For two days, Chloe immersed herself in schoolwork and the Torch. By lunchtime on Wednesday, the entire next week's edition had been laid out, all of her articles were finished and every school project due for the next month had been completed. She was restless.

Figuring that if Lana could find some escape from her problems in her insane matchmaking scheme, maybe it would work for her too. Chloe started brainstorming for ways of her own to get Clark and Lex together. Since just locking them in the same room until they started making out wouldn't work for obvious reasons, Chloe's list was mournfully short.

1. Anonymous love letters - entirely too Jr. High and would undoubtedly result in The Plan being exposed.

2. Group Dating??? - they could get a group of couples together to go to the movies and invite Clark and Lex along as the only singles. But would it work with Lex being the only real adult?

3. Make Clark Jealous - too easy and volatile, but maybe further down the line if he's being especially difficult.

Her e-mail pinged and Chloe jumped at the chance for a distraction and opened it up hoping it wasn't just junk mail.

To: Chloe Sullivan
From: The Mack Daddy
Subject: What's up?

Hey guess what? I'm bored out of my mind and Dad says I can visit sometime soon, so I was wondering if you would be so kind as to put me up ;) since you guys have the extra room and all now.

I know. I know. My homesickness is insane. I'll probably be attacked by mutant clowns or something while I'm visiting, but I'd almost welcome the familiarity. It could be just like old times. One of us will get kidnapped (I hence forth volunteer) and the others (led by good old Clark) will come to the rescue.

Or we could go to the movies and eat lots of popcorn.

Write back soon.

Pete

Chloe grinned. Leave it to Pete to distract and cheer her up when she least expected it. She promptly wrote back.

To: The Mack Daddy
From: Chloe Sullivan
Subject: Come on over baby!

I didn't tell you! I can't believe I didn't tell you! The pink princess moved back in - only she wears more black now since her return from gay ol'Paris. And I'm not kidding about the gay part (you'll find out when you get here).

Nevertheless I offer you the use of my humble, yet extremely comfortable couch for the duration of one weekend.

I also accept your offer of movies and popcorn, though you're going to have to go it on your own with the mutant clown thing. I've been enjoying the drought of meteor freak sightings of late.

But I also have to warn you that things are far from dull in ye old town.

Like the other thing, you'll find out when you get here.

See you soon,

Chloe

PS. This weekend, right? - I'll tell my dad.

Chloe quickly sent the e-mail, then minimized her browser.

"What are you so happy about in here?" Lana asked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

"Pete's coming to visit, hopefully this weekend. He wants to do movies and popcorn." Chloe swiveled her chair around to face Lana. "And I've got a tentative addition to add to The Plan."

"Oh really?" Lana raised her eyebrows teasingly. "What may that be?"

"A group date where Clark and Lex are the only singles. Of course we don't tell them that it's a date." Chloe scrunched up her face thoughtfully. "But I keep coming up with the problem of how to get Lex there."

"He won't want to hang out with a bunch of highschoolers." Lana agreed.

"He probably wouldn't do it even if it were a group of people his own age."

"Unless of course there was another, official reason for him to go. Like someone's birthday party or a Luthor Corp. event."

"A birthday party would have too many people there and Luthor Corp event would be even worse. There'd be press and society people all over, watching his every move."

"Too bad we can't get him to chaperone something…

"…like with our new friends…" Chloe continued Lana's thought.

"…an official school group outing, since the school charter states that we have to have at least one responsible adult at all school sponsored activities. Maybe movies and popcorn?"

"Perfect."

Lana smiled widely, "Thank you."

"You got the group official then?"

"This morning." Lana nodded her head. "Principle Reynolds thought he could put me off and not have to deal with me, but he gravely underestimated my tenacity."

"How did you do it?" Chloe wondered aloud.

"I got Chad's girlfriend to help me break into his office before he got to school today and then waited for him with enough filled out paperwork, ACLU information and precedence that he caved within ten minutes."

Chloe shook her head. "I don't envy him. The community backlash is going to be something horrible."

"Maybe, but the point is that community recognition is being given to alternative lifestyles for the first time ever in Smallville." Lana smiled a little too evilly and put her hands together ala Montgomery Burns. "And my Plan is coming along quite nicely."

Lex's headache couldn't get any worse. None of his investigations into the judges or other officials with the power to overturn his father's conviction had yet to yield any results.

Gabe Sullivan was also still alternating between spacing off at odd moments, looking at Lex with concern and readily blushing with no apparent cause.

And the conversation that let him know that Martha Kent officially knew he was in love with Clark kept replaying itself in his head, getting worse the more he dwelled on it.

He was waiting for a corporate takeover or some kind of other disaster to hit at any moment when his phone beeped.

"Yes?" Lex asked.

"Sir, this is Anthony at the front gate. A Miss Lana Lang is here to see you." The voice on the other end announced.

"Oh hell." Lex cursed aloud to the empty room, then hit the intercom button again, "Send her up."

A few minutes and a quick drink later, she waltzed through the doors to his office.

"Lana," he put on his best smile. "How are you?"

"Well sort of depends on what you're going to say when I ask you for a favor." She replied

'A favor - surprise, surprise' Lex thought to himself. "Well that depends on what is it?"

"I need you to chaperone a school outing."

Lex did a double take. "What?"

"It's for the new school group I've put together. We need an adult and no one else will do it." She explained.

"But I'm not a parent or a teacher."

"That doesn't matter. You're well above age and a responsible pillar of the community."

"What about Gabe Sullivan?" He worked for him. Lex would make the other man do it if necessary.

"He would, but he's Chloe's dad."

"So that would logically make him the perfect choice." Lex pointed out.

"Lex, it's going to be a social event and Chloe and I will be together…" Lana broke out her award winning sad princess face. "…socially."

"So you think it'd be uncomfortable." Lex stated.

"You wouldn't want your Dad chaperoning you with one of your lovers." Lana actually batted her eyes at him.

'He'd probably sleep with them or it'd be apart of a scheme to try to murder me before the night was out,' Lex thought to himself.

He looked into those sad puppy dog eyes, knew that there was no other solution the girl was going to except and sighed resignedly. "When would this be?"

As soon as Clark had really gotten into the book Lana lent him, he realized she had suggested it because it took the subtext of Dorian Grey and made it text.

Though he did wonder why if she was going to give him such a blatant hint, it hadn't been a book about two lesbians.

The narrative also had some especially descriptive passages. Clark found himself both clandestinely enjoying it and hiding it very well from anyone else who might catch him reading it.

The book was kind of like porn.

"Hello Clark"

Clark yelped and jumped so far up into the air, he thought he might have floated a bit. Not really thinking, he quickly threw the book into the corner of the couch like it was on fire and tossed a small pillow over it.

Belatedly trying to correct his mistake, he bent down and acted as though he were merely straightening the couch and fluffing up the pillows.

Gradually, Clark turned around to a very amused guest. "Hey Lex."

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything," Lex's eyes darted down to the pillow and hidden book. "I called up, but I don't think you heard me."

"No," he admitted. "I was distracted…um…"

"Reading?" Lex supplied the answer for him.

"Yep. I was reading." Clark winced at his own words. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to check on you. I know we haven't talked about it, but you seemed shaken up after the events of last Sunday."

"I'm fine. Those guys were just loud mouthed idiots."

It did shake Clark up a little bit, but he was over it by now.

"Good. I wouldn't want to think that those rumors really offended you."

Clark blinked a bit in confusion. For some reason, Lex's statement had just sounded odd.

"They didn't" He assured the other man who was currently looking at him with a penetrating gaze which made him involuntary shiver.

"Cold?" Lex had noticed his reaction.

"It's a bit chilly up here." He grabbed the jacket flung over his desk chair and put it on.

Clark turned back around to find that Lex had moved across the room to stand close to him.

"There was something else I was kind of hoping you could help me with."

Clark's sight involuntary wondered to the scar on Lex's top lip, then promptly snapped back up to look him in the eye.

"Sure, what is it?" Clark asked, wondering why his mouth had gone dry all of a sudden.

"Lana."

The girl's name hit Clark like a bucket of cold water.

"Lang?" He asked.

"The one and only." Lex smiled. "I think she's up to something."

Clark wrinkled his forehead. "Something to do with you?"

"Yes. She came to see me earlier tonight," Lex told him. "She wanted a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"She wants me to chaperone her new school group's first official outing this weekend." He looked a little amused by it. "I've just got a feeling something's happening that I don't know about."

"Did you say yes?" Clark grinned back at him, already knowing the answer.

Lex shook his head and smiled. "She started to get that look in her eyes like I'd be stomping on her puppy if I didn't do it."

Clark snickered. "You're really so easy sometimes."

"Only for the right person." Lex shot back.

Looking into each other's eyes, Clark felt the pull to draw closer and touch him like he hadn't felt for months.

"I've missed this." Lex spoke so softly he almost whispered.

"Me too." He admitted.

Lex kept looking at him in a way that made his stomach flip.

"I don't know," Clark broke the spell.

"What?"

"I don't know what Lana's up to." He explained.

That seemed to snap Lex out of his daze.

"Oh well, I guess whatever it is can't be all that bad." Lex moved away from Clark and towards the stairs. "It's a school night and getting late so I should probably go."

"Be careful driving home."

"Thanks, I will. Goodnight Clark." Lex said as he walked down the stairs.

"Goodnight," he lent over the balcony and called down.

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm late." Clark said as a way of greeting, walking in to the Torch Thursday morning.

Chloe held out her hand for his article and raised her eyebrows at the suspicious lack of contrite expression on his face.

"What's your excuse this time?"

"I, ah, had a bit of writer's block?" He answered with a statement turned question.

"Writer's block? And it just miraculously clear up last night?"

Clark smiled and ducked his head. "Some inspiration came to me."

His response sparked Chloe's natural curiosity, but she decided to let it go.

"So. Are we ok now?" She asked as she popped in his floppy and copied his article to her hard drive.

"Yeah." He smiled. "We're ok."

"I wasn't upset over you and Lana because you're both girls." He continued. "I know you probably thought that, at least a little and I want you to know it's not true. I've thought about it and I think it was more because you're one of the best friends I've ever had and she's the girl I was always suppose to grow up to love and marry."

Chloe just stayed silent and listened to what he had to say.

Clark sat down on the edge of one of the desks and kept going. "Having you date her was harder than when she came back with Jason because I guess I couldn't just dismiss you like I did him. And it sort of caused me to realize that what I thought was going to happen with Lana never will."

"You're not jealous about Lana then?"

"No." Clark acknowledged for the first time to both Chloe and himself. "I'm not."

"You know, since we're ok now, I was wondering if you would maybe want to go out to the movies this Saturday. Pete's coming back for the weekend and Lana's got a trip all planned out to go to Metropolis so we can see something on a decently sized screen."

Clark grinned, "The trip she roped Lex into chaperoning?"

"She just asked him yesterday and he told you about it already?"

"Uh huh. He thinks she's up to something." Clark narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "You wouldn't by any chance know what it is, would you?"

"Really? He thinks that?" Chloe put on her most angelic face. "I wonder why."

Unfortunately she didn't seem to be able to fool Clark. "You know what it is, don't you?"

"Why do you think I would know what it is if there were anything to know about in the first place?"

"Quit answering my questions with a question."

Chloe just shrugged and looked up at him innocently.

"Fine." He gave up. "I see that nothing short of torture is going to get you to rat out your girlfriend. But just know, I'm watching you two."

Chloe smiled and changed the subject. "Are you going to go with us Saturday?"

Clark smiled. "Why not."

A/N: Thanks again to everyone who took the time to review and/or rec my story.

CutieCherry: You had to work New Years Eve? Yuck. I hope you at least got off early. I'm really happy you're enjoying it. feels all warm and fuzzy and feeds you more chapters

Fred God Of: You may currently thank my record updating to a bout of insomnia. You have so much more time when you just don't sleep. J I'm also very flattered that you like my story enough to compare it with an official book, though I've never read one of them. I tend to stick to fanfic.

StephanieIrvine04: I'm not quite sure about Chloe and Lana, but there is some hope they might decided to get together. Either way, they're certainly going to come to a new appreciation and understanding of each other.

Nameless 'n' Proud: Oh, The Plan is going to start having some interesting consequences soon. Just wait until after their little weekend trip.