Chloe paced back and forth across the floor in the loft. "Clark, you and I have been through so much together, and I need to know if we could ever be anything more, because if we can't be anything more, I need to let you go, and I need to move on, and I need a lot of things, and…" Chloe's voiced trailed off. There wasn't any more speech that she could possibly rehearse, she didn't need to go over the words anymore, because she already knew what she needed to say.

Chloe stared out the window at the grounds of the Kent farm. "So this is life now," she whispered. "This is the beginning of…something. I feel something." She narrowed her eyes as she looked towards heaven. "I feel different, Lana. This is what…this is more you than me, I think. You would be the one who would have to know, if you were still here, and I would be the one who would never want to take the chance…and I don't know why I'm doing this, except that I think a part of you is always going to a part of me. I really hope you're okay with whatever happens here, but either way, Lana, I've gotta borrow a little bit of you again…I need to figure this out, I need to know, and I can't go further 'till I do. Do you get that, Lana?"

Clark came up the stairs and dropped his coat on the bed. "Need to know what?"

Chloe spun around. "Clark!"

"Need to know what?" he repeated, coming up beside her to look out the window.

"Lots of things," she muttered, rapidly feeling like she was losing her nerve. This whole thing, leaving the church, coming to see Clark, being so open with feelings that she had hidden for years…It was all new to her. It was totally not a Chloe way to be. But in her head, Chloe knew that it was a way that she had to be.

"Like what?" Clark probed.

It was almost like old times, before the loss of Lana, before everything in their world fell apart. It was almost like that, Clark and Chloe, friends. Instead of looking at each other though, they both continued to stare out the window. Chloe took a deep breath. "Where have you been? Where did you go when you left?"

He shrugged, not turning to face her. "I got lost for a while."

"A while?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow. "Try three years."

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm sorry about that. I just…I just needed some time. I didn't come back to Smallville until a week or so ago. My mom needed some help with the farm, and stuff. My dad is supposed to be taking it easy, he's had some problems with his heart, and it was just…time."

Chloe looked over at him. "This is nice."

"What?"

"You and me."

He turned to her, leaning with his back against the window. "What do you mean?"

"We were best friends before, and then…I lost you. I tried my best, I tried to be there for you, but I lost Lana, and then I lost you all at the same time."

"I didn't feel like I was…I don't know. I blamed myself for Lana."

Chloe hung her head as she quietly answered, "I know you did. There wasn't really any changing your mind on that."

"It's been a long time though, and I've grown up a bit…I've somewhat…moved past it. I'll never forget her, but…I'm letting her go. Talking to you the other day, it was," he paused, "…like, incredible, because all of a sudden I knew that my heart couldn't belong to her forever. My life can't belong to her forever."

Chloe remained silent, but reached out to take his hand.

Clark's finger entwined with Chloe's as he continued, "There is so much in the world of the living, there is so much left to, and even though she's gone…Everything else still moves on without her, and it just doesn't make sense to, I mean, she wouldn't want me to stay behind. Do you get that?"

"I do," she replied.

"I just…" Clark stumbled on his words as he said, "I…I'm…sorry that it was too late for…things."

Chloe held her head of to one side in an effort to maintain eye contact. "What do you mean?"

"The wedding? Aren't you supposed to be getting married today?"

She shook her head. "Somehow, I don't think so."

"Why?" he frowned.

"I think…I think that you and I are both very different people than we were three years ago. Some better, some worse, but…I think that we are both incredibly different."

"What do you mean?"

Chloe hesitated before reaching out and taking his other hand, drawing him closer to her. They were face to face, so close that she could feel his breath on her face as he looked down at her. "Three years ago, I wouldn't have ever thought of doing this." Her hands drifted up Clark's shoulders and she drew him into a long and lasting kiss, more powerful than any she had ever experienced before.

It was so passionate that neither one of them really wanted to pull away. When they parted, it was Chloe who spoke first. "I couldn't go through with it Clark. I couldn't get married, because I meant what I said in the cemetery, I meant it with all of my heart, that it will always be you, and it will never be anybody but you in my heart, and…"

"You still believe in me," he interrupted. "You never left me." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I never left you," she confirmed, "at least not in my heart. And…I need to know, Clark, I need to know if the us that were such a powerful friendship three years ago could ever be something more, because…I guess, just like you needed to move on from losing Lana, I can't move on with anything until I know whether you and I could ever be anything more."

Clark pulled away from her and began rummaging through one of his desk drawers.

"Clark?"

He shook his head. "Give me a second."

Chloe crossed the room to where he was, trying to look inside the desk drawer.

Clark found what he was looking for, pulling a notebook out of the wreckage that was his desk.

"What is it?" she asked.

Clark sat on the bed and pulled Chloe down beside him. "I need to…I need to do this."

"What is it?" Chloe repeated.

"This…" he gestured to the notebook, "is a long, long, letter that I wrote to Lana. And I…I spent pages and pages apologizing to her for everything that happen, and it's taken me three years…but I think that's I've accepted fate…Do you understand."

Chloe nodded mutely, unsure of what he was trying to say.

"I…want…" He shook his head. "I have to do this."

He reached back into the door and pulled out a lighter. Clark held the notebook over the garbage can. "In my heart, Chloe…it's you. I'm just sorry it took me so long to realize it…"

Clark lit the notebook on fire and dropped it into the garbage can. Together, he and Chloe sat and watched it burn.

"In my heart, it's you, Chloe. So I have to say goodbye, and I have to let it go."

Chloe stared into the flames. "Goodbye for now…Lana."

"No," Clark corrected. "Goodbye. Just…goodbye. I can't have her occupying my heart anymore, I need to go on living."

Chloe and Clark sat together on the bed and watched the flames go down.