only had her name on one of them. Although, she briefly thought about purchasing three, she decided that this evening was probably not a good day to go overboard on caffeine.
As she approached her car, she shivered involuntarily and mentally attempted to suck as much warmth from the cups in her hands as she could. Her coat seemed dreadfully unsuited for the weather at the moment, but she'd left her warmer one back at her dorm. She had come out to Smallville to spend the weekend with her father and hadn't paid much attention to the forecast, an oversight she was now very much regretting.
Chloe set the cups on the roof of her car and began digging through her purse for her keys. Finding them, she unlocked the door and opened it. There probably wasn't much need to lock her car doors in Smallville as she couldn't recall any cars ever having been stolen since she lived there. However, that was not the case at Met U and so the action of locking her doors had become habit over the past few months since she began school. She grabbed the cups from their resting place on the roof and reached over the driver's side seat and placed them in the cup holders mounted in the front console. She slid into the seat and fumbled with her keys, eager to get the heat going. She'd spent too long talking to Lois and the car had grown too cold for comfort during that time.
She turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. Soon heat was once again blasting out the vents and Chloe found herself flipping through the radio stations searching for something worth listening too. She was stalling and she knew it. Finally, after a few moments she slid the transmission into reverse and backed out of her parking spot. As she pulled up the street she briefly contemplated turning right and just driving towards Metropolis. She dismissed the thought though, knowing that she'd put tonight off a little longer than she should probably should have. So instead of turning right, she turned left and began the drive to the Kent Farm.
She felt a pang of sadness at the thought of the farm brought to her. It would place will never be the same again, she thought to herself. Jonathan Kent had been like a second father to her and his death had affected her a great deal. Obviously her hurt was a mere shadow to Clark's.
She spoke with Clark on the phone regularly, but he always kept the conversation short. As much as she offered him help, he insisted that he was fine; that he just needed some time alone. So that is what she had given him, with the exception of the regular phone calls. It had been almost five weeks since she'd visited the farm, the last being the day of Jonathan's funeral. However, five weeks was long enough. She knew it would take quite a while for Clark to work through his grief, but she also knew that as his best friend it was time that she took a more active role to help him work through things.
It wasn't just Clark that she checked up on regularly, though. Martha was a mother figure to her, often the source of advice that only another woman could dispense. She'd had several conversations with Martha to see how she was coping. Jonathan's death hit her especially hard, but she was a strong woman and was managing. There was still a farm to run and while Chloe knew Clark could handle the work single handedly, Martha insisted that he spend his time with his school work and only do what she could not.
Of course Clark and Martha weren't the only two that Chloe found herself comforting. Lois had grown real close to the Kent's the past year and Jonathan had practically been her father during that time. The tough act that Lois had learned from "The General" was just that, an act. Lois was hurting and Chloe knew it.
Lana was a whole other matter altogether. She was never as close with Jonathan, in part because of her up again, down again relationship with Clark. Even though she had initiated a break between her and Clark earlier in the on which Jonathan had died, she attempted to put that aside for a time and comfort Clark. Apparently, Clark wasn't as willing. Lana returned to the dorm crying the day after the funeral. She didn't speak much about what had happened during her visit with Clark but it was clear that they hadn't gotten back together. Chloe knew that Lana's attempts with Clark weren't out of guilt or anything else other than genuine feelings. Lana really wanted to be there for Clark, she just didn't understand how too. Chloe knew Lana called Clark almost as often as she did, but the conversations were short and often left Lana discreetly wiping away tears after the call. When Chloe had gently probed Clark on the matter of Lana and him, he simply said that he was going through enough without adding any false hopes to the list. Chloe didn't mention it again and just tried to lift Lana's spirits when she could.
About ten minutes later, Chloe turned onto the driveway of the Kent Farm. She then pulled the car to a stop just outside the door to the barn. As she approached she had seen the light in the loft was on and that would be the first place she would check. She pulled the handle on the door and used her left foot to kick it the rest of the way open. With both hands she reached to the cup holders and grabbed two cups of coffee. Carefully, she got out of the car and used her hip to push the car door closed. Two deep breaths later she headed in through the door.
Sure enough, she found Clark, sitting on the couch of the loft. He was leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands supporting his chin and his eyes just staring at the floor. As she reached the top of the stairs, Clark glanced over at her and gave a small smile. A smile, Chloe noted, that did match his eyes and appeared genuine. "What brings you here?" Clark asked.
"Just visiting my best friend," she said with a smile and a wink. She handed one of the cups to Clark who took it with a whispered, "Thanks."
Chloe plopped herself down on the couch a few inches from Clark and took a sip from her coffee. The two of them sat for a few moments, silently enjoying their drinks. Finally, after a couple of moments Clark broke the silence.
"Aren't you going to ask me how I'm doing?" Clark asked. His voice was level, devoid of any real emotion.
"Did you want me too?" Chloe asked in return.
"Not really. I'm tired of telling everyone that I talk to that I'm doing ok. I'm fine. I don't need any more sympathy right now," Clark said. Chloe decided not to press the matter.
"Fair enough. So what do you want to talk about?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know. Why don't you start? How have things been going?"
"They've been ok. Busy as usual. Between the Planet and school, it rarely seems like I have anytime left for myself." Chloe paused for a moment then a smile came to her face. "I did go on a date last week."
Clark smiled and glanced over at her. Genuinely, he asked, "How'd that go?"
Chloe groaned in response and put hands over her face. "It was nightmare. He was a talker."
"What do mean by that?"
"He talked and talked and talked. I could barely get a word in edgewise. I-"
"Must have been pretty tough on you," Clark said, interrupting her. "You, unable to get a word in edgewise. Stop the presses."
Chloe smacked him on the arm. "Funny Clark. I'm serious though, it was horrible. He wasn't even interesting, he just talked about himself and his many accomplishments. It was like a big brag session for him. I wanted to get out of there, but I didn't have any way out since he drove. I've learned my lesson though, always meet them there on the first date and always have an excuse to get out of there."
Clark just chuckled as she spoke. After she finished her story they sat in silence for a moment, each taking a sip of their coffee. After another moment, Clark broke the silence again.
"I discovered a new power," he said while glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
Chloe, who had just taken a drink, almost spit it out in surprise. Gaining control of herself, she asked in great interest, "Well? Care to share what it is?"
"It's not really that big of a deal, it's just a small power" Clark responded.
"Ok, first off, to someone who has no powers, every power is a big power. Second, just tell me what it is before I hurt you."
"Like you could."
"Clark," Chloe said, her tone rising. "You don't want to find out if I can. Now tell me."
"Infra-vision," Clark said smugly.
"What?" Chloe asked, confused.
"I'm calling it Infra-vision. I can see heat, although it's more than just that."
"What do you mean you can see heat?"
"It's just like I said, I can see heat. It's like those special cameras that they put in some police helicopters to help the police find people in the dark. If you walk across the floor, I can see your foot prints until they cool. I can also see radio waves and stuff like that."
Chloe was stunned. "Wow. How did you find that out? How is that even possible?"
"Well, I've been spending a lot of time up here thinking about…" Clark paused before adding, "stuff." Chloe knew what stuff he was talking about, but just let him continue. "I was thinking about my x-ray vision and I wondered if there was anything else I could see."
"And you figured since visible light and x-rays are just different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation you guessed you should be able to see other frequencies as well?"
Clark just stared for a moment, his mouth open. "Uh, yea. How'd you know?"
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Clark, I sat right next to you in physics last year. I learned about that the same time you did. If it was that easy, I'm surprised you didn't figure that power out sooner."
Clark just shrugged, "I spent a lot of time in the past just avoiding using my powers. Trying something like that just never occurred to me until now."
"Well, I think that's great. Who knows what other powers you might have, just lurking below the surface," Chloe said and poked him in the ribs. Clark smiled in return.
The two spent nearly an hour talking. Overall the conversation was pretty light. They filled in each other on what they had heard was going on with old classmates, what television shows they'd been watching, and whatever else they could think of. Only two subjects were off limits, his dad and Lana.
Finally, Chloe looked at her watch. "I should get going, I have a long drive ahead of me," Chloe said a bit dejectedly. Then an idea sparked in her mind. "Come with me."
"What? To Metropolis?"
"Yeah, why not? You need to get out of here for a little while anyway. Lana won't be there so we'll have the place to ourselves. We can rent a couple of bad movies and stay up all night making fun of them. We haven't done anything like it since before Pete left."
"I don't know, Chloe. I'm not sure if I'm really up to it."
"Clark, it's not like you can't be back here in like 5 seconds if you decide you're not having any fun. Come on, what have you got to lose?"
Clark looked like he was giving the matter some serious thought but he apparently wasn't thinking fast enough because Chloe decided to get more forceful. "Clark, don't make me get your mom out here. There is no way she would let you stay here and we both know it."
Clark groaned. "Fine, you win."
Chloe hopped up and down a couple of times as she clapped her hands. "Yes! This'll be great, it'll be just like old times," she said as she extended her hand towards Clark, who grasped it tenderly. Chloe gave a sharp tug on his hand to prod him to stand up and follow her towards the stairs.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to regret this?" Clark mumbled. Chloe just rolled her eyes in response as she continued to drag Clark towards the door of the barn.