Author's note: Hey, everyone. I am so sorry that I took so long to post this. I've been so busy with school, and I had writer's block.. and... I don't want to bore you with excuses, so, without further ado:
Chapter Eleven
Clark didn't see Chloe again for a week. He'd stopped by her apartment every day after she'd disappeared, but she refused to open the door. She didn't answer his calls, and she was "out to lunch" every time he went to the Daily Planet, and Lois wasn't much help when he'd asked her about Chloe. At first he'd been worried about what happened to her, but she seemed to be normal, according to everyone else, including his mother. The only thing that seemed to be peculiar was the fact that she was avoiding him. So what happened to her?
Meanwhile, Chloe was asking herself the same question. There was something odd about her abilities. At first she couldn't do much, but now she could do almost anything and it was beginning to dawn on her that that wasn't normal for most witches. Then, she'd scolded herself for even thinking of it; Clark's opinions were starting to get to her, and she wouldn't let that happen.
But, what Chloe didn't know was that she had been on the right track. Although her abilities were naturally hers, they weren't all supposed to emerge, and they were definitely not supposed to emerge as quickly as they did. There was a catalyst, known as Jor-El. Clark hadn't thought of it either; he had given up on his theory that something had happened to her, and was just trying to mend their friendship.
On this particular afternoon, she'd been on her way to visit Lois at the Talon. She entered the coffee shop and made her way to the apartment door. She knocked and after five minutes, Lois let her into the apartment.
"Hey, Chlo. How's it going?" Lois said. Chloe could tell that her cousin was up to something. Lois smiled nervously, and waited to be questioned.
"What's going on?" Chloe asked, looking around for the unusual. She spotted a familiar red jacket and realized what was going on. Clark was in the apartment. "Nice jacket," she commented.
"Clark, you can come out now," Chloe said.
Clark slowly emerged from his hiding place and claimed his jacket. "I'll just get going," he told the two women as he made his way to the door. Lois, fed up with both of them, spoke up.
"No, Smallville. You're going to stay. I'm going to leave, and you two are going to talk about whatever it is that's going on." Lois walked out of the room, but came back just as quickly. "Oh, and don't kill each other." As Lois shut the door behind her, Clark turned to face Chloe, who just stared at him blankly. "Aren't you going to say something?" he asked.
She didn't speak; instead, she maintained the same blank, unreadable expression and sat down. Clark sighed and took a seat next to him.
"Chloe, I'm sorry. What did you expect? You freaked me out." His words began to stir up the anger she had felt that day on the farm, and without thinking, she slapped him across the face. To her surprise as well as his, it had hurt him and his cheek flushed red. Chloe wanted to stop and apologize but forced the notion out of her mind.
"You're such a hypocrite! What if I'd reacted the same way when Alicia had shown me your powers? How would that have felt?" Then, she had an idea. She would show him what it felt like. She seized his hand, and brought him back to that moment.
Clark was confused. He watched as Chloe turned to check on him. He felt her worry, along with all of the other emotions that she was tangled in, and then, he heard himself tell her to keep away, and felt the flurry of anger and despair as her fear was confirmed. He was horrified. He'd had the same fear, but it never became reality. He could understand why she was so angry with him now.
He was pulled back into the present. Chloe was halfway out of the building, and most likely would have been gone had Lois not stopped her.
"Come on, Chloe. You love him, and he loves you. Why can't you two work this out?" Chloe ignored the question and left quickly. Clark caught up with her and seized her hand. He hoped that he could somehow show her how he'd felt for the past week. He closed his eyes, desperately trying to show her what he needed her to see. She let him show her, and she felt his sincere regret and his depression that got worse every time she'd ignore a phone call or disappear when he was looking for her at the Daily Planet.
"I am so sorry," he said, getting on his knees. "Please don't walk away."
Chloe looked into his eyes and tugged on his hand so he would get up. She assured him that she wasn't going to walk away, and told them that she wanted to find a more private place to talk. He took her in his arms and took her to his barn loft. Looking around, she decided that it was private enough, but muttered a spell to make their conversation inaudible to eavesdroppers.
"Nothing has happened to me," she said, breaking the long silence. She continued to explain her heritage and she showed him what she could do. He rubbed his sore cheek, reminding her that she could hurt him. She apologized for it, but he didn't think that she had anything to apologize for.
Clark smiled at her, and they continued to talk for hours. Chloe admitted that sometimes her abilities scared her and she was unsure about their nature.
"At first, it was just astral projection and telekinesis, but somewhere along the line it became much more. That's what's scary. I don't really know what I'm capable of. I'm scared that I'm going to do something horrible one day. Thank goodness no demons have come after me; I don't know how I'd be able to handle killing. I don't know how Billie and the Halliwells--" She paused abruptly. She remembered that she hadn't told Clark about demons or Billie and the Charmed Ones.
Clark raised an eyebrow at her. He was apparently intrigued. Chloe inhaled deeply and explained what demons were and told him all she knew about the underworld. He noticed that she deliberately left out anything about the Halliwells or Billie, but he knew what it was like to have a secret that shouldn't be told.
"I am so afraid that I'm going to cost someone their life." Clark knew what that felt like. He pulled her close. There was nothing he could say to ease her fears, but he wanted her to realize that he was there for her.
When Chloe woke up the next morning, she was confused for a moment. She wasn't in her apartment. As she adjusted to the light, she realized that she was at the Kent farm. She must have fallen asleep while talking to Clark. She smiled to herself. He must have slept on the couch and let her have his bed.
A few minutes later, he entered the room carrying a tray of food. She smiled at the array of food. He'd outdone himself. He'd gone to one of New York's best coffeehouses for her coffee. Then, he ran to France to get croissants. He got Canadian bacon straight from Canada. Finally, he made the eggs. She smiled at him and took a sip of coffee before speaking. "You didn't have to do all of this." He put a finger to her lips to stop her protests.
"Eat it before I do," he said, smiling at her. He watched as she began to eat. He noticed how she savored each bite and kept watching for a few minutes before he remembered that he had chores to do. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and hurried off to complete his morning chores.
Chloe finished up her breakfast and proceeded to take a shower. Once she was finished showering, she realized that she didn't have a towel. "Hey, Clark," she called out, knowing he'd hear her. "Could you get me a towel?" She was a little embarrassed that she forgot that particular detail, but was impressed when she saw one on the sink a few seconds later. She wrapped herself in the towel and then realized that she didn't have a toothbrush. She doubted that Clark had a spare toothbrush, so she conjured one. When she was done in the bathroom, she made her way to Clark's bedroom. Then, she realized that she didn't have a change of clothing.
She decided to go see how Clark was doing with his chores and let him know that she would be going home for a while to get dressed. As she descended the staircase, she heard the back door open. "Done with your chores already?" she asked as she walked into the kitchen. However, instead of facing Clark, she was face to face with his mother. It took Chloe a minute to realize why Mrs. Kent seemed a bit stunned to see her.
Of course, Chloe was completely mortified and didn't think to move. She wasn't even sure if she could move. Finally, she turned around and headed up the stairs back to Clark's room, leaving Clark to explain the whole situation to his mother, who looked at him and chuckled. Clark managed to contain his laughter for a few more seconds and erupted into a fit of laughter. He quickly contained himself and ran up to talk to Chloe, but when he got there, she was gone. He sighed; it was going to take a while for him to adjust to her powers.
He took his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed her number.
That evening, Clark insisted on seeing a movie. Chloe didn't really want to go out; she wasn't in the mood to get dolled up, so they compromised. Clark rented a movie and they watched it in her apartment. It was an action movie, for Clark's sake, with a good looking male lead, for Chloe's sake. Unfortunately, neither of them actually liked the movie, so they'd ended up channel surfing instead. Chloe finally picked something she liked, and, although he wouldn't admit it, Clark liked it too.
The movie was almost over when Clark heard footsteps in Chloe's bedroom. He looked through the wall and saw a figure moving around the room, carefully looking through drawers.
"What is it?" Chloe whispered. He held out his hand for her to see through his eyes. Suddenly, she collapsed in his arms and he panicked. She woke up a few seconds later, and sprang to her feet.
"Clark, I'd get out of the way if I were you," she said simply. A man appeared in the room, fuming, and ready to attack Chloe. "Chloe!" Clark ran in front of her. She took his hand and he immediately ended up in his bedroom at the farm. Upset with Chloe for sending him away, he hurried down the stairs and was on his way out the door when he heard her voice.
"I'm okay," she said. "Don't come back. It's too dangerous."
Clark still wanted to help, so he stepped out of the house, but he came face to face with Lana.
"Hey, Clark. Can we talk?" she asked. Clark was worried about Chloe, but he wouldn't be able to explain himself if he just disregarded Lana and ran to Metropolis at full speed. He suppressed a groan and asked Lana what she needed to talk about.
"Well," she started. "It's complicated..."
"Lana, is it Lex?" he asked. Had Lex done or said something to her?
"No, Clark; it's you." She knew there was no going back now; she looked up into his eyes and kissed him.
Clark quickly broke the kiss, and wondered whether or not Lana was possessed or infected by something. "Lana, what's going on with you?" he asked. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Clark, I want to be with you," Lana told him. "It took me a while to realize it, but I do. Can't we just pick up where we left off?" She pleaded with him, looking into his eyes for a sign.
He looked her firmly in the eyes. "No, Lana. We can't pick up where we left off. We can't be together." Lana began to protest, but Clark interrupted and asked her to leave. He locked the door behind her and ran back to Chloe's apartment.
Looking into the apartment, he saw that Chloe was just fine. Then, a woman came from the bedroom. He recognized her from San Francisco. What was her name again? Paige. What was she doing there? He listened to their conversation.
"Well, what happened?" Paige asked.
"I got Clark out of here, and in the middle of that, I got hit," Chloe said, holding her arm for Paige to see. As Paige inspected it, Clark could see the huge bloody wound on Chloe's arm. Paige held her hand over the wound; her hands emitted a bright light, and the wound was healed. Clark decided that he'd been snooping, stopped watching, and knocked at the door. He announced himself, and when Chloe let him into the apartment, Paige was gone.
"What happened?" he asked, and then realized that Chloe was unaware that he'd been watching.
"I vanquished him," she said with a sigh. "I don't go looking for trouble--" Clark gave her a look of disbelief. "Not magical trouble anyway. I don't like that part of being a witch. I just hope this doesn't become something that happens often."
Clark, curious about Paige's role in the situation, told Chloe that he'd seen Chloe get healed. She explained what whitelighters were to the best of her ability; she knew about them, but she wasn't an expert.
Chloe was tired from her earlier fight, but was a bit uneasy and was having trouble falling asleep. Clark resolved to stay with her that night so she could get some rest. He held her until she drifted off to sleep and tucked her into bed. As he went off to sleep on the couch, she asked him to stay with her.
"Don't worry. I'll be here when you wake up. I promise." He kissed her on the forehead, and laid on the floor next to her bed. He hated that there were things he couldn't protect her from, but he would always be there for her, however she needed him... if she needed him.
To Be Continued.
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