EXT. CABOT FARM - MORNING
A soft breeze gently bends back the golden grass that expands, seemingly infinitely, in all directions. Clark and Pete look out into the endless field, standing just in front of a conspicuously out of place row of trees. A barn can be seen in the distance.
PETE Yeah, so, I gotta be honest with ya, Clark. I'm not seein' no houses.
CLARK ::shakes head:: She said it was here, Pete. She said she saw the lights through the trees when they were driving down the road.
Clark turns around and motions towards a small gap in the trees where a town roadway can be seen corralled by a fence and the trees on either side. The fence and trees clearly mark out the path of the road in each direction, and also act as a convenient geographical border to the farm.
CLARK It's got to be here.
Pete takes a long look to his left, then an equally generous one to his right.
PETE ::shrugs:: Well, unless the Kent family's doing some backwards inheritance and Ma Kent's grown herself some super-peepers, the closest thing's I see is old man Cabot's barn. There's no way she could have seen that from the road.
Clark, desperately lacking a rebuttal, utilizes his previously mentioned "super-peepers" to look over the farm in the way only he can.
PETE
Yo, man, what are you doing?
CLARK
There's got to be something here, Pete.
PETE
You're doing that thing with your eyes again, aren't you?
Clark turns his gaze to his left, continuing his meticulous canvass of the farm by, literally, looking completely through his good buddy.
PETE
Yo, Clark, I ain't playin' wit' you, man!
Pete jumps out of line of sight.
PETE ::angry:: What did I tell you about doing that. that.
Pete points to his eyes and makes a buzzing sound.
PETE
.zzzzz. thing around me?
CLARK It's harmless, Pete.
PETE
Yeah, harmless, sure. It's harmless until some bug flies up in your eye and all of a sudden it's Pete "The Human Torch".
CLARK ::smiles devilishly:: What's wrong, Pete? Don't you trust me?
PETE
Yeah, I trust you. I also trust you to hold a loaded gun to my head and not pull the trigger, but I'm not gonna let you do that either. All I need's some Russian cosmonaut with an appetite for three bean salad to jettison his business the way of the sun, next thing I know I'm bursting into flames and all that's left of sidekick Pete is two smoking cinders and some Reeboks.
Clark shakes his head in frustration, his search revealing little more than a few lost nickels and dimes.
CLARK
Nothing.
PETE
Look, it was dark out, right? They were driving around in the cruiser. Their lights were on. Maybe some of the lights on the dashboard were reflecting off the window. Maybe that's what she saw.
CLARK
How do you mistake reflections off a car window for a porch light?
Pete throws his hand in the air.
PETE
How do you mistake nothing for a house?
A slight rumbling in the distance, moving closer, grabs their attention. Clark peers through the trees revealing a car driving towards them from down the road. He rolls his eyes upon recognizing the driver.
CLARK Oh great, this is all I need.
PETE
What?
CLARK
It's Chloe.
PETE
That's bad? I thought you two were all like. you know.
Pete starts up a classic erotic beat, adding a head bob.
CLARK
Not quite.
Chloe pulls up along the roadside next to Clark's truck, coming to an aggressive stop. As she gets out of her car, she slams the door shut, looking seriously fumed. Carrying a notebook, with some papers stuffed inside the front cover, she storms through the gap in the trees and heads straight for Clark.
CHLOE
You know, I almost could have accepted the Lone Ranger routine, after all, it wouldn't have been the first time you abandoned the people you cared about and went off on your own little grail quest.
PETE
::under breath:: Uh oh.
CHLOE Don't get me wrong, I think the dynamic duo routine you two have going is just the cutest, but hell I half expected at least a Scooby snack under my pillow, but then I guess if a member of the gang were to get the axe, the dog would be the weakest link, and since I'm obviously the group's bitch, that would put me at the top of the list.
Chloe steps up to Clark, arching her neck to look up at him as she tears into him.
PETE
Chloe.
She quickly turns her attention to Pete.
CHLOE
Shut up, Shaggy, I'm pissed at you too.
PETE
Shutting up.
She turns back to Clark.
CHLOE
Of all the selfish, insensitive, bullheaded things you could have pulled. You think you're the only one whose life has been turned upside down and crapped on? My father's missing too, you know, and probably thanks to that Miss Priss princess you've spent half your life pining over. So help me god, I'm gonna kick her bony little ass when I find her. How dare you leave me behind!
PETE Chloe, we didn't leave you behind.
Again turning to Pete, she points back to the gap in the trees.
CHLOE
Go sit in the car!
PETE
Yes, ma'am.
Pete sheepishly runs off to the truck.
Chloe looks back at Clark and waits for an answer.
CHLOE
Well? Are you going to say something or are you just going to pretend like the cat completely swallowed your tongue?
He takes a step back, distancing himself from the fumes emanating from beneath the blondeness.
CLARK You have a concussion. You should be in bed.
CHLOE No, I should be dead, there's a big difference. But I'll tell you this, nothing short of that is going to keep me from looking for my father, least of all you.
CLARK
No one's trying to keep you from looking for your father.
CHLOE
So, you just don't want me around?
CLARK
I didn't say that.
CHLOE
You didn't have too say that. What the hell is with you and near death experiences anyway, Clark? Most of the time, it brings people closer together. There are all these wonderful revelations about life, and death, and relationships. People kiss, they fall in love, live happily ever after. With you, it's more like being a little puppy that got locked in a closet for peeing on the rug.
CLARK
That's not true.
He turns his back to her and starts walking to nowhere in particular.
CHLOE
Oh really? And yet, here you are, turning your back on me and walking away again. Seriously, Clark, this weight of the world schtick is really wearing thin.
CLARK You don't understand.
She walks after him.
CHLOE Yeah, no crap I don't understand, you never tell me anything. ever!
She steps in front of him, cutting him off.
CHLOE You always have to go out and do everything on your own like some godforsaken rogue on a bender. No, you're more content with sneaking out of the house at four thirty in the morning without telling anyone where you went, how to contact you, or when the hell we're ever going to see you again. My father's missing, my house is a crime scene, and I haven't seen my boyfriend in more than a week despite the fact that I've been living in his freaking house!
CLARK
I've been out trying to find them, just like you.
CHLOE
Just like me, just like your mother, just like the police, and just like everyone else in Smallville. What makes you think you have any better chance of finding them than we do?
He starts to answer, but quickly catches himself.
CHLOE
This isn't a one man show, Clark. There's a whole supporting cast out there of people with real feelings, and real lives, who have all been affected by what's happened and yet you seem content with dealing with it all on your own and leaving the rest of us to rot in the wallowing pool. Well, guess what, that's not how it works.
CLARK
Look, can't you just accept the fact that some people handle these situations differently than you do? What do you want from me!?
CHLOE
I want you! I need you. I'm going crazy here, Clark, and you're not even talking to me. I need you to stop trying to be some kind of super-man and for once in your life be content with being a man... a man who's there for the people he cares about and the people who care about him. I'm grateful that you saved my life, Clark, but sometimes it's not enough for you to just swoop down out of the sky, or a helicopter, with a miraculous, inexplicable, rescue if you're just gonna disappear afterwards. That's not fair. I need you to be there for me and let me be there for you.
Hesitant, looks to her as if he's in pain, which really isn't far from the truth.
CLARK
I don't know if I can do that anymore.
CHLOE
Why not?
CLARK
I.
He chokes.
CLARK
I just. I want too.
Clark hangs his head and turns away from her, again.
CLARK
I just don't know if I can. I'm sorry. It's just. so much has happened. I just don't know what to do anymore.
Placing her hand on his arm, she walks around him, catching his eyes with her own.
CHLOE
For starters, you can let me help. This is a team effort, Clark. You don't have to do this alone. and it's not fair for you to try.
She lifts up the notebook between them, showing it to him.
CHLOE
I found the house.
A soft breeze gently bends back the golden grass that expands, seemingly infinitely, in all directions. Clark and Pete look out into the endless field, standing just in front of a conspicuously out of place row of trees. A barn can be seen in the distance.
PETE Yeah, so, I gotta be honest with ya, Clark. I'm not seein' no houses.
CLARK ::shakes head:: She said it was here, Pete. She said she saw the lights through the trees when they were driving down the road.
Clark turns around and motions towards a small gap in the trees where a town roadway can be seen corralled by a fence and the trees on either side. The fence and trees clearly mark out the path of the road in each direction, and also act as a convenient geographical border to the farm.
CLARK It's got to be here.
Pete takes a long look to his left, then an equally generous one to his right.
PETE ::shrugs:: Well, unless the Kent family's doing some backwards inheritance and Ma Kent's grown herself some super-peepers, the closest thing's I see is old man Cabot's barn. There's no way she could have seen that from the road.
Clark, desperately lacking a rebuttal, utilizes his previously mentioned "super-peepers" to look over the farm in the way only he can.
PETE
Yo, man, what are you doing?
CLARK
There's got to be something here, Pete.
PETE
You're doing that thing with your eyes again, aren't you?
Clark turns his gaze to his left, continuing his meticulous canvass of the farm by, literally, looking completely through his good buddy.
PETE
Yo, Clark, I ain't playin' wit' you, man!
Pete jumps out of line of sight.
PETE ::angry:: What did I tell you about doing that. that.
Pete points to his eyes and makes a buzzing sound.
PETE
.zzzzz. thing around me?
CLARK It's harmless, Pete.
PETE
Yeah, harmless, sure. It's harmless until some bug flies up in your eye and all of a sudden it's Pete "The Human Torch".
CLARK ::smiles devilishly:: What's wrong, Pete? Don't you trust me?
PETE
Yeah, I trust you. I also trust you to hold a loaded gun to my head and not pull the trigger, but I'm not gonna let you do that either. All I need's some Russian cosmonaut with an appetite for three bean salad to jettison his business the way of the sun, next thing I know I'm bursting into flames and all that's left of sidekick Pete is two smoking cinders and some Reeboks.
Clark shakes his head in frustration, his search revealing little more than a few lost nickels and dimes.
CLARK
Nothing.
PETE
Look, it was dark out, right? They were driving around in the cruiser. Their lights were on. Maybe some of the lights on the dashboard were reflecting off the window. Maybe that's what she saw.
CLARK
How do you mistake reflections off a car window for a porch light?
Pete throws his hand in the air.
PETE
How do you mistake nothing for a house?
A slight rumbling in the distance, moving closer, grabs their attention. Clark peers through the trees revealing a car driving towards them from down the road. He rolls his eyes upon recognizing the driver.
CLARK Oh great, this is all I need.
PETE
What?
CLARK
It's Chloe.
PETE
That's bad? I thought you two were all like. you know.
Pete starts up a classic erotic beat, adding a head bob.
CLARK
Not quite.
Chloe pulls up along the roadside next to Clark's truck, coming to an aggressive stop. As she gets out of her car, she slams the door shut, looking seriously fumed. Carrying a notebook, with some papers stuffed inside the front cover, she storms through the gap in the trees and heads straight for Clark.
CHLOE
You know, I almost could have accepted the Lone Ranger routine, after all, it wouldn't have been the first time you abandoned the people you cared about and went off on your own little grail quest.
PETE
::under breath:: Uh oh.
CHLOE Don't get me wrong, I think the dynamic duo routine you two have going is just the cutest, but hell I half expected at least a Scooby snack under my pillow, but then I guess if a member of the gang were to get the axe, the dog would be the weakest link, and since I'm obviously the group's bitch, that would put me at the top of the list.
Chloe steps up to Clark, arching her neck to look up at him as she tears into him.
PETE
Chloe.
She quickly turns her attention to Pete.
CHLOE
Shut up, Shaggy, I'm pissed at you too.
PETE
Shutting up.
She turns back to Clark.
CHLOE
Of all the selfish, insensitive, bullheaded things you could have pulled. You think you're the only one whose life has been turned upside down and crapped on? My father's missing too, you know, and probably thanks to that Miss Priss princess you've spent half your life pining over. So help me god, I'm gonna kick her bony little ass when I find her. How dare you leave me behind!
PETE Chloe, we didn't leave you behind.
Again turning to Pete, she points back to the gap in the trees.
CHLOE
Go sit in the car!
PETE
Yes, ma'am.
Pete sheepishly runs off to the truck.
Chloe looks back at Clark and waits for an answer.
CHLOE
Well? Are you going to say something or are you just going to pretend like the cat completely swallowed your tongue?
He takes a step back, distancing himself from the fumes emanating from beneath the blondeness.
CLARK You have a concussion. You should be in bed.
CHLOE No, I should be dead, there's a big difference. But I'll tell you this, nothing short of that is going to keep me from looking for my father, least of all you.
CLARK
No one's trying to keep you from looking for your father.
CHLOE
So, you just don't want me around?
CLARK
I didn't say that.
CHLOE
You didn't have too say that. What the hell is with you and near death experiences anyway, Clark? Most of the time, it brings people closer together. There are all these wonderful revelations about life, and death, and relationships. People kiss, they fall in love, live happily ever after. With you, it's more like being a little puppy that got locked in a closet for peeing on the rug.
CLARK
That's not true.
He turns his back to her and starts walking to nowhere in particular.
CHLOE
Oh really? And yet, here you are, turning your back on me and walking away again. Seriously, Clark, this weight of the world schtick is really wearing thin.
CLARK You don't understand.
She walks after him.
CHLOE Yeah, no crap I don't understand, you never tell me anything. ever!
She steps in front of him, cutting him off.
CHLOE You always have to go out and do everything on your own like some godforsaken rogue on a bender. No, you're more content with sneaking out of the house at four thirty in the morning without telling anyone where you went, how to contact you, or when the hell we're ever going to see you again. My father's missing, my house is a crime scene, and I haven't seen my boyfriend in more than a week despite the fact that I've been living in his freaking house!
CLARK
I've been out trying to find them, just like you.
CHLOE
Just like me, just like your mother, just like the police, and just like everyone else in Smallville. What makes you think you have any better chance of finding them than we do?
He starts to answer, but quickly catches himself.
CHLOE
This isn't a one man show, Clark. There's a whole supporting cast out there of people with real feelings, and real lives, who have all been affected by what's happened and yet you seem content with dealing with it all on your own and leaving the rest of us to rot in the wallowing pool. Well, guess what, that's not how it works.
CLARK
Look, can't you just accept the fact that some people handle these situations differently than you do? What do you want from me!?
CHLOE
I want you! I need you. I'm going crazy here, Clark, and you're not even talking to me. I need you to stop trying to be some kind of super-man and for once in your life be content with being a man... a man who's there for the people he cares about and the people who care about him. I'm grateful that you saved my life, Clark, but sometimes it's not enough for you to just swoop down out of the sky, or a helicopter, with a miraculous, inexplicable, rescue if you're just gonna disappear afterwards. That's not fair. I need you to be there for me and let me be there for you.
Hesitant, looks to her as if he's in pain, which really isn't far from the truth.
CLARK
I don't know if I can do that anymore.
CHLOE
Why not?
CLARK
I.
He chokes.
CLARK
I just. I want too.
Clark hangs his head and turns away from her, again.
CLARK
I just don't know if I can. I'm sorry. It's just. so much has happened. I just don't know what to do anymore.
Placing her hand on his arm, she walks around him, catching his eyes with her own.
CHLOE
For starters, you can let me help. This is a team effort, Clark. You don't have to do this alone. and it's not fair for you to try.
She lifts up the notebook between them, showing it to him.
CHLOE
I found the house.