Author's Note – Yes, it's up quick but I've been away for a fortnight. I've pretty much finished this baby!! g

Chapter Seven

Chloe woke to a strange cacophony of kitchen sounds; the percolator bubbling away, the clatter of pots and pans and hushed voices talking. It was a nice noise to wake up to, her father avoided the kitchen in the morning and Chloe had grown up on coffee and cereal. She blearily opened her eyes, pain shooting through her cheek as she unglued her swollen left eye, a painful reminder of Lex's right hook. Sitting up from the sofa, she noticed a large red t-shirt that she immediately recognised as Clark's on the coffee table and gratefully slipped it over her head. She hadn't exactly relished the thought of greeting the Kents for breakfast in an evening dress from the night before.

"Morning, Chloe. Want some coffee?" asked Martha as Chloe sloped into the kitchen, she smiled and nodded, moving closer to Clark as she noticed everyone was fully dressed for the day. It was irrational but she felt lazy, lounging around someone else's kitchen in the clothes she had slept in.

"Thanks," she murmured as Martha handed her a mug of freshly brewed coffee. Clark must have informed his parents of Chloe's situation as both Martha and Jonathon were avoiding looking at her left eye, she was grateful. It wasn't something she wanted to dwell on, the sooner things returned to normal, the better. She followed Clark to the breakfast table and sat next to him, smiling broadly as Martha dished out a cooked breakfast to everyone. Chloe wished her father could see her now; Gabe Sullivan, the king of cereals would be sick with jealousy at the bacon, eggs, tomatoes and toast that now sat on her plate. She tucked in hungrily, she was sure it was an after-effect of her drinking the night before but she was too hungry to care. It was strange to be having a meal with a family and every so often, she stopped and looked around, listening to Martha and Jonathon as they made small talk and feeling a twinge of jealousy.

"So, are you two going to school today?" asked Jonathon, drinking half of his coffee in one mouthful.

"I don't think so," said Chloe with a smile. "I haven't got any clothes and there isn't enough make-up in the world to cover this," She waved a hand to her bruised eye and Jonathon nodded and looked away, he seemed embarrassed and she regretted mentioning it.

"I'm not going in either," said Clark, looking at Chloe. "I want to make sure you're okay,"

"Just make sure you catch up on anything you miss in class, okay?" said Martha, Clark could tell from her tone that she wasn't keen on him missing school but she understood the reasons. Clark nodded with a smile and stood from the table; Chloe quickly wiped her mouth with her napkin and excused herself, following Clark out to the barn. Up to his 'Fortress of Solitude'. She could practically sense the hundred and one questions bubbling inside him, she wasn't looking forward to any of them.

Chloe collapsed onto the old sofa and sighed softly as Clark sat beside her, staring intently at her bruise and reaching out to brush her hair out of her eyes. She let him, it was nothing more than friendly concern, it was all she would allow it to be. Clark watched her flinch slightly at his touch and wondered if she had even realised. There were so many things he wanted to know but he didn't know where to start, he just couldn't understand how anyone could hurt her or why she had come to him and not Lex. Maybe he should start there.

"Does Lex know about this?" he asked, his fingers still pressed gently against her skin. He couldn't take them away, he felt as though he could heal her if he just kept touching her; he needed to have the contact. "Did you call him or did you just come straight here?"

"Lex knows," she mumbled, she hadn't changed her mind. She was not going to tell Clark what had actually happened, he didn't need to know the intricacies of her doomed relationship. "But we're not together anymore, that's why I came here,"

"But..." Clark was dumbfounded, he had no idea that Chloe and Lex had broken up. How could he have known? "I thought that he was taking you out last night, did you have a fight or something? Did this happen in Metropolis?"

"Clark, usually I would applaud your journalistic instinct for asking the hard-hitting questions but right now, I just want to forget yesterday ever happened," she sighed. "Lex and I are over, and that's the end of it. This stupid bruise will go down and things will be the way they always were, just the way everyone wanted,"

"Hey, calm down, I didn't want this. I wasn't crazy about you and Lex but I didn't want you to break up, I just wanted you to be happy," said Clark, slightly wounded by Chloe's words.

"I know; I'm sorry. I'm just on edge," she said. "Can you please drive me home? Lana will be at school and Dad should be at work by now, I want to throw this dress away. I never want to see it again,"

"No problem," smiled Clark, jumping up and offering her a hand. She accepted it with a smile and the pair of them left the barn and jumped into Clark's truck. Chloe had her shawl and bag but she'd left her shoes in the Kent's living room but there was no reason to go back for them, they were broken now, they needed to be thrown out. Along with her dress.

"Does it hurt?" asked Clark as he turned the corner into Pleasant Meadows, Chloe nodded but remained silent, looking out for her Dad's car. "It must've happened pretty fast for you not to run,"

"I don't remember, it was dark," she said, an easy lie, what did it matter anymore? Her father's car wasn't in the drive when they arrived and Clark jumped out of the truck to open her door. "Ah, you are the perfect gentleman, Clark Kent," she laughed and dug in her bag for her house keys.

Inside, the house was a mess as it always was but something about it felt so good to Chloe. She felt as if she hadn't been home in days, then it dawned on her; she hadn't. She hadn't seen her father in two days, only spoken to him on the phone. Lex had stolen her away from her world and pulled her into his, and she had let him. She didn't know who she was angriest with; Lex or herself.

"Won't your Dad be worried that you didn't come home last night?" asked Clark, Chloe shook her head as she led him into the kitchen. The one room in the house guaranteed to be relatively tidy; she folded her long coat over on of the chairs and filled the kettle with water.

"No, he knows I've been staying over at the mansion. He was fine with it," she said, her casual tone was like a slap across the face to Clark. He hadn't known. He hadn't known that she was staying with Lex, he didn't know anything about their relationship but he could only assume that she had been sharing his bed, that Chloe had slept with him, that they were lovers in every sense of the word. He coughed quietly, clearing his throat of the air trapped there by her casual words. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, before deciding that he had been lying to Chloe for too long. "Actually, I'm not. I didn't realise that you and Lex were so… I don't know, so far into your relationship," Chloe blushed a little and hopped up onto the sideboard, she was ignorant to the reasons behind Clark's admission.

"I wanted to wait a while but Lex was so persistent and then one night, it just felt right, you know?" she said, Clark stared out of the window. How could he know? He had wanted his one night to be with Chloe, it would never happen now. "We'd spent so many nights just sleeping together; sex just seemed to be the next logical step. Not that anything me and Lex ever did was logical, I wish I'd listened to you, Clark,"

"About what?"

"About Lex, about everything. I think he was too old for me, I thought it would be cool to play at being Mrs Luthor or something but it wasn't. It was hard and it just wasn't fun anymore," she sighed, the kettle was beginning to bubble so she jumped down from the counter and grabbed two mugs from the cupboard above her head. "Tea or coffee?"

"Tea," said Clark. He was still reeling from Chloe's frankness; her relationship with Lex had changed her. She would never have admitted to anything like this to him before, but things were different then as well, Chloe had feelings for him and that's why she hid so much of herself away. Clark knew only too well how many lies you had to tell to the people you loved the most. He sat down at the kitchen table, he would need to be sitting if Chloe was about to go into detail on her relationship with Lex and he could feel that she was desperate to discuss it with someone. She handed him a steaming mug of tea and sat opposite him, taking a sip before starting to talk again.