Chapter 3 - Can she handle it?

Chloe was typing rapidly at her keyboard trying to finish the issue of the Torch. She had noticed a few errors and had to fix them before she printed it. It was next week's issue. It was sad to think she had to leave this life: that she might be gone in a week or so. The thought was interrupted as Pete waltzed into the office. "Chloe!" he exclaimed.

He looked absolutely ready to burst. "Out with it Ross," she said, grinning.

Clark walked in behind him, with Lana. Immediately Chloe felt her heart stop. "Lana," she thought. "When had that name become the bane of her existence?"

"Chloe, are you listening to me?"

"Oh, sorry Pete! What was it?"

"We're going to go camping tonight. You coming?"

"Well, I . . . "

"She'd love to," said Clark, poking her in the back.

"Well, when you put it that way, then I guess I am."

She was taken aback by how Clark wanted her to come along. Maybe things would turn out for the best after all.

After school, Chloe walked up the steps to the loft to find Clark sitting on the couch, looking up at the sky. She noticed his gorgeous eyes, shimmering the greenish blue haze that they were, and immediately he noted her presence. The Kent grin surfaced again. Clark had invited her there earlier.

"So, what's on the agenda?" Chloe asked.

"I wanted to talk with you about something."

"And that would be?"

"Well, I know I've been really secretive with you, and instead of just saying that I can't tell you, I wanted you to have the reasons why."

Chloe sighed. This could've been a good day.

"Clark, I would never judge you. I don't know exactly what this secret is that you're keeping but I already promised you that I would be there for you, and I would always accept you no matter what. You do know that, don't you?" Chloe asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Chloe, believe me when I say that I'd like to tell the world, to get this off my chest, but it wouldn't be fair, not to you or anyone. If you knew, if anyone knew, they would be in danger, and I can't do that to one of my friends. This secret is a large burden. Only people who have to know do."

"And would the natural weirdness that follows you around have to do with this? Or does it have to do with the fact that you literally appeared in front of my face yesterday?"

"You're not even supposed to know that much."

"What do you think I'm going to do, Clark? Post you up on my wall and charge admission? Sell you out to scientists?"

"Is it such a giant leap to think that?"

Chloe was shocked. "What? I would think that if the scientists really wanted to study meteor freaks that they could have their pick from Belle Reve. And besides that Clark, I am your friend, whether you believe me or not, and I would never do that to you."

Clark looked up. "I truly believe that you're my friend, but more importantly, you're something else – a journalist. Which one is stronger, Chloe? What would you rather: a friend or a story of a lifetime?"

Chloe flamed up again.

"Clark, this is hard for me to do: to break down the barriers between us only to hear from you that nothing's changed! I obviously know something, or else I couldn't be having this discussion with you. If I've kept it a secret this long and I've kept it from Lionel, what makes you think I'd betray you now?"

He looked at her questioningly. He was surprised that she knew anything more than she had seen yesterday. Perhaps he hadn't given her enough credit.

Tears started to come to Chloe's face.

"Besides the fact that your adoption papers are very suspicious, you're the town hero. I've lost count of the times you've been in the paper. What about the symbol burned on the side of your barn? And another thing is how you get to school so fast when you just missed the bus. Oh wait, I guess that one's solved. But still, there're too many weird occurrences around you to ignore. And that's not the brunt of it. Clark, I saw your father punch you with meteor rock that day he was hypnotized and tried to kill me. I saw you pick up a bale of hay with one hand and throw it. And whether or not you thought I noticed, I know Lana's necklace glows when it's near you. I followed you around Metropolis after I found your apartment and saw you throw people through the air and punch through ATM machines. I don't know how in the hell you got this way, but it's alright, Clark. I don't care that you're a meteor freak."

Clark winced at the mention of Metropolis and silently cursed himself for being so careless. How would he explain this? Although Chloe was no longer working with Lionel, could he really trust her? Would the friend in her overcome the journalist?

Something inside him stirred, and he realized that even with the knowledge she had, Chloe still said that she loved him. It was time to make a decision. He had waited so long wrestling with rationality that he wondered if he should just throw it all to the wind. He looked into Chloe's eyes. Nothing in there seemed menacing. Nothing looked deceitful. It was time for her to know.

"Chloe, I'm not a meteor freak."

"Clark, don't. Just don't."

"I'm not. I'm going to explain this to you, but you might want to sit down and get comfortable."

Chloe reluctantly sat, not really believing that Clark was actually going to tell her.

"If I tell you my secret, you could be put in a lot of danger to protect it. Do you still want to know?"

"Clark, I can handle…"

"Ok, fine."

"It can't be told to anyone, even those close to you," he said seriously.

Chloe nodded, smirking. "What is this, a top secret government agenda?" she joked.

"Chloe…"

"Ok, I'm done. Continue."

"This may be a shock – no – this will definitely be a shock…"

She listened closely, "What Clark? Spit it out."

"Chloe, I'm not from Kansas."

Chloe resisted the urge to laugh. All she could think of was the Wizard of Oz. But she knew that if she laughed, Clark would probably be offended, so she resorted to her previous thought.

"Where are you from, Clark? Egypt? Mexico? Chile? Italy? Japan? I always thought you looked kinda foreign."

Clark frowned, and nodded to the sky.

"Clark you're being cryptic. I don't know what you're getting at."

Clark took Chloe's hand in his, and traced a symbol on with his index finger.

"What's that?" Chloe asked.

"It's the symbol for hope." Clark said. "The symbol burned on the side of the barn."

Using the same words his dad had said to him on the day he found out what he was, Clark said, "It's not written in any language, known to man, that is."

Chloe almost choked on the air. "Are you saying that you're…you're…"

"Not from Earth."

Immediately Chloe's mind flew back to the meteor shower. She couldn't think how it was possible that Clark was an alien but yet it seemed so right. Everything suddenly fit into place. She could distinctly remember one particular scene at school. ("Yeah Chloe, I saw an alien. He looked a lot like Clark.") She could remember Clark wincing at that time. Absolutely blown away, she looked at Clark, waiting for more of an explanation.

"The reason my adoption papers look suspicious, is because I wasn't born here. My planet blew up, and my birth father sent me here. The meteor shower was actually pieces of my planet that were pulled to Earth."

"What was it called?"

"Krypton."

Chloe nodded for Clark to continue.

"Mom and dad found me in the cornfield, in a ship. I was three, and they adopted me."

"Do you remember anything about your planet?"

"No, not really."

"Is there anyone else like you?"

Clark's face hung. "No. I'm the last one."

Chloe noticed sadness climb into Clark's face, and she immediately felt for him.

Clark looked up again. "As for the situation with Lana's necklace, it's made of green meteor rock. I call it Kryptonite. The green kind makes me very weak and sick. It makes me nauseated to even think about it. It could probably kill me if I were around it long enough. The red kind removes my inhibitions. The more I wear it the worse I become. I do stupid things that I normally wouldn't do, like run off to Metropolis and become a thug."

"Red? Does that mean like in the class rings?"

"Exactly like in the class rings." He sighed at the last statement. "All those times I wasn't me, or I acted on impulse – the times I could never explain to you or Lana, usually had to do with those rings."

Chloe looked at Clark with new understanding in her eyes.

Clark immediately felt relieved. Letting it out had lifted a tremendous weight off his shoulders.

Chloe couldn't believe what she was hearing: not only the alien part, or the fact that all of the 'Wall of Weird' mysteries were solved in that instant, but the fact that Clark had so much pain: pain and loneliness, much like her own. Her dilemmas, however, were nothing compared to his. Left by a dying race, the lone survivor, not able to tell anyone, to have to live in secrecy forever. What a life. She mentally slapped herself for the last comment.

Clark waited for a reaction.

Tears started to well up in Chloe's eyes.

"No Chloe! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry!" Clark said.

"Clark it's just that you had to suffer through all this pain. I didn't know. I didn't realize, and I judged you before I knew the whole story. I'm so sorry!"

"Chloe, it's okay. I didn't expect you to know or understand." Clark was surprised that out of everything he had told Chloe, she was only worried about him.

"So you went on letting us hate you, even though you knew that we were wrong? Clark, why? If I had known I could've…supported you, been a better friend."

"Chloe it's okay. What's done is done now."

"It must be hard dealing with something like this on your own, with no one to talk to."

"I'm not alone, Chloe. I have my parents, I have Pete, and now I have you."

Chloe's head shot up.

"What! You told Pete first?"

"Well, Pete found my spaceship in the cornfield, and I had to explain it to him. He was pretty ticked off."

"Spaceship?" Chloe said, as if she needed to repeat it to believe it. "Wait a minute! Pete's known this for how long?"

"Since last year."

Clark looked at Chloe. She looked like she was going to explode. Clark could have sworn that right then Chloe was going to pop horns out of her head and steam out of her ears.

"I still can't get over the fact that you trusted Pete more than me. I could've handled it."

"Chloe, if it were that simple, don't you think I would've told you a long time ago? Besides, there was again how you'd react, and whether you'd stick me up on your 'Wall of Weird'."

"Clark I already said that I'd accept you no matter what, and you know I wouldn't have posted you on the 'Wall of Weird'!" The look in Clark's eyes made her think otherwise. "You didn't, did you?"

He never moved. "Chloe, I only found out myself what I was the day I saved Lex's life. Besides, I told you now, isn't that good enough?"

Against her racing mind, Chloe started to calm down. Clark was right. He did just tell her. She was too overwhelmed with everything, so as hard as she tried, a comeback or a response would not surface.

"So you don't care at all that I'm an alien?" Clark asked. The words seemed to flow so much easier now.

Chloe's face softened.

"Clark, I couldn't care what you are. What matters is that I love you, and I would never want you to have to deal with all of this alone."

They stood looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but finally they snapped out of it.

Chloe moved over next to him on the couch.

"So Clark, what exactly can you do?"

Clark cocked his eyebrow. "I can't tell you that. It takes away from the mystery." Clark joked.

"Hardy har har. Seriously." Chloe joked back.

"Well…I don't really know where to start."

"What's the first thing you could do?"

"Since Mom and Dad found me I could run really fast. I was always strong too. It seems like every year I just continued to get faster and stronger."

"So you could do this when I met you in grade eight?"

"Well…yeah."

"Sorry. I'm just having a little trouble wrapping my head around this."

Clark smiled. "You're taking it better than Pete did."

"Why, what did Pete do?"

Clark remembered Pete pacing around him, looking at him, freaked out. He remembered telling Pete to say something.

"He just…didn't take it well. Can you remember the day he found the spaceship? That was the day I told him. When he left our driveway, I kind of stopped his car…with my bare hands."

"No wonder Pete was in a bad mood that day. The wax job on his car was screwed up and he found out that his best friend is an alien. I was wondering why he was acting so weird. I have to say though, Clark, I never would've in a million years thought that what Pete was saying that day was true."

"Yeah that was what I was betting on. I was really nervous when Pete said that to you."

Chloe smiled.

"So, I have a question. How did that symbol get on your barn?"

Clark groaned. "Heat vision."

"Excuse me?"

"Heat vision."

Chloe blinked. "When did this happen?"

"Remember the day when the screen caught fire in biology?"

"Too well. Wait a minute…that was you? You mean you were responsible for all those fires?"

"Not the one in the car. The biology teacher set that one to frame me."

"I see. So how did this power come about?"

Clark flinched. "I'd rather stay away from that topic if it's ok with you. It's a long story."

Chloe looked at Clark funny. Then she burst into laughter.

"I've got a pyro for a best friend!" she exclaimed, joking.

"Because I purposely set fire to things." Clark said sarcastically.

"Well you didn't hold back that day Perry was in town."

"That was different. I couldn't help that."

"Oh?"

"Sun spots. Apparently Krypton's sun was red, versus this one which is yellow. I think the sun gives me these abilities, so when there's solar flares, my powers go out of whack. Sometimes I don't have any, other times I'm in overdrive. That's how the curtains were burned and how the tractor got into the middle of the road."

"So you're like a walking solar battery."

"I guess so, if you want to look at it that way."

"Wow."

"I can't really be hurt either." Clark offered. "I used to bruise but I don't anymore. Roger Nixon blew up my truck while I was in it and it didn't leave a scratch on me. Needless to say though, I had to get a new truck."

Chloe remembered the night before at the Torch and the sharp tingling of her hand after hitting Clark. She bit her lip. "No wonder my hand hurt when I tried to shove you yesterday."

Clark heard a noise. Immediately he squinted and noticed a skeleton standing near the bottom of the loft steps. It looked like his dad.

"Clark, what are you doing? Why are you squinting like that?"

Jonathon, hearing Chloe's words, figured he was caught, and walked up to the steps to the loft.

"Dad, how long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to know what's going on." Jonathon said with a frown. "Son, I hope you know what you're doing. The more people that know, the more chances they'll slip up. And Chloe, you should understand that this is a big responsibility. If I ever hear that Lionel has heard about this through you, then I will personally . . . "

"I think she gets it, Dad…" Clark said, not happy about his dad eavesdropping.

"I understand, Mr. Kent! I'm not going to tell anyone. Honest!"

"I would say welcome to the family, but I think that it might be getting old," said Clark, on a lighter note.

Jonathon gave Clark a glance. "Clark, when you're done, I need you to help me with something outside. That was the reason I came in here in the first place. And don't think you got away with this easily. This is far from over."

Clark nodded and Jonathon walked outside.

"You knew he was there." Chloe said.

"X-ray vision."

"X-ray vision?"

"Yeah, and I could hear him breathing."

"Whoa!"

"I can hear well too." Clark said. He decided it was best that he not tell her how he knew about her and Lionel.

"More than well, I'd say. Wait a minute. You mean you can see through things? Like…people's clothes?"

"Well…yeah but Chloe I never…"

"That's a lie."

"Well…maybe once…"

Chloe raised her eyebrow.

"Or twice…but I didn't know how to use it then!"

"Like the time you used it to spy on my birthmark?" Chloe said with a smirk.

"You knew about that?"

"Not much goes on that I don't know about Clark. Is there anything you can't see through?"

"Lead."

"Looks like I'm gonna start a new fashion trend - lead clothes!"

"Chloe!" Clark protested.

"Why, you want to look through my clothes?" Chloe teased.

"You know I didn't say that…"

Chloe laughed.

"Lead stops the radiation of the Kryptonite from hurting me too."

"I'll have to remember that, for the next time you need saving." Chloe joked.

Clark looked away.

"There's just one other thing I want you to know, Chloe. I hate to bring this up again, but the reason I left at homecoming was because I had to go and save Lana from the twister. It had nothing to do with me feeling any more for her than I did for you."

"I know."

"You do?"

"I guess I kind of always did, but it was easier to convince myself that you left me for Lana. I hate to say it, Clark, but I'm not really as confident and self assured as I seem, and I guess that I had a fair lack of it that day."

Chloe smiled. "But it's ok, because everything's explained now. I've finally solved the mystery that is Clark Kent." Chloe exclaimed.

Clark gave a small smile.

"I have to go and help dad, now, Chloe."

"Alright, well, I'll see you around at the Talon. How about seven-ish?"

Clark smiled. "Sounds good. And Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for accepting me."

"You don't have to thank me for that, Clark. I'd have done it anyway." Chloe said, and kissed him on the cheek, as they both walked outside.

Chloe got into her truck and watched as Clark fixed fence posts for his dad. Even though he had told her his secret, she was still in awe with him displaying it so openly.

She turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the driveway, elated and amazed, and most of all, finally enlightened about the person who Clark Kent really was.