A/N: All of a sudden, I felt like I was focusing too much on the possibility of a relationship between the two friends… Oh, it'll happen because I'm a true converted Chlark-er, but this soon? Give me a little more time, people! I'm also not sure if I like how I ended the chapter… but we're getting toward the middle of another Danae epic and I can't have it stall out because they're arguing about who ruined the possibility of a relationship their freshman year.

Ah, the mysterious ship… The ship catatonic Lionel said was meant for the mysterious "he"… (Sorry, MarkMark. You'll understand it all when you get to watch them…) But what does it all mean? And who's "he"?

Chapter 12

"Are you serious?" Clark exploded. "The one those two psychopaths emerged from? The one that conveniently disappeared before I could find it?" He ran his hand through his hair and started to pace, inadvertently dragging Chloe along because he'd forgotten to let go of her hand.

"Clark," Chloe murmured and he looked down at her. When he realized what he was doing, he blushed so adorably that Chloe's heart burst with her feelings for him again. Get yourself under control, Chloe. People are relying on you and Clark and you guys can't go up in teenage angst flames! "It was the only recurring bit in between snippets of you using your powers…" She smiled, rather naughtily. "Oh, and can I just tell you how sexy it looked when you pulled my coffin out of the ground? It certainly was different from that angle."

"If you think I was sexy then…" he moved toward her, willing to lose their mission for an hour… okay, maybe two. She was in his arms and they were almost kissing before she backed away, looking as if it was one of the most painful decisions of her young life.

"Clark, we can't… Listen, maybe this is real, maybe it isn't. But it's really sudden and we have something more important to attend to." She looked up at him and decided that instead of pleading with him, she'd challenge him. "But if you can't keep you libido under control while your family, friends and entire home town is in danger…"

His arms dropped as if she'd just burned him. "You think I don't care about everyone here?"

She smiled. "Nope, but if we get lost in each other again, it may be the exact amount of time that whoever needs to make whatever it is permanent. We gotta' discuss this." She sat primly on a bench after retrieving his flannel shirt and wrapping it around her. Clark moved to sit next to her but she shook her head and pointed. "Oh no you don't, fly boy! Over there, if you will…"

Clark mockingly pouted at her for a moment before doing her bidding. "Why are you being so mean to me?"

Chloe closed her eyes. She couldn't bear to see the invitation in his eyes. "Do you think I'm any less immune to the pull between us? If you sat over here, I'd probably attack you."

Clark laughed in delight. "Chloe, have I ever told you how refreshingly honest you are? No one ever says the things you do…" He shook his head and put on his thinking face. "Okay. What do we know?"

Chloe smiled at him in encouragement. He's such a great guy… she thought. Heat started to build within her and she shook her head. Chloe, get a hold of yourself, girl. You're not a nympho… You can do this! "We know that it's a transmission of some kind… which usually indicates the need for power. My flashback memories seem to indicate that the second ship has something to do with it. And, besides you and me, everyone's suspect."

Clark looked at her oddly for a moment. "You mean, everyone but you, me or Jor-El, right?"

Chloe stared into his eyes, praying that he didn't get too upset with what she was going to say. She took a deep breath and just plunged in. "I don't think we can totally discount him, Clark."

"But he freed you from the transmission!" Clark looked at her in concern. "You can't honestly suspect him."

"Clark…" She held her hand out at him, but snatched it back in case he thought it was an invitation. Not that I really need to worry, she thought wryly. He's probably too mad at me to still want to jump my bones.

Clark jumped to his feet. He wanted to brush Chloe's concerns aside because of any previous prejudices she might still hold against Jor-El… but long association with the blonde bombshell of a reporter made him take her suggestions seriously. Could Jor-El…? But why? Now that I finally understand… Maybe all those sessions had conditioned me to always feel he had the best of intentions… He shook his head. He wasn't going to be able to do this by himself. He looked at his best friend and sat back down. "Okay, Chloe. I know you have your reasons. Why don't you let me in on them?"

Chloe sighed in relief. She had been afraid that Clark would just dismiss her concerns out of hand. Now she got up and started to pace. "Okay, let's look at this objectively. One, the Fortress came into being around the same time the ship appeared. It's quite possible that is no coincidence. Two, he gives us just enough information that we could run around looking for the source of the transmission that he can detect, but can't pinpoint for some unknown reason. Three, while I no longer am under the transmission's influence, it could be that he's just cut me out of it to encourage your trust of him. Four…" She took another deep breath. This was going to be the kicker point and Clark was going to be upset. "Four, your attraction for me has come out of nowhere. We can't dismiss the fact that you may be influenced to perpetuate your line."

"Chloe!" Clark gasped. "That's ridiculous!"

She looked at him sadly. "Clark, is it really? Look at our behavior. Suddenly neither of us can keep our hands off the other. And I'm only the most recent in a line of at least three women that have thrown themselves all over you."

Clark looked at her hard. "Chloe…" He choked to silence. He shook his head to try again. "Chloe, you can't mean that…"

Chloe shrugged sadly. "Clark, besides one blissful month our freshman year, you've never shown the slightest interest in me other than a friend. What am I supposed to think?"

Clark could only blink. It was true that his romantic life had been taken up by Alicia and Lana… Okay, mostly Lana, he admitted privately to himself. "Chloe, are we going to go through this again?"

She shook her head. "I don't really want to." She smiled. "That is going to take a little while for us to get through… and now is definitely not that time for that." She looked at him again, her face deadly serious. "Clark, Jor-El or someone claiming to be him tried to rule your life for at least three years and make you do his bidding. I don't know if we can totally dismiss him as a suspect."

Clark sighed. "You're right, Chloe, but where should we go from here?" He lowered his head onto his hands. "If we can't trust Jor-El, who can we trust?"

She laughed at his woebegone face. "Mr. Kent, I thought that would be obvious! We can trust each other!" She was relieved when he started to laugh with her.

Suddenly, his face went deadly serious. "Chloe, I hear Lana calling my name."

Chloe grimaced. "She would. Is she at least saying what she wants?"

Clark looked at her, worried. He didn't want to leave Chloe, especially since that was one of the things that had driven them apart before… but Lana's voice had that shrill urgent quality that usually indicated she was in some sort of danger. He'd heard it often enough, after all.

"Go, Clark," Chloe sighed. "She may be under the influence of the Transmission, but you shouldn't just ignore her because of that."

He looked at Chloe and noticed her resigned face. This is going to get hairy, he thought wryly. How to still help the people he cared about but help Chloe realize that she was extremely important in his life and for his happiness. Suddenly, he smiled and held out his hands. "Chloe, come run with me…" Her answering smile was all the reward he needed.

Chloe was in his arms, almost before the words left his mouth. He asked me to come! He doesn't want me to worry! He wants me with him! Her mind chanted it almost ecstatically. When an unwelcome thought came, she tried to squash it and enjoy the wind rushing past her, but it popped out of her mouth. "Won't bringing me along slow you down?" she muttered into the wind, confident of his ability to hear her anywhere.

"Not noticeably," he shouted. Chloe noticed that it was harder to hear him while running than when flying. "I'm not exactly sure where she is, so I wouldn't be running flat out anyway."

Chloe sighed happily, her last guilt removed. She hadn't been sure what she would do if Clark had rushed off to Lana's assistance without her. At least she would have known why this time… but she wasn't sure that would have made a huge difference. She snuggled against Clark, secure in both his grip and his affection for her.

Clark found it hard to concentrate on Lana's voice with Chloe in his arms… but he wouldn't have given it up for anything. He angled toward the bridge and his mind started to worry. He stopped at the beginning of it and lowered Chloe so they could check out the scene before they stumbled into something too dangerous for Chloe. They saw Lana in the middle of the bridge and Clark got a bad feeling about the situation.

Lana caught sight of them and a furious look crossed her face. She climbed up on the edge and held her arms out. "You think she loves you, Clark, but I love you more. I can prove it."

"How exactly do you manage to 'prove' it, Lana?" Chloe asked, her patience holding on by a thread. "By pretending to be a bird?"

Lana sneered at Chloe. "You don't belong here. This was supposed to be a special moment between me and Clark."

"Riiiight," Chloe drawled. "Like I'm really going to leave you alone with Clark in your current state. Why don't you come over here and we'll talk about the situation."

"Chloe, you're a coward and I can prove it. You'd never die for him!" With that, Lana toppled off the bridge to the accompaniment of Chloe's gasp of horror.

A/N: Another chapter done. I can't believe it. I thought I was going to stall out for a little while because most of my attention was focused on this script idea I came up with. But it was a short script, so three days later, I'm back on the job!

I have one comment on the direction Smallville seems to be going… So, I was innocently watching the WB… (and I'm going to start rhyming for a minute so please forgive me…)

And what to my wondering eyes did appear
But clips from the season starting next year.
I started to clap… I started to gasp…
New episodes were soon within my grasp.
But then it happened and my heart nearly stopped.
They referenced the character soon to be chopped.
My eyes were peeled, taking in every detail
And what I saw caused me to wail.
Three people were shown to possibly die
Lex, Lana and the last I denied with a cry.
Chloe was last and my heart started to sink.
Options discarded as I started to think.
Would Kristen be the one to croak?
I hear her fans and agents start to choke.
Michael is safe for without lovely Lex
There's no character to cause Clark to vex.
Tears rolled down my face. I started to sob.
It hurt me deeply. Alison Mack without this job.
In a tizzy of research, I viewed many sites
Looking for something to counter news that bites!
KryptonSite's my savior. I have to rejoice
For spoilers that calmed my fears with their voice.
I know she's not out of danger yet,
But I'm confident enough to place a bet.
So WB PTB, hear my plea.
Let Chloe live. Leave her be.
For without her wit, her charm, and grace
Your show will surely drop to last place!

KentCharm: I don't know if this will increase your anxiety or not, but the reports are that "someone" is going to die in the 100th episode. But there's no guarantee who that will be. Now, I would say that if the PTB followed cannon, Lana would be safe. After all, in the comics, she married Pete Ross. But Chloe, who is not in historical cannon, doesn't have that out. I can think of a couple of ways out of it and Chloe is mentioned on a spoiler site I frequent after the 100th episode, but they are always careful to make sure we know that just 'cause she seems to be a driving character in future episodes that there's no guarantee. We'll just have to cross our fingers and pray for the best. (And Clark owes her some considerable grieving if it is her!)

I would like to take this moment to thank you so much for the complement. I love writing and it's even easier when people appreciate it. Now if I can just continue to earn your praise, I'll be the happiest person on the planet… OK, maybe if I was paid to have lots of people like my writing… Yeah, that would be the best! ;D

QuietOne: Thank you very much for that clarification… I'm not sure if it was for me or someone else, but it is appreciated. But now my question is… Do you like my story so far? Is there something you'd do to change it? Make it better? Feedback is ALWAYS appreciated... :D