A Most Dangerous Game
by Tracy (lunarknightz)
Rating: PG
Spoilers: "Arrival"- episode 5.1
Characters: Chloe centric, with smatterings of Lex, Clark, & the Kents.
Summary: After the events of "Arrival", Chloe realizes that knowledge isn't always a blessing. Will knowing Clark's secret cause Chloe more harm than good? Has she picked the right person to trust?
Disclaimer: Not mine. Nope.
As a matter of fact, the hospitals in the Yukon weren't too shabby. Despite the fact that the medicine was delivered by fuzzy puppies with barrels around their necks, the medicine was decent.
Chloe was exhausted. More tired than she ever thought anyone could possibly be. The stress of graduation, having the National Guard bust up your graduation ceremony, cramming all your valuables into your small car and trying to evacuate, going off in search of a friend and instead finding another friend all whacked out by meteor rocks, being dragged into the Katawache caves by a very persistent and curious billionaire, instantaneous transport across the earth via a bright shiny light, almost freezing to death, finally having the big talk with your best friend that you know his deep dark secret and discovering that he's an alien on top of his tendency to save the day? Dealing with any one of those things could make you exhausted. And within the last twenty four hours, she had dealt with them all.
So it wasn't too hard to just shut her eyes and fall asleep.
When she awoke quite a while later the nurses brought her a tray of food. The only thing edible on it was the Jello, which she wolfed down. She had more orange juice, which kind of tasted like heaven.
Chloe felt weird with nothing to do. She didn't have a book to read, or a paper to jot notes on, and worst of all, no internet access.
Television was entertaining for awhile, but you can only take so much reality television before your brain starts to rust and falls out. After a mini- marathon of "Hogan Knows Best" and two episodes of "My Fair Brady", Chloe turned off the television.
She leaned back against the comfy pillows and let her mind wander.
A list began to form in Chloe's head. She had a million questions to ask Clark when he returned. How much did he know about his home planet? Was he the only one, or was it like that show- Roswell- that used to be on the WB with a whole Pod Squad of aliens? What happened to his planet? Did his parents know? Why did the meteor rocks affect him? Was he completely…compatible with humans? Completely…you know, functional?
She felt a warm hand touch her own.
"Clark" She muttered as her eyes fluttered open.
"How could Clark be here?" Lex Luthor stood at her bedside, a knowing smirk on his face. "We're in the middle of the Yukon."
What was Lex doing here? Where was Clark? Had something happened to Clark? Was Lex here at Clark's request, or did Lex was after her because he knew something had happened in the cave?
"What's going on, Lex?" Chloe honestly didn't know what to think. What to do.
"I came to take you home." He said with a smile, a sickeningly sweet smile that reminded Chloe of Lionel.
"Oh." She sighed. "Smallville made it through the meteor shower?"
"Parts of the town are pretty destroyed. It's a playground for FEMA right now, but Smallville will recover. It always does, doesn't it?"
"True." Chloe said with a tiny smile. "So they're ready to discharge me?"
Lex nodded. "I told your doctors that I'd have you examined by one of the top doctors in Metropolis. You seem to have recovered pretty well for someone who had a life or death experience, huh?"
"I was lucky." Chloe said with a tiny grin. "I guess, if you'd give me a second of privacy, I'll get dressed."
"Of course." Lex reached in his pocket and pulled out her cell phone. "I thought you might want this back. You dropped it in the cave."
"Oh. Thanks."
Chloe quickly got dressed before calling her voice mail. There was a list of messages- a couple from her Dad, confirming that he'd made it to the meeting spot in Gotham City safely- and where were she and Lois? Then a panicked Lois, asking where in the hell she was.
"Hey Dad." She said after her Dad picked up on the second ring. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was…um, rushed to a hospital. Really a minor injury, but Lex insisted that I have it checked out. I was at the Luthor mansion…meeting Lana there. And I got a little hurt, but it was really first aid, and the doctors are releasing me, and Lex's bringing me home." A pause. "Oh, you did talk to Lois? The apartment's okay? Yeah, I'd imagine it will take a while to get home. Stay in touch, yes… I love you too, Daddy. Bye."
After hanging up, she immediately called Lois. "Hey Lois. I'm okay. Yeah, well, it's a long story. I'll explain in person, okay? Yeah. Daisy made it? Good. Is, um…are the Kents okay? And Clark? Good. Okay….okay….I guess I'll catch you when you get back from Geneva then, huh? Bye, cuz." Chloe hung up the phone.
Lois had been at the airport, about to take off for Geneva. The Kents were okay, although Martha had been injured in the shower- Lois said something about a china cabinet? Clark was back home, apparently. Lois had last seen him at the hospital, about to visit Lana.
Chloe tucked her phone into her pocket. Had Clark made it home after going back to his igloo after that? Or had he never come back? What was the voice saying, there in the igloo? Something about a promise, and making it back by sunset. Chloe was confused and concerned. She had to go home, that was for sure. And soon.
"I'm ready." Chloe said as she stepped outside of the room. Lex was waiting right outside the door, his hands wrapped around the handles of a wheelchair.
"Hospital policy." He motioned for her to sit down. "Wheelchairs- you can't get discharged without one."
It was vaguely unsettling to have a billionaire wheel you out of a hospital, Chloe decided.
Flying on a luxury jet should have been exciting.
Instead of appreciating the fine Corinthian leather on the seats, or appreciating the vast variety of drinks and gourmet food the flight attendant was constantly offering, or even the fantastic view of the world below them, Chloe was lost in a maze of thoughts. She couldn't focus on anything, not even when Lex put on an advance screener of "Serenity", which had been a gift to Lex from Joss himself. Chloe was dying to see the movie, having loved the show during it's all too brief run, but she just couldn't concentrate. Not even when Mal or Simon had their shirts off.
What would she do next?
Lex knew that she knew. Maybe he didn't know all of it- maybe, he thought, just as she had that Clark was a meteor freak of the week, only using his powers for the light side of the force. He didn't know about the alien thing, did he? Lex would ask, ask how in the hell she ended up smack dab in the middle of the Yukon from the cave in Smallville.
He was biding his time, waiting for the opportune moment.
What would she tell him? That the meteor shower frightened her so much that she just ran and ran until she almost froze to death in the artic? Lex wouldn't buy that one. For goodness sake, she wasn't Forrest Gump. Chloe rubbed her temples. All this thinking, this worrying was making her head hurt.
"You okay, Chloe?"
"Just a slight headache. Got any Advil?"
"We're here."
Chloe awakened and found that she was in one of Lex's cars. Peering out the windows, she realized that they were back home. Back, it seemed, directly outside the Katawache caves.
"Oh."
"I thought maybe we could jog your memory a little. The nurses said that you couldn't remember exactly how you almost became a popsicle. I'm bit fuzzy as to what exactly happened….I thought maybe together, we could discover the truth."
Chloe shivered and shook her head. "Lex…the last thing I remember is being there in the cave with you. I don't know what happened or why it happened- maybe it had something to do with the meteor shower? I mean, you yourself called the caves the epicenter for weirdness in Smallville…and really, I'm tired Lex. So tired. I was supposed to graduate from high school and instead got a trip around the world. Sometime, sometime later if you'd like to meet and jog our collective memories, I'd be cool with that. But would you please take me home? I'm tired."
The corners of Lex's mouth shifted downward. "Certainly."
Chloe had never been so relieved to see the apartment. The apartment wasn't really home- not like the house that they'd had to give up because it cost too much, but after a long journey like this one, it looked safe and familiar.
She ran up to her room, took a shower and got some fresh clothes. She certainly wouldn't be winning any beauty pageants, Chloe sure she felt a hell of a lot better. Her bed looked comfy and inviting, but if she lay down now, the jet lag would take over and that would truly be no good.
Chloe grabbed her keys and headed out to her VW Bug, which Lois had left in it's regular parking spot.
The trip through Smallville to the Kent's house was staggering. The destruction caused by the meteor shower was massive. The High School, Fordman's, and even the Talon had sustained a bit of damage. Some houses were missing a roof, or a side, and some were completely gone.
The Kent's cheerful farmhouse was in ruins. "Oh." She cried.
"Chloe ?" Jonathan was working on the side of the house, stripping off parts of damaged wood. "You made it through the shower okay?"
She nodded. "I did. Is…Clark home?"
"He's in the barn."
"Thanks." Chloe felt so much older than the last time she'd been over at the house- had it only been a matter of days ago that she'd corralled Clark and Lana into an impromptu Veronica Mars marathon? The barn was miraculously untouched, and Chloe ascended the stairs quickly.
Martha was spread out on the couch in the barn, with Clark at one end talking animatedly to her. A large white bandage was wrapped around Clark's thumb.
"Hey, Clark." She said at the apex of the stairs.
"Chloe!" Clark rushed over and gave her a big hug. "I'm so glad to see you." Blood drained from his face. "You….how did you get back?"
"I hitchhiked."
"I'm so sorry! I…and the…and…After the…and then the…and Jor-El.." Clark sighed. "I forgot to come back and get you, and then…I…"
"Clark!" Martha exclaimed, astonished that her son would bring up the subject of Jor-El in front of Chloe. Powers or no, how could he just be so cavalier about his origins.
"It's okay, Mom. Chloe knows."
"Chloe knows?" Martha was flabbergasted. "When did you tell her?"
"Mrs. Kent." Chloe walked towards Martha, her face earnest and full of sincerity. "I've always known that was Clark was special. From the first moment I met him, you know, I knew that he was different than most boys." Chloe looked down at her shoes. "Maybe that's why I've always had a crush on him…but as we've gotten older, and Clark's saved my life, like eleventy billion times." She took a deep breath. "Before Alicia died, she teleported me out of a speeding car, which Clark then caught like it was a baseball. And then I thought that Clark was just one more Smallville resident forever mutated by the meteors." Chloe cleared her throat. "I wanted so much to tell him, to tell you that I knew, but I didn't want to hurt Clark, and I thought that if he hadn't told me, then maybe he had a reason. So I tried to help him out, especially when he went all Tabula Rausa and didn't remember a thing, and then I found out about the X-Rays and the hearing and the heat vision, which is apparently Lana operated…"
"Chloe!" Clark exclaimed his face growing red.
"On the day of the meteor shower, Lex took me down the caves. And somehow, I got sucked up in this beam of light and I ended up in the artic in Clark's gigantic ice sculpture." She smiled. "I was freezing to death, and Clark saved me, and took me to a hospital in the Yukon." Chloe's expression grew serious. "I want you know, Mrs. Kent, that my lips are sealed. I won't tell anyone Clark's secret. I promise. I'd rather die myself than have Clark…"
"Oh Chloe." Martha's voice trembled. "Come here." Chloe walked over to the couch, and sat down beside Martha, now sitting perfectly straight up. She enfolded the blonde girl in her arms, and lovingly rubbed her head. "It's okay. I believe you. And oh, sweetie…you look so tired. How did you get back?"
"Lex gave me a ride home. Did you ask him, Clark, or was this one of his own hero moments?"
"I didn't ask him." Clark said in a small voice. "There's been so much going on lately that I kind of forgot.."
"About me. Why am I not surprised?" Chloe glared.
"I…I lost my powers?"
"What?" Chloe sat straight up. "You can just do that?"
"It happened once before with Eric Summers, but that was because of the meteor rocks….but this time.."
"That's how Eric got those powers? They were yours? You were Superboy!"
"I'm not Superboy." Clark groaned. "And I never will be super anything, ever again. I made a deal with my father, my real father, Jor-El, to go back to what you called my big igloo and finish his training. I didn't make it back….and he took my powers."
"So what are you now?" Chloe got up and walked around him, circling him and examining him.
"Human." Clark shrugged. "See?" he held out his thumb. "I don't handle hammers well."
"The Boy of Steel brought down by a hammer, huh?"
"I'm not that, Chloe. I'm normal now."
"You don't want to be normal." Chloe sighed. "Being normal is highly overrated. Trust me. I've never been anything but."
"I wouldn't say that." Jonathan said from the top of the stairs. "From what I heard of your little confession, I'd say that you're extraordinary, Chloe."
Chloe blushed. "So I guess I'm part of the official Clark Kent fan club now?"
Jonathan nodded. "And a charter member. You're part of our family now, Chloe. Would you like to stay for dinner? It's nothing fancy, since we're living in the barn for the time being, but we'd love to have you."
Chloe nodded. "Actually, my Dad evacuated to Gotham City and is kind of stuck there for a couple of days. I know he wouldn't mind if you, Martha, and Clark came and stayed with us. It's a two bedroom apartment, so it's not spacious or anything, but I can offer a microwave and a hot shower."
"You're sure he wouldn't mind?"
"My dad's pretty cool about that kind of stuff." Chloe grinned. "Help someone in need whenever you're able. And you're in need…and like you said, we're family."
Jonathan looked at Martha. She nodded.
"At least until your Dad is able to come home." Martha said. "We'd hate to impose, but it does make sense."
"Great."
Jonathan picked up Martha and carried her downstairs to the car.
Chloe stopped Clark. "Clark, Lex suspects something."
"There's nothing for him to suspect anymore. Don't you get it, Chloe? That's all over now. Things are going to be different."
"Things will be different. But you can't just erase the last sixteen years Clark. Lex knows that something was up in those caves, don't you get it? And he won't rest until he figures out what that was."
"Did you tell him?"
"I told him that I had no idea how I ended up in the middle of the Artic. But he won't give up." Chloe sighed. "I won't tell him your secret, Clark. But Lex knows that there's a secret to be told. And he'll find it…I'm sure of that. He knows I know something, and that makes me nervous. I know Lex isn't exactly Lionel, but he's used to getting exactly what he wants. He won't take no for an answer. He won't stop, and all the lousy excuses in the world…" Chloe sighed and threw her hands in the air. "Normal or not, Clark, I'm betting my life on the fact that you'll protect me, no matter who it's against, or for what reason." Chloe leaned over and placed a kiss on Clark's cheek. "Don't let me have made the wrong bet." Chloe muttered, as she turned and climbed down from the loft.