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Stars and Water

Chapter 25

At the sound of screaming brakes Clark whipped around and stepped in front of Maria. A car door slammed and Maria peeked around Clark's shoulder in time to see a petite blond woman charging up the steps. Chloe came to a panting halt in front of Clark.

"You're…okay." she gasped, sounding suddenly exhausted. Chloe sat down heavily on the steps and Clark sat down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

"I'm okay." he said simply, watching her face a little anxiously, he could hear her heart thundering in her chest. Clark gave her a reassuring smile and he heard it slow down.

Maria sat on the other side of Chloe and took her hand. "I should have called you back. I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking." Chloe studied her. Maria looked exhausted too, her eyes were red from crying and her voice was hoarse and still a little shaky.

"Don't worry about it. You did fine, obviously." and she gestured in Clark's direction.

"I don't know what I would have done without your help." said Maria, "I was so scared and I didn't know what was wrong and Clark was, Clark couldn't," she swallowed hard and tried not to cry again as the image of Clark writhing in pain flashed in her mind. "and then I almost called an ambulance, what if they had found out Clark's secret because of me? I had to come up with a lie about why he was on the floor and I was terrified he would die and I was afraid someone would come and take him and…" Maria was talking faster as she let out the fear she had felt but tried to hold back during the crisis.

Chloe squeezed her hand. "It's okay Maria, you did good. Welcome to a very exclusive club, The Clark Kent secrets and lies club. It can be hard to be a member but it's never dull." Clark listened to them talk and felt a stab of guilt and sorrow, now Maria would have to lie for him and live in fear that she would slip up and betray him. Why was he such a fool, he should never have tried to hope things would work out between them.

"Maria, if we don't pull an intervention right now Clark is going to commence beating himself up over this and the next thing you know he will attempt to break up with you to protect you." Chloe said, to Maria but she was looking at Clark the entire time.

Maria looked at Clark, Chloe was right, he was blaming himself. "Clark Kent, don't you dare even go there." she warned. "I'm strong enough to deal with this. I love you and you are already an important part of my life. Don't underestimate me!" Her voice was no longer shaky, there was steel in it and Clark looked up, astonished at the change, to see her smiling at him with a look of determination in her eye.

Whoa, Chloe thought, I think our Mr. Kent has met his match. Her eyes twinkled as she watched him. Good girl, she thought as she saw his expression go from gloom and sadness to amazement. Why is it so hard for the guy to accept how much we care about him? She thought.

"Well, I don't know about you two but my butt's getting tired of stone and I need a Latte, you want to come with?" Chloe stood and stretched, brushing off her behind with a wiggle that distracted several young men coming through the door behind her.

They headed to a nearby coffee shop and relaxed together until Chloe headed back to the Planet. Clark and Maria continued on to the Met U campus with Clark holding Maria's hand and watching her surreptitiously to be sure she was recovered, and Maria doing the same.

Met U had a large and sprawling campus and Maria and Clark explored most of it trying to find the office of the head of the journalism department. It was worth the long walk because after meeting with him Clark had everything he needed to apply and information about scholarships that he was eligible for in the fall.

The professor had also raised Clark's hopes and renewed his excitement about the future. Maria watched as the man took to Clark instantly, giving him advice as though he was a long lost son. People seemed to open up to Clark, she thought, a good quality for a reporter to have.

After his meeting with the professor Clark amazed Maria by sitting on a bench and in minutes filling out the pile of documents. They stopped by the registrar and turned it all in before leaving campus.

"Wow Clark, you're going to finish college in a year if you can do paperwork that fast. I couldn't even read the first page. Did you even look at them? I can't believe how quickly you did the math for the scholarship forms. Was that an essay you wrote? I couldn't tell, your hand was a blur." Maria said, she hadn't realized his mind was also gifted.

"Yeah, math is easy for me to do fast but writing takes more time because I have to come up with original thoughts. I think the essay turned out okay. One of the reasons I like writing is the challenge." said Clark, "That and Chloe stayed on top of me until I got good at it. She got me hooked on journalism in high school. Her enthusiasm was pretty hard to resist." and Clark smiled, remembering the Torch. "Did you want to check anything out on campus?" he asked with a smile, "What are you going to major in?"

Maria shook her head, "I don't know," she replied, "I majored in Art at U of O so I wrote Art on my application but I might change it. I really don't know what I want to do." Maria had been quiet as they explored campus, allowing Clark's excitement to carry them both. She was happy he would be going to school with her but she was still searching for the direction she wanted to go with her life.

The sun was beginning to set when Maria and Clark got back to the Planet. Clark looked up and gasped and Maria quickly threw her arms around him. He looked down at her terrified face in confusion, "I just saw the sunset gleaming off the globe on the Daily Planet and thought it looked cool. I'm okay Maria, really." Maria swallowed hard and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Sorry Clark, I guess it's going to take a bit before I get what happened today out of my mind." she kept her arms around him and held on tight.

Clark gently wrapped her up in a hug and rested his head against her forehead. "You have nothing to apologize for Maria. I'm so sorry you were put through all that. I'm actually pretty invulnerable, and Kryptonite is rare, so try to relax. Okay?" Maria nodded.

"How did you get hurt in the river?" she asked suddenly, "was there Kryptonite there too?"

"Yes, it was on the riverbed. I tried to avoid it but when we got in the shallow water it was all over that section and I stepped right on it." Clark explained quietly. "There is a lot of Kryptonite around Smallville,

Meteor capital of the world you know, but I can usually feel it and get away before it affects me too much."

"You knew it was in the river didn't you?" Maria asked pulling back a bit to look into his face, "I saw the look on your face just before you jumped in. My God, you knew you could have died." she gave a little whimper and buried her face back against his warm body. Her emotions were raw and she couldn't seem to calm down, she didn't want to cry on him again but she couldn't stop.

"But I didn't because you saved me that time too." said Clark, stroking her back with his large warm hands, trying to help her relax. It felt odd to have someone wanting to protect him and her worry distressed him. He felt like he needed to prove to her he was okay. He wanted to appear strong in her eyes and erase the image of him helpless on the floor. "Maria, do you want to watch the sunset from the top of the Daily Planet?" Clark asked, tipping her chin up gently with his thumb so he could see her face. She was blinking back tears and Clark couldn't bear to be the cause of it.

"It would be beautiful." she replied, wondering what he was up to. The look in his eye was merry and a bit mischievous.

"Okay, hold on." He looked around carefully, and lifting her into his arms, gathered himself and leaped.

Maria gasped as he grabbed her, she could feel the power gathering in his body as he crouched and the speed of their ascent took her breath away. As they rose up along the building she clung to his strong shoulders and looked around in amazement. Was he flying, she wondered. They came to a gentle stop on the roof and she clung to him a moment before allowing him to set her down. "Wow Clark," she said, her eyes sparkling in excitement, "that was amazing! Did you just fly?"

Clark grinned, this was more like it, she was smiling again. "No," he shrugged, "I jumped."

To be continued…