After last chapters bombshell, I considered making the readers suffer with the anxiety of not knowing what's next… but I always hated when TV Shows did that so…

-Kent Farm, the Loft-

He had no idea how long he'd been kissing her. It has been long enough for his hands to be wrapped tight around her waist, fingers kneading the soft flesh right above her butt. She only kisses him deeper when he drops his hands lower. She responds to his caresses by rubbing her hands up and down his back, pressing her breasts against his chest.

Through his t-shirt he can feel her nipples harden and feeling bold he slides a tentative hand up her side and between them. He cups her breast softly at first, but as she moans into his mouth he begins tweaking the nipple a bit.

Her reactions show she clearly approves as she grabs his butt, grinding her warn center to his. He begins to slowly maneuver her towards the couch…

"Well obviously, Chloe's not here…"

"Lois?" Seriously I'm going to have to get a lock for this place the way people keep popping up.

"Oh, you remember me? At least there's still a few brain cells still active in that head of yours." Lois quips bitterly. "So should I even bother to ask if you've seen my cus, Smallville?"

Clark, worried now, removes Lana's hands from his body. "Only earlier today at school…"

"Did you try her apartment, you know the place where she lives?" Lana asks, obviously upset.

"First place I looked Buffy, but when I got there her front door was open and her car was gone…"

"Did you try calling her?" Clark steps in between the two of them, looking to head off any animosity. Lois never liked Lana, although he wasn't sure why. Then again the only women Lois did seem to like were his mother and her cousin.

"What are you guys, the obvious police? I've been calling her phone for the last hour; no response." Lois begins pacing, trying to call again. "Nothing." she slams her phone shut in frustration.

It wasn't like Chloe not to answer her phone; it was her life line. Even when she was mad at him she'd answer, if only to hang up on him. Her not responding meant something was seriously wrong. "We should go look for her…" Clark grabs his jacket and heads down the steps without another word.

-Clark's truck-

Lana could still remember the feel of his lips on hers. They'd felt as good as they used to; maybe even better. She couldn't believe she'd been so angry with him this past year, it all seemed so stupid now.

Yes he kept secrets from her, at times flat out lied to her, but it was never about the important things.

Never about how he felt about her.

It wasn't like she hadn't known. She'd seen the looks he'd give her. The he'd smile the second she came in a room. He made her feel like the most important person in the world. And for as much as she cared about Jason; he had never made her feel that way before.

She glances over at Clark driving down the road, hands gripping the steering wheel hard and smiles.

He cares… so much… there's so much love in his heart. Why couldn't I see it before? Why wasn't it enough?

She has no answer for that and rather than dwell on the past she wanted to be focused on the future.

A future that she hoped Clark would play a big part in.

-Clark's truck-

Clark hadn't been paying much attention to Lois' badgering, he was busy scanning the road for any signs of Chloe. Since her car was gone, he hoped that she simply had gotten a flat and had left her phone in the car while she tried to fix it.

He smirked a little at that thought. Chloe was a cute little thing, but she was independent, tough and capable. All things he admired about her. He had no doubt they'd find her working on a stubborn lug nut when they found her.

And she'd make some joke about Triple A when we walk up on her worried over noth-

"Clark is that Chloe's car?" Lois squeals pointing to the side of the road.

He looked and nodded his head "Yeah."

Just like I thought; car trouble… I'll get her up and running and then-

Then he saw a pair of bare feet by the back tire. Using his x-ray vision he made out Chloe, lying very still beside the car. "No…"

"Clark what is it?" Lois asks as Clark pulls over.

"The two of you stay here!" He didn't mean to say it so harshly but he didn't want them seeing what he was seeing. When he came around the side of the car the first thing he saw was the blood; there seemed to be so much of it…

Who did this Chloe? Who?

-Luthor Mansion, Lex's Study-

Lex had done it. Eliminated a serious thorn in his side and likely dealt a blow to his father.

Although after searching her car he was unable to come up with anything, he was certain that he could still turn this to his advantage.

With Jason and Chloe out of the way all that was left was Clark and his father. He wasn't sure who'd he enjoy eliminating first; the troublesome farm boy or the man who'd made his life miserable for as long as he could remember.

I will eventually have to do something about the idiot chained up in my wine cellar, but that was a problem that could wait… unlike this…

Taking a sip of his coffee he scrolled through the files on Chloe's laptop. Not much of interest on it, much of it was what you'd expect a teenage girl to be interested in; shopping and boys. Of course there was the encrypted folder that kept calling out to him. It was labeled simply; Junk.

Lex smiled greedily. He couldn't wait to see what sort of "junk" Chloe had in that folder.

-Smallville General-

"And that's how you found her?" Sherriff Adams asked for what seemed the hundredth time.

"Yes, we didn't want to move her so we called-"

"I'm sorry but shouldn't you be rounding up the boys to do some investigating into who did this to my cousin?" Lois asked angrily. She was sick of this song and dance, she wanted to find out about her cousin and she wanted the Mayberry faithful to actually catch a criminal for a change. It seemed to her that most of the crime solving in this town was done Clark and Chloe.

I swear if feels like I'm stuck in a Scooby Doo cartoon or something…

"Believe me, we already have people on the scene little darlin, but the devil is in the details…" Sherriff Adams answers without looking up. "You see, Kent here has a nasty habit of coming across trouble and I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't being thorough."

"Clark was with me tonight, Sherriff." Lana offered proudly, snaking a territorial arm around Clark's. Lois' wanted to gag.

The way the girls around here flock around Klutz Kent you'd think he was packing a-

"I'm sure that Jason Teague boy will be happy to see you happy, but that wasn't what I was asking…"

Lois snickered a bit as Lana turned slightly red with shame, likely realizing that she had literally hoped into the arms of another man before Jason had even started rehabilitation.

Even the dim-witted Sherriff can see through that princess act of yours Lana!

-Chloe's Hospital room-

"I'm… I'm sorry Chloe…"

Bang

"No!" Chloe sat up with a start and noticed two things right away; the first being that her shoulder really hurt, the second being the more important fact:

I'm alive!

Looking around she realized she was in a hospital bed, again.

"Soon as I heal up I'm taking a vacation somewhere less dangerous, like Pakistan or Iraq." A nurse comes in with a cup of water and an aspirin and Chloe asks her how she got here.

"The Kent boy and two other girls came in with the medics, found you on the side of Fosters Road. You should get some rest though you lost quite a bit of blood." The nurse takes note of Chloe's chart and vital signs briefly. "Remember; rest."

Chloe nods her head and notes the bright sun light streaming through the windows. She imagines it's at least 10 o'clock in the morning.

I spent all that time working on my paper and it's going to be even later now.

Realizing that's the last thing she should be worried about after having survived being shot at point blank range, she tries to remember what happened last night.

Okay so Lex came by my place, acting like he just had two servings of crazy with extra paranoid on the side and I tried to tase him. Ran for it; then drove away. My night took a turn for the worse when he shot out my tires and then pointed the gun at me. He was going to shoot me and then…

And then her phone went off. It had startled both her and Lex.

Lex still pulled the trigger but his aim was off. Chloe for her part had turned in the direction of the ringtone which is why he clipped her right shoulder and not her head. She was still thrown to the ground by the impact and she remembers losing consciousness.

I guess Lex was too interested in getting away to finish me off… Thank God for small miracles.

Chloe notes her phone sitting on the table next to her bed and reaches for it. The last call was from Lois. So were the last ten.

And thank God for prying older cousins…

Chloe figured Lois went to her apartment, saw she wasn't there so she tracked down Clark.

"I'm sorry but she needs to be resting…!"

"Unless you want a room right next to hers you'll get out of my way sister!" Lois burst through the door in trademark fashion.

"Miss Sullivan," the nurse protests.

"It's ok, Lois won't stay long I promise." Satisfied the nurse gave Lois one last evil glare before leaving the room. Chloe felt a little disappointed that Clark wasn't there, but was glad to see her cousin.

"What did I tell you about this place Chloe," Lois argues after sufficiently hugging Chloe half to death. "I told you that you should just come to Metropolis with me!"

"And I told you that I'm staying here," Chloe really hoped that Lois hadn't come here to pitch her "leave Smallville behind" idea. She was not in a mood to argue.

As if picking up on that Lois simply sighs and pulls up a seat next to her. "Chloe, if I hadn't been an interfering cousin and come by your place last night…" Lois shudders, obviously thinking of how long Chloe may have been lying on that road before someone noticed her.

"But you are and you did," Chloe reassures quietly. "I'm more impressed you drove all the way out to the Kent farm to ask Clark for help. Since when does the great Lois Lane need assistance from a mere farm boy?"

"Believe me I didn't," Lois says smirking. "I only went over there because I thought that's where you were and why you weren't answering my calls. But I managed to separate the two love birds long enough for us to pile into Clark's truck and-" Lois stops talking when she sees Chloe's face.

"That didn't take too long did it…?" Chloe mutters sarcastically under her breath. Lana's "boyfriend" Jason was just two floors above Chloe, trying to regain strength in his hands and Lana was spending her nights in the loft of her ex. She didn't know who to be disappointed in more. Clark for allowing it to happen, or Lana for being so callous about Jason's feelings.

"Chloe…" Lois begins sadly. Chloe waves her off.

"Don't worry about it Lois," Chloe sits up steeling herself. "I told you before; that ship has sailed, hit an iceberg and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. It's so deep you can't even hear the band playing anymore."

Chloe had assumed that with Jason for the most part out of the picture that Lana would run back to old reliable, she just hadn't counted on how she would feel about.

She could lie to her cousin, but not to herself.

I still… I still love Clark. And after getting a chance to spend time with him these last few days… I can't watch the sequel. I hate sequels… except for the second Spider-man… and the second X-men but that's it… oh and Terminator…

"You know Lois, you were right about one thing…" Breaking up the rambling that had begun inside her overactive brain.

"What's that?" Lois beams at the thought of being right.

"There is absolutely nothing keeping me here…"

See? Chloe alive and well! No worries! I think my explanation of her survival was perfectly Smallvilleesque; improbable but not impossible. Next we find out what's going with Lex and Chloe's plans for the future!

Keep reading!