Subject: Smallville, Clark-Chloe…sort of

Disclaimer: Nope I don't own them no offense or copy-right legal stuff intended

Time-Line/Spoilers: During/Post Obscura…kind of a re-arrangement/rewrite of some events and what happened after. And Just for Clarification I am messing with the timetable for Tempest and pretty much washing out most of the plotline for it..

Rating: PG-13 I guess…mostly for language, and maybe the action sequences.

Note from ME to the READER: Reviews are appreciated and may help me decide which direction to go with this thing While this is a C/C get together type of thing and I am a SERIOUSLY Rabid fan of that relationship There IS a plot going outside that. Kinda follows the episode's "Freak of the Weak" idea……with a twist. SO bear with me in the beginning while I introduce a new Character



Part 2 – Friends and Secrets



……Wednesday Afternoon Just after School…..

………….Torch Office……….

"Any Luck?" asked Clark.

"Just….one….Second," said Steve, his hands deep inside the mess of cables that was hanging out of the side of one of the Torch's Imacs. He pulled his tool-laden hands out and gently stuffed the wires back into place. "There that should do it. Just let me plug it in and you can give it a shot." He bent over and plugged it back into the wall outlet before nodding at Clark.

"Well it's turning back on," said Clark as Steve screwed the computer's side panel back on. "I just hope my article didn't fry along with the rest of it."

"It shouldn't have," Steve said as he came to stand behind his new friend, and both teens waited.

"There it is," sighed Clark. "Great I thought that was a couple of hours down the drain. Thanks."

Steve Shrugged. "It's a pleasure. So did Pete ever catch up with that girl at the Talon the other night?"

"You know I am not sure but he usually does," grinned Clark.

"You know not to pry or anything but you and Chloe look great together. How long have you and Chloe been a thing?" asked Steve, as he sat down.

"Oh we're not actually a thing," said Clark quickly.

Steve raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Ok well we might be a thing but there's hasn't been any formal declaration or anything," admitted Clark after Steve had stared at him for several seconds. "I mean I want it to be a thing but…" he trailed off.

"But?" laughed Steve.

"But what?" said Chloe from as passed through the doorway at her normal high speed walk, a cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of notebooks in the other. "Sorry I am late guys. The Talon was packed and I can't work without my.."

"Coffee," finished Clark with a grin.

"Caffeine is a must," said Chloe with mock indignation as he set her folders down and gave Clark a false glare for interrupting her. "But what?"

"But what?" echoed Steve.

"What you and Clark were talking about?

"We were just discussing Pete's 'area effect' approach when it comes to women." said Steve noticing out of the corner of his eye Clark's momentary look of panic. "We were arguing the advantages when you walked in."

"Really?" Chloe said as she gave her friends, old and new, a hard look.

Steve grinned impishly back at her and Clark smiled at the teasing.

"Well I think I will leave you two strangers to finish that conversation alone for a few minutes while I get something from my locker," said Chloe. "When I return my friends had better be back."

"Thanks," said Clark when Chloe was out of earshot.

"For what?" asked Steve, as he picked a book out of his backpack and started to read it.

"Not mentioning the other thing."

Steve looked at him. "You're welcome. You've probably got a time all picked out, but if you are waiting for the perfect time….Just don't pass up good time just because it wasn't in the plan."



......Smallville High Parking Lot…..

……..Several Hours Later…….

"Crap," said Steve as he stopped in the parking lot. "I forgot my History homework. I'd better go back for it. You guys go on and I will catch up if I can. If not I will catch you tomorrow."

"Sure you don't need us to wait?" asked Clark, as Chloe nodded that they would..

"Nahh I may wander over to the Talon and watch Pete chase women," grinned Steve. "Maybe try and get him to hook me up. Bye guys."

The couple laughed and waved before they turned and resumed their walk home. Steve turned to go, then paused and watched them walk away. They walked close together, one tall and fit the other short and bouncy. They walked close together and Steve could almost see their hands twitching with itch to its opposite number. Clark's thoughts were almost perfectly aligned with Steve's. And if his hand wasn't itching to grab Chloe's his brain certainly was. He reached over slowly and took it, smiling to himself as she grasped it firmly and sidled just a half step closer to him.

"What's that for? Chloe asked as she looked up at him.

Clark almost blushed as he belatedly realized that his smile wasn't as internal as he thought "Just this," he said raising their joined hands.

"Try it more often then," Chloe said as she smiled at him.

"I think I….Chloe lookout!"

The two had reached the edge of the parking lot and were so caught up in each other that Clark didn't see Hank until the Smallville High's starting tight end slammed into Chloe at a dead run. Clark went down by instinct letting Chloe's momentum knock them both over. At the same time he tried to kept hold of Chloe, and keep her from slamming into the concrete. All three ended up in a pile on the sidewalk.

"Hank what are...." exclaimed Chloe once she got her breath.

"Hank are you all right?" asked Clark at the same moment.

"Clark?" exclaimed Chloe.

"Chloe look at him."

Chloe blinked as she looked his face. The football player's lip was bloodied and he had large bruise forming around his right eye. His clothing was in little better shape, torn in places with cuts showing underneath. "What happened? She said as she struggled to her feet, and Clark pushed himself to his feet.

If Hank answered she never heard as he suddenly felt an iron grip on her arm and was flung through the air too land with bruising impact in the middle of the street. A stabbing pain in her arm and the impact on the pavement combing to rob her of her senses but not her consciousness.

Clark got to his feet just as Chloe's feet left the ground. His response was immediate, but the result was painful. "Ugghhh," Clark groaned as his sudden burst of super speed was cut off by a wave of the intense pain that Clark only felt in the presence of Meteor fragments. His dash for Chloe was stopped like he'd slammed into a

lead wall and he stumbled to ground. Through the haze of the waves of pain flowing through him and leaching him of his strength Clark saw a emerald green haze in the eyes of the boy in front of him. Beyond the eyes he saw Chloe lying in the road, with the shadow of a bus about to hit her. "Chloe!" Clark tried to scream but it came out a horse croak as he fell to his knees in helpless anguish.

Steve stood motionless in the doorway of the school as Chloe was hurled into the path of the oncoming Greyhound. Steve was moving before he was even aware of it, his history papers flapping softly to the ground in his wake. The world stretched out into a sort of blurred tunnel with only thing in any kind of focus Chloe's struggling form. Steve crossed the parking lot in the blink of an eye and killed his speed as he stepped off the curb, letting his momentum carry him into the semi-conscious teen and grabbed her in a tuck-and-roll that carried them away from the bus and into the grassy ditch beyond. He barely registered the screech of brakes the bus driver's attempt to stop.

Steve checked Chloe and saw that the roll over the concrete had knocked her out. Steve stood to see chaos quickly forming. The bus had come to stop with a quarter of its length over the spot where Chloe had been. The driver was just getting out and Steve could see him looking hurriedly under the bus. There was a figure running rapidly across the school campus in the distance but with the setting sun in his eyes Steve could tell no more than a figure. A second later Clark came dashing around the bus.

"Clark!" Steve called as he stooped to pick up Chloe. He tried to be careful of her left arm, which was bent at an odd angle. "Over here!"

"Chloe!" Clark said as he charged over. "Is she all right??"

"I think so," answered Steve "We need to get her to a hospital though. Her arm looks broken"

"Here," said Clark immediately reaching out for her. His face a mass mixture of worry and fear."

"Careful," said Steve as he gently handed her over. "I'll call her folks and yours. What's the number?"



…..The Next Morning…..

…….Smallville Hospital……