| WHAT WE HAVE LOVED |

This is my first attempt at Smallville fanfiction. I've been a Chloe/Clark shipper since the beginning, so don't expect very much of anyone else. Also note that some parts may not exactly follow where the show has went nearing the end of the first season. Enjoy!

Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Smallville characters, but, if I had the choice, I'd make Tom Welling my manservant. All events in this piece are fictional and are from the matrix of my own mind. Please don't steal. It's wrong.

Worlds Apart :

Lana carefully ran her hand down Clark's arm as the two of them sat in a booth at the Talon. Sade was smoothly emanating from the speakers while the hustle and bustle of the room was relentless. Customers were whizzing by the two silent bodies who appeared so close from a distance.

"I'm glad I got the night off tonight," Lana whispered into Clark's ear, breaking the silence. "I was hoping we'd spend some time together, seeing as how we're both going to be busy with graduation and prom during the next couple of days."

Clark nodded and smiled back at Lana, who was clad in khaki shorts and a white sleeveless. Was he going insane? His crush since, well, forever was running her hand over places on his body he'd never even known could tingle, and his mind was elsewhere. He had every right to be occupied with his thoughts; he hadn't talked to his best friend in months. They would casually walk past each other in the halls and they would both pretend not to see the other. Part of Clark wanted to reach out to her and hug her until they were the same friends again, but he knew nothing would ever be the same with Chloe.

That day in his storm cellar he had been so angry with her. When he had caught her spying on his secret life, he was so sure that he hated Chloe for her deceit and betrayal. Months after the fact, Clark had convinced himself that he did hate her. He thought for certain that Chloe would print up an article revealing the scoop on Clark Kent, Super-Freak. But she didn't. In fact, she hadn't told anyone, not even Pete, who was now the last shred of their frayed friendship. He knew this because everyone still treated him the same; nothing had changed save for his relationship with Chloe.

"Did you want to call the limousine service tonight or do you want me to?" Lana asked him as she took a sip of her diet cola.

"That's nice," Clark replied vacantly as he stared out of the window.

Lana frowned and realized he hadn't been paying any attention to her at all. "I was also thinking about wearing nothing but two strips of duct-tape to the prom. Kind of an Adam and Eve revival, minus the leaves," she teased.

Clark finally snapped out of his comatose state. "What?" he yelped with his eyes widened.

"Ha, so I have your attention," Lana giggled. She twirled a finger around a tendril of her brown hair. "I better have it for our three month anniversary, too."

"Three months," Clark muttered. "We've been going out that long?"

Lana rolled her eyes. "Try not to sound too excited there."

Clark grinned and kissed her cheek. "Of course I am! Our three month anniversary on prom night? That calls for a double celebration."

Lana laughed and punched him playfully. "Now you're just trying to appease me. Lucky for me, I have to use the restroom and am spared from your unconvincing sap. Be right back," she said as she patted him on the head.

Three months, Clark repeated in his head. He tried to recapture the moments he had had with Lana in his mind. They had lengthy discussions about life and family, and Lana was always so compliant. They had never fought, which would have been any boyfriend's wish, but Clark felt that something was missing. Though, it wasn't what he thought it would be. Three months in Smallville High usually hinted at the fact that a couple had slept together. Clark knew that he and Lana were nowhere in the vicinity of copulating. The truth was that he wasn't so sure he was ready. Five years of wanton desire for Lana and he didn't feel the urge to go that extra step. Pete would have called him insane.

"I want to check if I put enough coins it the parking-metre," a familiar British voice resounded from the entrance of the Talon. "Try and find us a seat, Chloe." Jeremy Kensington kissed his blonde-haired companion on the lips and headed out the door.

"Don't take too long. I hate waiting by myself," she called back to him as he left. Clark caught her smiling to herself and couldn't remember his old friend looking so blissful. Part of him ached that he wasn't the one making her smile. Only three months ago he had been joking with her and causing her to throw her head back in that sweet laugh he longed to hear once more.

Chloe headed to the middle of the room and seated herself, unknowingly, in the booth beside Clark's. She pulled out the leather notebook she had been scribbling in for months. This time was no exception as she immersed herself in her words, constantly pausing to reflect on her work.

"Stupid admissions letter," Chloe muttered to herself. Her candid charm was also no exception that night, as every syllable tumbling from her exquisite lips made the man sitting adjacent to her tremble in desire.

"Need some help?" Clark offered. He stood over her booth as she looked up at him in shock. "You've been working on that thing for a while now. Every time I see you, you've got it in your hands."

"Good of you to notice," she replied in a cool voice. She put her attention back to her messy notebook as Clark took a seat at her booth without her asking.

"So you and Jeremy seem pretty close now," Clark stated, trying to make conversation. He knew he was desperate to find out the truth about her relationship with Officer Kensington. "He must be busy a lot, seeing as how he's always out catching the bad guys and whatnot." He was very desperate. Part of him wanted to leave her alone; she didn't deserve his sympathy for what she had done to him.

Chloe looked up, an annoyed countenance about her. "Well, he makes time for me."

Clark was taken aback by her sharpness but persisted. "Look, Chloe, I know things have been really awkward between us. I'm glad you didn't tell anyone about…you know. I didn't even tell my parents about you finding out. I just wanted to say thanks for that." He placed a hesitant hand over hers.

"I'm surprised you trusted me enough not to tell," she snapped. She pulled her hand away from his. "Jeremy's going to be back any moment. I'll see you later."

Everything was so different now. Clark wasn't sure he could handle Chloe the way she was perched before him and purposefully ignoring him. He had missed her every single day since the incident in the storm cellar, but he had too much pride to beg her to forgive him. Plus, he didn't even know if he was the one who should be begging for forgiveness.

He sauntered back to his booth and seated himself just in time to see Lana heading back from the restroom. "Miss me?" she cooed as she kissed his lips.

Everyday, Clark thought to himself, truly speaking to the blonde-haired girl sitting solitary behind him.

* * * * * * *

Seeing Clark at the Talon was torture. For months Chloe had reminded herself that she didn't love Clark anymore. She had moved on with her life. She had Jeremy to love and comfort her, and mostly to trust her. When she recalled the anger Clark had in his eyes when she had discovered his secret, she was also enraged by his secret life unbeknownst to her. She had always been the person who knew him inside and out; to have something so important shut away from her for so long made her feel even more insignificant to Clark, the love of her life. To him, she was nothing more than the snippy gal-pal who was fixated on his very existence.

That was long ago, Chloe thought, and history is not going to repeat itself. Tearing herself away from Clark was the most difficult thing she had ever done, especially since she saw him at school almost everyday since their close encounter of the Kent kind. She felt the most tormenting pain each time she blatantly snubbed him and avoided talking to him. However, she knew it was necessary in order to forget about Clark and the pain he had always inflicted upon her.

"Pence for your thoughts, love," Jeremy said to Chloe as the two of them sat in his apartment. "Or penny, as the currency is in America."

"Ignorant Brit," Chloe teased her boyfriend. She was never going to tell Jeremy about her feelings for Clark, as deep as she had buried them in her psyche. She clamped her notebook shut and stuffed it into her bag.

"I resent that, Yankee," Jeremy joked in return as he sat beside her on his bed. He grinned as he leaned in to kiss her. His lips gently brushed against hers; moments flew by and they began to crush against hers intensely. His body slowly pinned hers on the bed as his hands explored under her shirt.

Jeremy and her had become close over the months. Being older than Chloe, Jeremy had initially expected a certain romantic element from her and was up front about it at the very beginning. Chloe, an eighteen-year-old virgin, had appreciated his honesty, but told him that she wouldn't be ready to make love with anyone for a very long time. She wasn't exactly in love with Jeremy, which made it more difficult for Jeremy to get what he wanted. He was understanding, though, and never rushed her. That was all Chloe could really ask of him.

"Whoa, boy," Chloe breathed and she gently pushed Jeremy's body away from hers. "This is a little too close for comfort."

Jeremy blushed in embarrassment. "Right," he stammered, "I almost forgot." He was joking of course, but Chloe wondered just how long he was willing to wait. In all honestly, she knew she would never give herself to Jeremy. She didn't love him. The only person to whom she could ever think about giving herself was a boy who no longer needed her and had never wanted her that way.

"I really should be getting home. I have to type up the final draft of my admissions piece to the Metropolis School of Journalism and then I'm home free."

"Good luck, love," he said as he began to clear the dirty dishes from his table. "What topic did you decide on? The life-altering issue or the current event?"

"A little from column A, a little from column B," she answered as she tugged her long coat on. Chloe smiled as she kissed Jeremy good night.

When she returned home, she immediately sat in front of her laptop typing away like a secretary on speed. Never had words flowed so easily out of her mind as her fingers clacked away at the keyboard. She looked at the clock and noted the brilliant red symbols indicating 4:00 AM. She didn't care. She was on a roll. Her thoughts, which she had always considered so jumbled and tangled, were now clear and unequivocal. For once, she was writing something that would show true heart. It was a story about heroes and villains, crime and rescue…but mostly it was about a boy, who wasn't so ordinary.

I knew from the moment I saw him that I loved him. I knew the potential of greatness in his every stride and the possibility of love in his gaze. I felt safe whenever I was near him, as I'm sure anyone else close to him will profess. He wasn't normal, nor was he mine—he belonged to the world. He would save it a thousand times if he had the courage and the strength. He had both.

She didn't use his real name—she didn't have to. She knew who the hero that she spoke of was. No pseudo-name or substitution could ever replace him.

Chloe finished writing the piece as the sun rose from the east and the rooster on the farm beside her house began to crow. She looked at her notebook and looked over the crude writing and scribbles she had made over months of introspection. Carefully, she tore out the dozen-something papers she had written her admissions piece on, folded them, and stuffed them into a pale blue envelope. With a shaky hand, she scrawled the name "Clark" on the front of it. She would give it to him tonight, graduation night.