Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Thirty-Six ~*~*
The four of them walked for an hour or so before they broke for a late lunch, enjoying the delicious breeze as it whipped their sweat-drenched hair in the afternoon heat. Although the weather had started off mild and comfortably warm for exercise, it was now scathingly hot, the sun bearing down on them with a ferocity that reminded Chloe all too strongly of her skin's inability to tan or withstand anything stronger than artificial sunlight. If she wasn't careful, she would resemble a giant blonde lobster tomorrow - an unattractive image if ever there was one.
They soon set off again. They had seen no signs of fish - even of the natural variety - and despite the refreshing allure of actual greenery around them and the invigorating exercise they were undertaking, everyone, including Chloe, was feeling that perhaps they weren't going to find any mutant 'proving the existence of her meteor theories' kind of fish any time soon.
"Chloe, can we go home now?" Pete piped up in the comfortable stillness around them.
"Pete, do you want to contemplate not sounding like my grandmother?" Chloe snapped, annoyance flaring within her. She was probably being unfair, but the impending failure of the day's hike rankled. This was, of course, a natural consequence of being too optimistic about certain things. She tended to get disappointed a lot.
"Cool grandmother." He snapped back, annoyance flashing over his normally placid face as he rounded on her. "Chlo, it's hotter than hell and we've finished all our food." He stopped and glanced over at Lex. "Those chilli dogs rocked by the way. They had sauerkraut in them, didn't they?"
Lex nodded, smothering a smile at the harassed looking Chloe. "I think so."
He returned to the point. "We've finished all our food, I'm hot and tired, and I'm keen to head off home and get ready for my hot date with Erica -"
"You and your hot dates!" Chloe cut him off indignantly. "Maybe you should try not thinking about preening for your hot date and concentrate more on what we're trying to do here."
Pete dropped his pack onto the floor, glaring soundly at Chloe. "Hey, this was your thing and I was the one who was dragged kicking and screaming along for the ride! Don't go off at me now just 'cause things didn't work out!"
"Who says they didn't work out?" She retorted, her face beet red with anger. Somewhere within the confines of her irrational brain, Chloe knew that she was being unreasonable as hell.
"Well, do you see any mutant fish anywhere?" He screamed at her, all trace of the usually nice and calm Pete Ross temporarily disappearing from view. "For that matter, do you see any fish at all?"
"Okay, this isn't helping." Lana stepped in forcefully, putting herself squarely between them and in the line of fire. "You guys need to calm down. No one said this was going to be easy."
"Lana's right." Lex firmly placed a calming hand on Chloe's shoulder, causing the tension from her knotted muscles to drain effortlessly away. She sighed as she threw her almost unbearably heavy back pack down onto the dusty ground, collapsing onto it dramatically.
"Damn." She muttered, looking conciliatory at Pete who had collapsed in an unjock-like heap beside her. "I guess this was kind of a waste of time, wasn't it?"
"Well I wouldn't say that." Pete smiled ruefully, anxiously running a hand through his sweat soaked hair. "It's a nice day, the sun's shining and I got to have some Luthor chilli dogs. I wouldn't call it a waste. Plus, I got to see Lana almost put the smack down on that back pack of hers. I think Clark would've paid to see that."
"Hey." Lana protested, giving Pete a gentle shove from behind.
"Pete's right." Lex sat down on the other side of Chloe, giving her an affectionate squeeze. "It wasn't an entirely wasted day. Pete and I bonded over the chilli dogs that Mrs Andrews prepared for us. By the way," he turned to Pete curiously, "you do know we had other things besides chilli dogs, don't you?"
"Yeah, but they were all rabbit food."
Lex closed his eyes in mock annoyance at Pete's typically teenaged tone. "And I for one am glad you organised today. Did you know I've never been hiking before?"
"Really?" Chloe asked, bringing her downcast eyes to meet his earnest ones.
"Really. And I quite enjoyed it. Good exercise keeps the mind alert." He explained, covering his genuine desire to cheer her up with a devilish look. "We'll rest up here for a while before we start heading back." He squinted, glancing at the orange orb of the late afternoon sun. "It's getting late and unless these mutant fish glow in the dark, we aren't really going to find anything else today."
"Okay." She agreed warily, feeling slightly better despite the pallor of failure hanging over mind. Try as she might, she couldn't help but feel disappointed that her hopes for the day weren't going to be fulfilled. Chloe was kind of manic that way about her news stories.
They rested for a while before finally heading back to Pete's car. The chill of the impending night slowly crept into the air as they wound their way back, tracing their trail that they had walked on a few hours before.
"You okay?" Lex asked quietly as they walked side by side.
Chloe shrugged, trying to keep her disappointment from creeping into her voice. She knew that she had a tendency to set herself up for falls, especially when the objective was clearly unattainable - or nearly unattainable as these fictitious mutant fish were proving. She should have known that finding evidence of all Smallville weirdness had been a stretch. She should have listened to Pete and Clark about how crazy she was being. "Yeah, I'm just disappointed." She smiled warily as she looked up into his eyes, empathetic and warm in the waning light.
Lex glanced surreptitiously at Lana and Pete walking in front of them, engrossed in a conversation that seemed to involve a lot of hand gestures. He wrapped a comforting arm around Chloe, drawing her close against him. "Don't be. You gave it your best shot." He kissed her lightly as he caught her hand in his.
She pouted, looking up from their entwined hands to his warmly sparkling eyes. "But it was a stupid idea." She said, her vulnerability suddenly bursting forth from her in waves.
"It wasn't stupid. Well, mutant fish ..." He grinned apologetically. "But that's not the point. The point is that you have vision - you see and go after things that other people don't see. And whether you find it or whether it turns out to be stupid in hindsight doesn't diminish the one thing that sets you apart from so many other people around here."
"And what's that?" Chloe asked quietly, somehow almost afraid to know the answer.
"You'll do great things, Chloe. You were born to do great things, because you have the vision to do things that other people won't even attempt. You should remember that."
Chloe stopped and faced him, tears of gratitude welling in her eyes. Never in all her wildest hunting mutant fish dreams had she contemplated the possibility that Lex would ever say anything like what he had just said to her. It warmed every sinew of her body to hear his praise, like she was actually a smart and intelligent and worthwhile person that she sometimes doubted she was. It was nice that he thought of her that way.
Scratch that, it was beyond nice, it was indescribably incredible.
"Thanks." She planted a lingering kiss on his lips, tasting a heady mix of salmon and chocolate and caffeine and something that was uniquely Lex. She smiled impishly up at him. "I'll remind you of that the next time I drag you out in the middle of nowhere looking for mutant fish."
He grinned devilishly back at her. "I'll look forward to it."
They walked on, the sunlight noticeably waning as they continued to trek down the trail.
Chloe heard it before she realised its significance. She gripped Lex's arm in excitement as she stopped abruptly, whirling around to stop the others in their tracks. "Do you guys hear that?"
Lana cocked her head, frowning as she nodded. "Yeah. Sounds like ... water?"
Pete glanced at her before quickly looking around for the source of the noise. "I think it's this way." He indicated as he disappeared behind some tangled shrubbery.
Chloe, Lex and Lana quickly followed. Soon they found themselves in a small clearing, barely large enough to accommodate the four of them. Chloe absently scratched her neck as an errant branch brushed against her.
They all heard it now, a loud, gentle trickling that suggested that the source of the sound was definitely somewhere nearby. Chloe walked around, determined to find water if it was the last thing she did.
Well, the last thing she did here anyway.
"Look." Suddenly Pete's excited voice cut through their perplexed stillness and they all hurried past the other side of the clearing after him. Chloe ran heedlessly after Pete and would have died a horrible, flying death if Lex hadn't pulled her short, preventing her from toppling over the edge of the rocky outcrop.
"Thanks." She said breathlessly, peering over the edge and realising the sheer height that she had almost fallen. It looked to be around twenty feet of steeply slanting ground, almost a sheer drop, with no footing beside the randomly scattered roots and twigs just visible against the rocky surface. Below, a stream was clearly visible. "How do we get down?"
"Climb?" Pete's uncertainty echoed in the silence.
"I don't think so." Lana joined Chloe as she peered over the edge, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "There isn't all that much footing, and it'd be too easy to just slip. We'll have to find another way down."
"We'll have to do it another day." Lex gripped Chloe tightly, putting a restraining hand on her arm as if reading her thrashing impatience. "Chloe, it's getting dark and it'll be too dangerous to try anything in the dark. We'll come back and bring Clark to carry all our stuff, " he looked pointedly at Lana who mock glared back at him, "and try to find another way down."
She nodded in resignation. Suddenly a peal of thunder rumbled ominously above, making the foliage around them shake slightly. Pete looked up, scrutinising the rapidly darkening sky. "I think there's a storm coming."
"Okay." Chloe sighed, trying to push back the eagerness recoiling inside her at the thought of delaying their search.
As she turned to go Chloe felt her foot snag on something. She felt herself pitching helplessly over the edge of the outcrop, arms flailing helplessly and her body desperately out of balance. She felt Lex's familiarly strong hands grab her desperately from behind in an effort to pull her back, but she still felt the momentum carry them over.
The next few seconds whirled by so quickly that Chloe's clearly incapable brain wasn't able to comprehend what exactly had happened until a few seconds later.
It took her a moment to realise that despite toppling over the edge, she hadn't actually fallen over the edge. Instead she was frantically clinging onto some of the rough shrubbery that happened to grow along the ledge.
Chloe looked up, reaching for Lex's hand in order to pull herself back up. Instead she was hauled over by the combined efforts of Pete and Lana, with Chloe clawing rather ineffectively in the process. She breathed a sigh of relief, opening her mouth to thank them both when the words caught at her throat.
Lana was staring over the rocky outcrop, horror plainly etched on her face.
It took a moment for Chloe to fully process the significance of Lana's look.
Chloe had fallen and had Lex had fallen with her, trying to prevent her fall. Except that she had tenaciously grabbed the ledge while her momentum had carried him over the edge and into the darkness beyond.
(c) November 2002