Chapter 36

To say it had been a long day would have been an understatement, Clark thought as he walked back from the Smallville Medical Center's cafeteria. At Chloe's request, he'd gone down there to get her a cup of coffee.

Seeing as she'd accompanied Jimmy to the hospital in the ambulance, and he wasn't yet in any condition to fill out paperwork, Chloe had agreed to fill out the forms. She had finished up the last of the paperwork and was quietly hanging up her cell phone as Clark made it back to Jimmy's room.

"Here you are Ms. Sullivan."

"Hey thanks…you're a life saver!" Chloe takes a sip of the steaming beverage and motions for them to leave the room.

They headed down to the admission desk and turned in the administration forms for Jimmy. Then, finding a vacant lounge, took a seat in there so Chloe could drink her coffee. Clark protested that he could run them back to the farm before it got cold, but Chloe didn't want to risk spilling the coffee. Plus, after all that paperwork, she was in need of a caffeine recharge.

"So, how's Jimmy holding up?"

"Pretty good all things considered. The paramedics were the biggest hurdle I had to face, believe it or not."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, so they got him on the gurney, and while we headed back to the ambulance. I explained to them that he had seed pods inside him that could only be killed by electricity. When I told them they needed to defibrillate him to save his life, they said I was insane."

"Did you try telling them what you'd learned from the guy they'd brought into the hospital earlier?"

"Yeah but they hadn't been by his room to see what I was talking about. They just insisted that since Jimmy wasn't in cardiac arrest that they were not going to defibrillate him."

"Great…"

"Tell me about it. So, they loaded him into the ambulance and I got in the back to ride with them. Well, I saw there was a defibrillator sitting in the compartment right beside me."

"Chloe…"

"I know but they wouldn't listen and I didn't know how long we had before Jimmy, well, 'sprouted'. I grabbed the defibrillator and switched it on to charge up while the paramedics were getting in the front of the ambulance."

Chloe pauses to take a drink of coffee and continues. "I guess they must have heard me moving equipment around because the driver moved the rearview mirror to look back at me. The machine beeped that it was charged up when I caught the driver moving the mirror. I didn't know what to do so…"

"Wait; don't tell me you zapped the paramedics?"

"No! I grabbed the paddles and held them out towards them. I told the guys the paddles were hot, and the paramedics stayed put. Now, before you freak out, I only 'zapped' Jimmy once with the paddles. He was secured to the gurney with restraints, so he didn't flounder around too much. Anyhow, that did the job because a moment later he regained consciousness and asked if I paddled him."

"Seriously, you mean you were sitting there holding the paddles, and that was the first thing he asked? So, what did you tell him?"

A mischievous smile, that reaches almost ear-to-ear, appears on Chloe's face as she gets another drink of coffee. "What do you think I did? I looked at the paddles, looked at him, and with a great deal of restraint, in my opinion, just said, 'duh!'"

Clark did his best to not laugh, but he could help it, he laughed, and Chloe did the same. After the laughter had passed, Chloe continued with her exposition.

"Anyhow, I gave Lois a quick call just before you came back with the coffee to fill her in on what happened. She said she had to change, she'd just got back from the Dark Thursday benefit, but would be here as soon as she could."

"So, did Jimmy say anything else on the way to the hospital?"

"Mainly, he went on about wanting to know why I hadn't gotten a picture of him before he was weed-whacked from his cocoon. I explained to him that I'm not the photojournalist, well, I'm not the one trying to be anyway. I can't believe he'd go through all of that to try to impress a girl."

"Well, that's us guys for you Chloe, we'll do just about anything to gain the admiration of the girl we're in love with. I know I'd give my life a thousand times over for you. Although, in Jimmy's case, maybe next time he'll just go with the time-tested tradition of sending flowers."

"Ugh, please, no more plant-related jokes. Hey, what happened with Gloria?"

"Long story short, Lucas showed up, and thanks to his help Gloria received one heck of an electricity lesson. She's gone Chloe."

"Lucas? As in Lucas Luthor?"

"Yup, either he had impeccable timing, or he'd installed some kind of alarm to let him know someone was in the greenhouse…"

Clark proceeded to explain, in detail, what happened during the fight. He also went on to describe what he and Lucas had talked about, and how they'd left things between them. Immediately afterwards, Chloe noticed that Clark was starting to retreat into himself again, his face had that look she knew all too well…he was beating himself up over Gloria's death.

"Hey! Don't you dare go there, okay? This was a deadly species from the plant kingdom that makes a Venus flytrap look like a joke, it was an insidious weed. You guys did what was necessary Clark."

"Maybe but what about the people she'd killed before we were able to stop her?"

"Clark, you can't blame yourself for that, it's not your fault."

"I wish you were right about that Chloe. Remember the portal I told you about that I used to escape the Phantom Zone? Well, Gloria was somehow able to escape at the same time I did."

"Okay, well then thank God she was stopped."

"That's just it Chloe, according to what Raya told me, the Zone is filled with the worst criminals throughout 28 galaxies. If Gloria escaped when I did, who's to say there aren't more that got out?"

"Come here." Clark moved towards her and she pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist, rested his chin on her shoulder, and let out a heavy sigh. After a moment, Chloe spoke quietly into his ear.

"Then we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Clark, you still don't give yourself enough credit. After everything you've been through, I know there's nothing out there that you can't handle."

Clark turned his head slightly to whisper in her ear. "Only because I have you with me Chloe…only because I have you…thank you."

THE END