Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry for the short chapters! Like I said in 4.01 though, episodes 2 and 3 will be shorter, but 4 is looking to be long...in fact I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make 4 into two parts (call it 4 and 5) because there's so much that I want to happen in it. Thanks for all of the nice comments, and the constructive criticisms... :0)

The first thing that Lex noted: her room was nicely decorated, not too girly. A soft purple paint coloured the walls, nothing too pink or floral in sight. She'd changed her clothes, a light blue sweater (that screamed Lana Lang) now replacing the green one he'd bought her. Lex frowned at the blank expression on her face.

"Chloe?" he asked from his spot at her doorway. She jumped slightly and turned to him in surprise, just noticing him.

"What?" she breathed, and realizing that she was just sitting there, jumped to her feet. She zipped the duffle bag closed.

"Do you need any help?" he tried to catch her eyes but she looked away.

"It's done," she stepped back from the bag and picked up the wet sweater and pants. "I hope the sweater isn't ruined."

"Water won't hurt it," Lex pointed out.

"But is should be laid flat to dry," she checked the label. "What if it's all stretched out of shape?" She began to unfold it frantically, trying to check the shape. "I'm sorry!"

"Chloe," Lex reached out and stilled her hands. "It's fine, it can survive a little rain."

"Okay," she nodded and ran a hand through her hair, which was tangled from the rain. "I was wrong, I do need... my hairbrush was in my old backpack... and my hairdryer. I don't have any shampoo or a toothbrush..."

"We can buy all of that," Lex assured her.

"And half of my clothes are missing," Chloe continued, not really speaking to him anymore. "After I made that big deal about not needing to go shopping... once I get my wallet replaced I'll have to go shopping..."

Lex let her ramble for a few minutes, knowing that she needed to vent somehow. When she finally seemed to run out of things to add to her shopping list, Lex picked up her duffle bag and the clothes she'd neatly folded. "Chloe," he said slowly, and made sure that she was paying attention now. "Martha Kent called my cell phone while you were packing. She wants me to bring you over there to spend the night. Tomorrow we can talk with Gabe's lawyer about where you want to stay after that. Okay?"

She nodded and followed him back downstairs. Lex slipped his coat back on and bade sure that she remembered to bring one of her own. Chloe took one last longing look around the house, before they made their way out to the car, as quickly as possible.

Lex drove at his usual breakneck speed to the Kent farm but she didn't seem to notice. Jonathan ran out to greet them, taking her bag inside the house as quickly as he could, and leaving them alone in the car to say goodbye.

"All right Chloe, I'm going to go now," Lex told her. Chloe's mouth opened wide, her eyebrows shooting up.

"Oh right, of course... I'm so stupid," she began to ramble again. "You've probably got things to do and here I am dragging this out. I'm really sorry—"

"That's crazy," Lex cut her off and smiled kindly, not really used to this insecure version of Chloe Sullivan. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be. Now, I'm going to come back tomorrow okay? I'll bring you to meet with the lawyer; I'll pick you up at nine thirty. Sound good?"

"Yes, that's good," she nodded.

"See you tomorrow," he smiled again, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder slightly.

"See you tomorrow," she repeated and climbed out of the car. Once the house door had shut behind her, Lex drove off.

TBC...