Chapter Five

Ashley tore her paintings down from the wall and threw them to the floor; photographs of her before the accident lay ripped to pieces and scattered about her room. That girl didn't exist anymore; that happy girl with perfect skin and the tough-girl attitude was gone, replaced by this bitter, scarred cry-baby who she hated. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and lifted her fringe to look at her angry red scar, that one constant reminder of the accident, the one reminder that she was different. Her hands formed fists at the memory of that day and instinctively, she punched the mirror. Shards of mirrored glass flew out across the floor and blood began to seep from the puncture wounds on her knuckles; she watched the oozing red before realising what she had done and rushed to the bathroom. As she washed her hands, she could hear footsteps running up the stairs and hoped she could sound normal when her father asked her what was going on but she was stunned to hear Clark shouting her name.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, opening the bathroom door as she finished wrapping tissue paper around her hand. Clark frowned in concern as he saw the blood begin to seep through the tissue. "Clark, what do you want?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay, your Dad said I could come up," he started, reaching out to take her injured hand but she pulled it away. "I was worried about you; you looked upset at the Torch,"

"Wouldn't you be upset too? I thought we had something special, Clark but I'm nothing to you, you'd rather spend time with Lana than with me," she sniffed, more tears coming to her eyes. "I can't believe I was so stupid to think you loved me,"

"That's not true, Ashley. Lana is just a friend, you don't mind me spending time with Chloe; I don't understand what's wrong. You know how I feel about you," said Clark, stepping forward and giving Ashley the chance to fall into his arms. It was a chance that she took; they stood in the hallway holding each other tightly as Ashley sobbed her heart out. Clark stroked her hair as she cried and started walking her to the open door of her bedroom.

"I made a bit of a mess," she sniffed, a smile breaking through the tears as they walked in. "I've not got the best temper control in the world," Clark laughed and nodded as he made room for them to sit down on the bed.

"Look, Ashley, do you want to talk about anything? You know that I'm here for you if you need me, right?" soothed Clark, his hand resting on her knee as he spoke. She looked up at him expectantly and Clark knew it was the perfect moment, he leaned down and brushed a few wisps of her fringe aside and kissed her softly. Ashley's heart rose up into her throat, she felt so stupid for acting the way she had but Clark hadn't ran away from her, he was still here, he was still kissing her and the world was beginning to make sense again. As Clark broke away and leaned back, he quickly glanced out of the window and sure enough, the rain had stopped and the clouds were beginning to break apart, allowing the tiniest slivers of blue to shine through.

"I dreamt of you," said Ashley finally, looking down at the floor and shifting her feet nervously. "Seven months with nothing but a memory of you picking me up from that field. I think I fell in love with you that day,"

"Do you remember anything else about that day?" asked Clark, looking at her intently as he stroked her hand with his own. She looked out of the window, a frown etched on her face as she tried to remember what had happened.

"There was something weird in the ground; lightning hit right in front of me and it broke up some of those meteor rocks that were in the field but they were glowing and I didn't know what they were. I was going to bring them home for Dad to look at but then I don't really remember much," she smiled.  "Except you," Clark squeezed her hand and kissed her again, it was instinctual. He just wanted to kiss her all the time, he couldn't bear being alone with her and not be touching her in some way. He only hoped that she could understand that despite his feelings for her, he still had to make time to see his friends and that meant making time for Lana.

"Ashley, I don't want you to get upset but I really do have to see Lana tonight," Ashley flinched at Lana's name but remained still while Clark spoke. "But, I want to invite you over for dinner tomorrow, you can meet my parents and we can have the whole day to ourselves. Is that okay?"

"I guess so," sighed Ashley, running her fingers through her fringe, her version of a nervous tic; her constant obsession with hiding the truth from the waking world. "But, do you really have to go yet?" She looked up at him and smiled, her eyes searching his for something but not knowing what, he leaned down and kissed her again. This was what was important to her now, every dream she could remember from her never-ending sleep were finally coming true. Clark was hers. She could put up with Clark's friendship with Lana if she had to; after all, Clark was her boyfriend now.

"Kent Farm,"

Clark picked up the ringing telephone with his usual introduction and wondered where his parents were. Martha was usually in the kitchen when the phone rang but not this evening, he could only assume they were taking a walk around the farm while the weather held up. He thought about Ashley and wondered just how long the weather would remain stable.

"I take it from this beautiful evening that you smoothed things over with our Miss Robbins?" said Chloe, Clark smiled; he should've known it would be her.

"We talked, she's okay with Lana now," explained Clark. "She didn't seem to realise she was changing the weather but she mentioned picking up some meteor rock before she got hit,"

"What in this town is not related to those rocks?" said Chloe. "Well, at least she's calm for now. Are you going to try and talk to her about it?"

"What am I supposed to say, Chloe? It's not like I can slip it into conversation over coffee or anything," he sighed in frustration. "I'll sort something out; she's coming over for dinner tomorrow,"

"Meeting the parents after a fortnight? You do move fast, Clark," teased Chloe, Clark gave a fake laugh and hung up on her. It wasn't that kind of dinner, he just thought it would be nice for Ashley to come over and meet his parents; he wondered if she was under the impression it was that kind of dinner. He sighed as he realised he had no idea what he was doing, his feelings and emotions for Ashley were spiralling out of control and he didn't really know how he felt about her, what he wanted from her. He sat at the table and reached for an apple, rolling it around underneath his hand as he thought about his relationship with Ashley.

"Penny for your thoughts," said Lana as she closed the screen door behind her, Clark looked up and smiled. "Your parents are walking around out there like teenagers in love, it's sweet,"

"I wondered where they'd disappeared to, it's a nice night for a walk," he said. Lana nodded and sat down opposite him at the table. "So, how are you, Lana? I feel like I haven't seen you in months,"

"I'm fine; I finally managed to get all those essays out of the way. I never realised how working at the Talon affected my schoolwork before; I've seriously had to cut back on my shifts there. I think Liz was thankful of the extra money," she said. "What about you, Clark? You've been a little caught up lately, how are things with Ashley?"

"I don't know, to be honest. A little strained at the moment but otherwise good," he started, looking up at Lana who was watching him intently. "She's so perfect for me but sometimes I wonder if she's really okay or if she's just pretending for my sake,"

"What do you mean?" asked Lana, her eyes wide with anticipation.

"Well, she only started talking about the accident today but all she could talk about was me saving her. I only took her to the hospital, Lana. It wasn't like I saved her life or anything," Clark sighed and put the apple back into the fruit bowl, wiping his hands down on his jeans.

"Sometimes, people take a little while to open up. It's good that you guys are talking though; it shows that she trusts you. I mean, she trusts you enough to just hand all of her feelings over. She's brave," smiled Lana, wishing she had been able to be that honest with Clark when they were together. Maybe things would be different if she had, maybe things would be very different.

"I think I might be falling for her," admitted Clark, flushing slightly at his admission. He never thought Lana would be the one he would say those words to. "I mean… I just… I mean, I think she's one of the greatest girls I've met in a long time,"

"That's great, Clark," said Lana, swallowing hard. She hoped she didn't look too upset; she wanted to be there for her friend. Besides, her and Clark were over now, there was no point living in the past. It was a good thing that Clark was moving on; she could do the same if she needed to.

"I'm sorry, Lana. I didn't mean to say it like that," he smiled. "I know this is weird, we didn't speak for so long but now, I just feel like I want to tell you what's going on in my life,"

"You don't need to apologise, I'm honoured that you want to confide in me,"

Clark smiled and they continued to talk for what seemed like hours; Martha and Jonathon returned from their walk and headed up the staircase to bed. Lana told Clark all about her struggle with homework and her waning passion for her scholastic activities lately; she spoke of meetings with Lex and how much she enjoyed being a part of his world at those meetings. Clark felt a twinge of jealousy at the way she spoke about Lex but he knew that it was only a residual protectiveness for Lana; she could do a lot worse than Lex Luthor in his mind. Finally, Lana stood from the table and said goodbye to Clark, he walked her to the door and gave her a brief hug before watching her walk along the dusty road back towards her house.

"Any room at the inn?" asked a voice from the shadows. Clark spun around in shock and came face to face with Ashley. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just wandered over and saw you saying goodbye to Lana. Did you have a good night with her?"

"Yeah," said Clark, immediately outstretching his arms to encase Ashley. "We caught up properly, it was good. What did you mean, any room at the inn?" Ashley looked up at him and grinned mischievously, kissing him hard on the lips and letting her hands rove across his chest and down his abdomen, her fingers feeling the grooves of each muscle.

"I mean, are you really going to make me walk all the way home or can I stay here tonight?" she smiled. Clark looked back over his shoulder to the staircase his parents had ascended a few hours before, they would be asleep by now surely. He smiled at Ashley and ushered her inside, locking the door behind them.

A/N – Yeah… things have been a little too hunky-dory lately and so as of Chapter 6, things are not well in Smallville… Hope you keep reading! :D