Disclaimer: Characters belong to DC, WB, AlMiles, etc. etc. etc. I only own the story.

Chapter 8

"Wherever you're going I'm going your way. Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. We're after the same rainbow's end—"

He stopped at the edge of her balcony and turned to her, his red cape blowing in the wind. He smiled that gorgeous beaming smile.

"There's a reason it's your favorite movie, Lois. That's us. We're Fred and Holly."

He held out his hand to her.

"Come on, Lois. Let's go see the world."

She stood there in her pale blue satin nightgown. Should she go? Did she trust him? Did she trust herself? She just wasn't sure of anything anymore.

"Lois?"

He stood there…waiting. Waiting for her. Would he always be there? Did she want to need him? Or did she need to want him?

"Lois?"

He stepped up on the concrete wall surrounding her balcony. His beautiful blue eyes calling to her. She took a deep breath. She stretched out her arm to him.

"LOIS!"

She bolted upright, drenched in sweat. She could hardly catch her breath. Her heart was racing.

"Good to see you finally awake, cuz. Didn't realize you were gonna sleep til noon. I've been standing here screaming your name for ten minutes."

Chloe smiled as she stood at the foot of Lois' bed. She held a folded copy of the day's Daily Planet in one hand and what looked to be a fresh cup of coffee in the other.

"Come on, get up. We've got a week's worth of gossip to catch up on."

Chloe turned to leave Lois' bedroom, calling over her shoulder as she walked away.

"I'll just make myself at home while you get dressed."

Lois fell back into her pillow and sighed. She had to do something about the lock on that door.

She reluctantly rolled out of bed, too tired to even find her bunny slippers. She plodded into the kitchen where her cousin had indeed made herself at home, busily typing away on her laptop while conversing on her cell phone.

Lois really didn't know how her cousin did it sometimes. She could never imagine herself a hot-shot reporter. It's not that she probably wouldn't be good at it. She just wanted to make sure that whatever path she chose in life was the right one. She didn't want to screw it up by making the wrong decision like she had so many other things in her life.

Chloe closed her phone and laid it on the counter. Hands still typing on her keyboard, she kept her eyes on the screen as she spoke.

"I already made coffee." She glanced up at her cousin, who was already reaching for a mug and the pot of coffee. "Hey, I told you to get dressed."

"Mmhhmm."

"Mmhhmm? What does that mean?"

Lois didn't say anything. She took a slow sip of the hot coffee, keeping her back to Chloe, staring out the window at the red flashing neon theater sign.

"Lois? Are you okay?"

It's not that she was ignoring her cousin. She was just lost in her thoughts. There were too many things that happened lately. Too many emotions unleashed. She didn't know what was going on. She was on the verge of moping, which was very unfamiliar territory. What was happening to her life?

"I talked to Clark."

Lois turned to face her. She talked to him? When? What did he say? Did she know about last night?

"Really?"

"Yeah. He said he stayed here with you a couple of nights ago." Chloe paused. She dropped her gaze before she continued. "Is there something you need to tell me?" She looked back up at her disheveled cousin. Lois' hair was down and messy and her pajama pants were twisted. Her pajama top was also buttoned wrong.

"What? No, Chloe. He stayed here, yes, and slept on the couch. He came over to bring me some of Mrs. Kent's meatloaf. I asked him to stay because it was late and the roads were bad." She paused and took a breath. "I was having a rough day that day. That's all." She looked down into the liquid in the blue ceramic coffee mug.

Chloe slowly nodded her head and gave a feeble smile.

"Yeah…I know. You have that same rough day every year."

Lois smiled. She was glad that, for once that week she didn't have to explain every detail to the other person.

Chloe knew Lois better than anyone else. Lois would like to think she knew Chloe pretty well, too. She was actually relieved to have someone other than Smallville to talk to. She was growing tired of confessing.

"Yeah, weird how that happens, isn't it?"

Chloe laughed.

"Yeah, it is." She lost the smile and stopped before asking her next question, searching her cousin's face for any visual clues. "But, you never answered my question. Is everything okay?"

Lois walked over to the couch and sat down, pulling one leg under her. She took another sip of coffee. Chloe hopped off the stool and closed her laptop. She crossed her arms and strolled over to the couch and sat, pulling both legs under her.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, Chlo. I ought to be able to handle this. I'm tougher than this. But this week…I don't know." She paused. "It all started when he showed up."

Chloe looked confused.

"He who? Clark?"

"Yeah. He showed up here that night. My night. The one night…no, strike that. The one day of the year that I cry. You know me, Chloe. I don't cry, except on that day. But he moseyed on in here and I couldn't do it. I couldn't have my night." She started to tear up. "And look at me! I'm doing it again! Ever since that night I've been doing this!" She quickly wiped her eyes. "He showed up and saw me like this. He saw me at my weakest." She took a breath. "You should've seen me the night before last. Not only did I cry all the way back from the Kents', but apparently I also cried all night while I was asleep. If the General had been here, he would've yelled til he was blue in the face, telling me how weak I was." She paused to sniff. She looked at Chloe, who put a hand on her arm.

"I'm sorry, Lois. I should've been here for you this week. But I know that you usually don't want to talk to anyone around this time of year. That's why I didn't call you that day. And I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you more yesterday, but I've just had a lot of things going on at the Planet and classes are killing me. Plus, I've got this other project I'm working on…"

"No, Chloe. It's okay. I'm not blaming you. It's just been a strange week. Well, stranger than usual, anyway. Smallville's been especially nice to me lately, which is freaking me out. It's probably just because it was the anniversary. I had to explain it to him when he showed up unannounced. And can you believe he actually sat here until three in the morning wanting to know all about Mom and Dad? How they met, her favorite flowers, has the General always been so intimidating? He wanted to look at all my pictures. He even wanted to know about my childhood. It was so…strange."

Chloe smiled.

"And do you know what he did last night? Well, first of all, Mister Always Has An Excuse said he would be here yesterday afternoon. Not that I was waiting for him, by the way." Chloe grinned. "What? I wasn't. He just said he would be here and he didn't show."

Chloe threw up her hands in mock surrender and smiled.

"Okay, okay. So, you say you weren't waiting on him when you were waiting on him?"

"Ye-…No!" Lois sighed and closed her eyes, continuing on with her story. "So, anyway, he decided to waltz in downstairs after we closed. He tried to help me clean up the theater, which turned into a complete disaster. He kept spilling coffee that I had to mop up. Then, he spilled it all over himself." She paused and grinned. "Well, actually, that was pretty funny."

Chloe laughed and shook her head.

"So, he just showed up to help you clean the theater?"

Lois looked at her cousin quizzically.

"Well, actually, I'm not sure why he showed up. But it's what happened later that was so…I don't know. Nice? I'm still trying to figure out what his ulterior motive was. There had to be one."

Chloe shot Lois a confused look.

"What do you mean? What did he do?"

"We were cleaning. He spilled coffee down his jeans. I laughed. Then he said something about cleaning the rest of the theater later today, that we didn't need to clean it all last night. Before I knew it, he had walked to the back of the theater and into the booth. 'Moon River' started playing and--"

"- -'Breakfast at Tiffany's' was on the screen."

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?"

"Well, Clark called me a couple of days ago. He asked me some really strange questions. Mostly about you."

Lois set her mug down on the coffee table and turned to face her cousin.

"About me? What questions about me?"

"Well, favorite movie was one of them." Lois sighed, remembering Clark's admission last night of the source of his knowledge on that topic. "Lois, maybe he just wanted to do something nice for you…especially after this week. You said yourself it was probably just because of the anniversary."

"Yeah, I know. And it was nice. It was just…unexpected. But, something just doesn't feel right. But, at the same time, it does." She stopped, turned to her cousin and smiled. "Am I making any sense?"

Chloe grinned.

"Believe it or not, Lo, you're making perfect sense."

At least someone understood her, because she certainly didn't understand herself at the moment.

"My emotions have just been like a roller-coaster this week, Chlo. Sometimes, it's been terrifying. Other times, nauseating. It's just all been so…weird. And completely out of the ordinary for me."

Chloe moved her legs out from under her and stood.

"Oh, come on. Lois Lane can handle anything. Besides, after living in this town for a year, you ought to be used to 'out of the ordinary.'" She grinned as she walked back to the counter and grabbed her laptop.

Lois laughed softly. Chloe was right. She should be used to it by now. She usually could roll with the punches.

But, this week, especially that one night, usually belonged to her. And her mom. She didn't want to lose that. She hoped it wasn't slipping away.

"You would think so, wouldn't ya, Chlo?" She stood and crossed her arms while walking towards Chloe. "Now, if only I could get used to this recurring nightmare about that guy in the red cape. That still scares me."

Chloe smiled. She put her laptop in her bag and grabbed her cell phone and the folded Daily Planet off the counter.

"Yeah. Boy, Lois. A guy in a red cape. Sounds pretty scary to me." She flung her bag on her shoulder and reached for her keys. Lois shot her an unappreciative look.

"Don't worry about it, Lois. It's just a dream."

"Yeah, right. It's not your dream. Or nightmare. If it's scary, it's a nightmare, right?"

Chloe laughed.

"Well, Lois, I wish I could stay longer and help you complete that thought process, but I've got a ton of work to do. I only came to town to take care of a few things. But, call me later?"

Lois smiled.

"Sure. I've gotta get going anyway. I've still got half a theater to clean up this afternoon. And I'll probably be doing it by myself. You know he won't show. Something will come up, and he'll apologize later for not being there."

Chloe just smiled and shook her head.

"I don't know, Lois. He's surprised you before."

She sighed. Why did everyone keep saying that?

"Why does everyone keep saying that? Smallville is so predictable. Sure, he has his moments, like last night and the night he stayed here, but it's nothing to get excited about. Those moments are just flukes. He'll never change. He's just the same old humdrum farmboy who's gonna be stuck in this town for the rest of his life."

Chloe grinned.

"If you say so, Lois. I just think Clark will surprise all of us one of these days."

Lois rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, Chlo. You're more optimistic than I am." Chloe laughed. Lois pulled her into a hug. "I'll give you a call later. Thanks for being my alarm clock this morning."

Chloe laughed.

"Anytime, cuz. Okay, I gotta go. I've gotta be back in Metropolis later to finish an article." She pulled away from Lois and reached for the door.

"Okay, I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay."

"Bye, Baby."

"Bye, Lo."

Lois closed the door behind her. Still holding the door knob, she slowly spun around and leaned against the door. She felt somewhat better after talking to her cousin, who was usually right in the advice she always bestowed, but she was still apprehensive and confused about everything else that had happened that week.

She always did things her way, by herself. That's the way she was raised. After all, she had to learn to do it herself in case there was no one else around.

But lately, he had been around. And she couldn't quite figure out if she wanted to need him or needed to want him.