Here's the next part, right on time for a change. ;)

Mindgames
Part 3

Clark looked around for Chloe upon entering the Talon, then spotted Lana at the counter pouring coffee. A smile broke out on his face and he made a beeline for her through the dense crowd.

"Hey Lana."

"Clark, hi." She glanced up and gave him a brief smile before finishing pouring the coffee and hurriedly putting the mugs onto a tray.

"Busy day?" Clark asked as she darted around him with the tray.

Lana gave a little tense laugh. "You could say that." She motioned around at the teeming Talon. "Lex came up with a great new way to attract customers."

"I can see." Clark commented. "Need any help?" He offered.

Lana smiled after delivering the tray to a table of customers and headed back for more coffee. "I appreciate the offer but, I'm sure you've got better things to do."

"It's no problem." He contradicted er, tilting his head. She looked at him for a moment, trying to think of the best way to let him down.

"Clark, really, it's fine, I-"

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Chloe's blonde head bobbed up beside Clark. He glanced at her then back at Lana.

"Um, no. What's up?" He said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. He put on a friendly grin.

"I better get back to serving. I'll see you guys later, ok?" Lana cut in before Chloe got started on what she'd obviously dug up from the amount of paperwork in her hands and the excited look in her eyes.

"Bye Lana." Clark said quickly and she smiled a little at him before dashing off, balancing her tray precariously. Clark turned back to Chloe as she waved the sheets in his face.

"None other than Lionel Luthor visited Aaron Asidian last night, not 2 hours before he went AWOL." She announced proudly. Clark frowned at her and took the top sheet of paper from her hands.

"Lionel Luthor? Are you sure?" He asked dubiously after scanning the print-out of the email.

"Clark. When have I ever been wrong before?" Chloe said, and he smiled apologetically at her.

"I didn't mean to doubt your reporting instincts. I just find it hard to believe that a multi-millionaire would have nothing better to do than entertain inmates at a psyche ward." He told her, reading the sheet again as if to make sure it was right.

"Not when that particular inmate once worked for him on Level 3." Chloe said happily and Clark looked up at her sharply.

"Level 3? That was shut down about 4 years ago, Chloe."

"I was part of the whole Earl Jenkins hostage situation too, remember." She reminded him, raising an eyebrow and handing him another sheet of paper. "The skeletons still keep popping out the woodwork. My best guess is that this Aaron was infected by the meteor rocks whilst he was working for Lionel, I still don't know how he pulled the disappearing act but it sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it?"

"Hmm." Clark said in reply, absorbed in reading paper. "Wait a minute, Aaron tried to sue Lionel for-" he glanced at the paper, "for the 'deterioration of his health'?"

"Yep. Sounds like those meteors he worked with down there did more than add to his rock collection. Needless to say the guy with the army of lawyers won over the guy who tried to present his case to the court using string to hold his jeans up. Lionel turned it around on Aaron and pinned charges on him for stealing top secret development information which had gone missing about a month before Level 3 appeared to have shut down." Chloe informed him, practically glowing with happiness at getting her teeth into a new story.

"And Aaron ended up in the criminally insane ward of Belle Reve." Clark said and let out a low whistle. "Just goes to show where messing with Lionel Luthor can get you."

Chloe looked away quickly so Clark didn't see the sudden tears threatening to fall down her guilty face. "Yeah." She breathed softly.

Clark didn't seem to notice, as he was frowning intensely at the information. "The question is, why didn't Aaron break out before? I mean, what's changed?"

Chloe left the Talon shortly afterwards, opting to do some more digging on Aaron's background while Clark agreed to meet up with her later to compare notes, so to speak.

Despite the fact she'd only been the Talon for less than an hour, it had gotten dark pretty quickly. The once sunny streets were now dusky and the sun was sinking behind a silhouette of trees on the horizon much quicker than she'd ever witnessed before. The last of the summer crickets chirped merrily as if protesting against the growing cold wind. It was nearing winter but Chloe had decided to walk to the coffee house and back, leaving her little red car safely at home.

The streetlights were just starting to flicker to life when she felt eyes on the back of her head and heard rustling just behind her and to the left. Heart thudding uncomfortably in her throat, she jerked her head around in one sharp movement, intended to catch the unknown watcher unawares. There was nothing there.

Hastening her speed, she glanced back one more time before bending down on one knee under the pretence of tying her shoe lace. There was still nothing there. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion and she got up again, throwing sporadic looks behind her to check all was normal.

However, she still had the intense feeling that someone was watching, and they weren't far away. She quickened her pace, a strange ringing noise in her ears that muted the sound of a knife being drawn and footsteps falling faster on the pavement behind her…

End of Part 3

Crazy Danae: Clark didn't tell his Dad because I wanted to avoid the whole 'be careful son' speeech. I hadn't seen much of season 2 and 3 when I wrote this, and how do you know for sure that Chloe knows Clark's secret? There's only innuendo! ;)

Emily: I didn't know American's said Math... thanks for pointing it out. When I have time (which is definitely not now lol) I'll go back and change it.

chloedouble1011: There were supposed to be dividing lines between each scene but I guess erased those. And I don't like labeling scenes - I prefer to keep the reader guessing, but thanks for the suggestion:)

suspension of disbelief: Sorry I don't write Chlex... actually I can't write Chlex. I've got nothing against it, I just can't understand the relationship lol.

Thnaks for the reviews! Pleaseleave another! I'm incredibly tired and filthy 'cause I've been mucking out horse stables all day (fun!) so bye!