A/N: I truly apologize for being so behind on my updates. My new job is really cracking the whip on me! But maybe that's because it's so new and I'm learning… But my plans include the ability to keep up with my writing, so we'll see how I do…

Chapter 18

After being unceremoniously dumped on the floor fifteen minutes prior, Chloe just lay there to make sure that her strength had returned. She was rather surprised at how fast she felt like she'd recovered… and she couldn't feel that prickly warning so was fairly confident thinking that the Transmission didn't think she'd be feeling better this soon either. It probably thinks I'll just lay here until my next torture session, she thought irritably. Considering it had taken over her friends and family, she would have thought it would have known better. But any failing it had was something she planned to exploit.

She quickly moved to the toilet and extracted her tools, confident that a few hours in water wouldn't compromise their structural integrity. She felt very pleased at her ability to get them from Lex. In any normal situation, she was fairly certain she couldn't expect such presents from him. She looked at what he had provided and realized that the modifications needed wouldn't be too much. She just needed to bend one of the tines on the fork to keep the pins in the places she put them and then a long pointy something to manipulate the pins.

She examined the fork really closely. If she started could bend it just a little bit with her hands, she could press the tine on the floor to get the angle she wanted. She grasped the tine carefully, trying to make sure that she didn't hurt herself in the process. While toilet water may not hurt metal, there was always the possibility it may have some germ residing within that could hurt her. She shrugged. Worrying about an unknown and possibly entirely missing virus wasn't getting the job done. She pushed back on the tine and was surprised at how easily it bent under the pressure. She could only assume that it was of really inferior quality or the water had worked faster than she could have guessed.

She opened up every tool available in the knife. There were the normal knives and nail files, but there was also a metal toothpick. Chloe shuddered at the thought of sticking something metal on her teeth, but people had done more odd things. She figured that would probably be the best bet as long as it was stiff enough. Slowly, she moved toward the door. At this point in the operation, the last thing she wanted to do was attract any attention.

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Clark wandered slowly through town, trying to blend in to the general population. His height and striking looks didn't help the matter, but he had put on a hooded sweatshirt and was shlumping down the street like a delinquent teenager… or at least the stereotypical delinquent teenager. It was early afternoon and the streets teemed with people. He was drawing close to his third from the last option, the courthouse. He wasn't holding out much hope that they would be holding her in such a public building. But it was one of those with hidden rooms, so he was constrained to search it so he could follow through with his initial plan.

Chloe would be proud, he thought wryly. He so often went speeding off every which way that actually following a pre-determined plan was definitely different. Now, if I can just get into the courthouse unnoticed… As if his very thoughts drew their attention, he was suddenly surrounded by his friends and neighbors.

"Clark, would you kiss little Johnny for me?" Mrs. Olstrom from two counties over pleaded.

"Clark, only you can stop the violence in Smallville. The police can't do anything about it." He would have laughed at the deputy had the situation not felt totally out of control.

Clark cringed from the press of people. Without a doubt, he could have plunged through to the courthouse, but he couldn't do that without hurting someone. If they had been in their right minds, he would have been tempted, but to do so now… Well, that was against all the teachings of his parents.

He tried moving against them gently… But he received absolutely no cooperation. "Excuse me," he said continuously as he tried to shoulder his way to the building. "I need to talk to Judge Dykstra about an important matter." He tried to make it seem like it was the important business of a man thinking about ruling the town, but he knew that it wasn't coming out right. However, he only received more pleas from all sides and even more people pressing in on him. He was actually a little afraid that someone would get hurt with everyone crowding the street.

He didn't know why that was bothering him and so he kept thinking of it while still struggling against the tide of humanity. He knew that he could super-jump or fly to the door, but growing up with the need to hide pounded into him daily made him hesitant to use them… even though everyone apparently knew his secret already. Suddenly, it came to him. This was the most resistance he'd received in trying to search a property. Perhaps it was because there were so many people around, but the Transmission didn't seem too easily fooled by him not using his powers. There had to be something in that building worth protecting.

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Chloe had spent ten minutes fiddling with the door's lock and would have given up had her stubbornness not kicked in. She knew that she could do this. After all, she had read all she could find on lock picking. It hadn't seemed like putting her theoretical knowledge into practice would have been such a hard thing. It was all about pushing the pins up to their proper place and holding them there while turning the tumbler. But it turned out that reality was much harder than it had originally seemed.

She hadn't intended to spend so long on this project. She had thought she'd be out and would find Clark within minutes while this felt like it was taking entirely too long. She could feel her shoulders hunch and her movements become jerkier as she expected the surveillance to be reinstated at any moment. When she realized that she was just jerking at her tools and making entirely too much noise, she stepped away from her project. OK, Sullivan. Keep it together. You can do it. If you can break into LuthorCorp, you can break out of this ridiculous cell!

After taking a couple of deep breaths, she bent back to her labors. This time, it felt a bit easier… as if everything was magically falling into place. After a few minutes, she couldn't feel anymore pins that needed to be pushed into place and experimentally turned the lock. The door fell open at her touch and she barely managed to restrain a shout of joy.

Immediately, she felt the urge to escape the forbidding building. I'll never feel safe againif I have to cover another court case, she thought wryly as her feet quickly guided her to an exit. Suddenly, she stuttered to a stop as a thought came to her. Why was I hidden here? I know it was a trap of some sort for Clark, but what does that mean? What else is hidden here that could possibly stop him?

The answer was so obvious that she almost hit her head for her own stupidity. Of course there had to be kryptonite here. That was the only possible way they could have captured Clark and, with him being heaven knew where, capturing her was the best way to bring him here. Her face fell into grim lines. There was too much kryptonite on this planet as it was and it was getting a little ridiculous. But rather than leave such a supply for the entity that had tortured her, she determined that she had to find where it was. She turned around and delved further into the bowels of the building.

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The knowledge that something had to be hidden in the courthouse that was of value to the Transmission fueled even greater efforts on his part. He even tried grabbing Farmer Jones by the arms and lifting him in the air to place him beside him or at least behind him so he could move one person forward. But the crowd pressed in so he had no place to put the man. Finally, he was forced to place him exactly where he had been.

He sighed and put on his most regal expression. He wasn't comfortable with this, but he'd tried everything else. "You will create a path for me," he said sharply, even managing to inject a sneer into it. But they just turned mute and pleading eyes on him. The sudden cessation of sound in the square actually alarmed him quite a bit. He could feel every eye on him and he wondered what was going to happen now. He imagined all sorts of things and tensed his body for some sort of attack. What happened was nothing he was prepared for. Suddenly, a path opened up directly to the courthouse door.

All he could do was stare at them stupidly. Something was seriously wrong with this picture. But he knew that he had to get into that building and if the Transmission was finally willing to allow him in, he had to take the chance. It surely had a set of risks, but he couldn't allow Chloe to remain captive and this was the most promising lead he'd had in 24 hours. Slowly, watching the people around him for any move to trap him again, he moved up the courthouse stairs.

Once inside the eerily silent building, he thought about his options. He could either work from top to bottom or visa versa. It felt odd having only two choices, but he decided to start in the basement. After all, if he finished his search and then had to leave right away, he could always go super-sonic from the roof. Not only that, but all of the shielded rooms were in the basement. He kept all of his senses at high alert as he moved down the stairs. The silence was harshly grating on his nerves and seemed so unlikely as to be a confirmation of his suspicions. He heard quiet footsteps and the moving of unknown items, so he immediately homed in on them. Quickly, he found himself outside of the room that the noise was originating from. He took a couple of deep breaths and opened the door quickly to surprise the occupant.

Two people stared at each other in shock and dismay, but Chloe managed to be the one to break the silence. "Clark!" she whispered and flung herself into his arms. He reveled in the feel of her and the knowledge that she was with him again.

He brushed his hand along her hair and bent his head in thankfulness. "Chloe," he whispered into her hair.

Chloe looked up as she felt a dampness on her head. Was there a leak in the roof? she wondered before it dawned on her. She leaned back and looked at Clark. "Clark, are you crying?"

Clark blushed and had never looked quite so adorable to Chloe. He couldn't seem to meet her eyes as he tried to answer. "Chloe, I was so worried… I was sure someone had taken you but there was always the possibility that you'd just left… and I didn't know what to do, so I just searched all the suspect sites that I'd come up with… I really felt like I should give up hope…"

Chloe could only goggle at him for a minute. The boy hardly needs to take a breath, does he? she smiled to herself. "Clark…" she tried to interrupt, but he kept rambling. After a second try met with no better success, she did the next best thing. She grabbed him behind his head and drew him in for a soul shattering kiss. She felt as if she were drowning in sensation and would have flung him to the ground to have her way with him had he not drawn back gently.

"Chloe…" he whispered, his eyes stricken.

She could have cursed at his noble streak. But then she really looked at him and realized exactly what that meant. "Clark!" she almost shouted and he quickly shut the door to keep the noise to a minimum. "How could you do it? You're the world's best hope for salvation and you came searching after me? Didn't you figure out that it was probably a trap? We have no idea what's in this building and if you're down for the count, what chance would these people have?"

His eyes were still sad, but Chloe was almost relieved to see a hint of steel in them. "I was willing to risk it, Chloe. I couldn't let you be hurt because of me…"

She closed her eyes and growled. "Clark, you big…" but then she realized exactly what he'd said and she looked up at him with adoring eyes. She reached up on tiptoe to bring him in for another kiss, but this time he resisted. That hurt her. All of her old insecurities manifest themselves and she wondered if he'd decided she was worth the risk as her friend and if his feelings for her were disappearing.

Clark ached as he could see Chloe winding up with the rejection. But he couldn't resist her for long and he still had that previous attack to atone for. "Chloe, I…" He wanted to explain, but he wasn't exactly certain how.

He could see the change come over her. He'd always admired her ability to compartmentalize her feelings so that she could deal with the disaster at hand, but he knew that she was hurting deep inside. He got a brief smile and she disentangled herself from his arms. "Don't worry about it, Clark. We have more important business to do anyway."

A/N: Once again, I apologize for the huge delay. But I really appreciate your willingness to stick with me. If you haven't noticed by now, I have also decided that I'm going to skip the synopsis. It's not really in me… And now to my reviews…

samiosam: I'm so happy that you have joined my fans… (Muwhahahaha! Ah yes! They'll never see into my evil plot! I mean… What?) Thank you for the compliments. I can't tell you how much they mean to me.

Johnny Superfecta: Well, if I knew that people who've developed powers had experiments done on them (see "The Chloe Chronicles" and the new "Vengeance Chronicles"), I would have to be prepared if I discovered my best friend had powers. After all, no matter how hard you try to hide it, people always seem to notice, don't they?

iluvsmallville1: Thank you for being such an avid supporter. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that!

markmark261: Thank you so much for the typo alert and the nice things you say. As you can see, I've given up on the synopsis idea. Mainly because I'm not a synopsis girl. For crying out loud, I have a hard enough time describing my stories! ;D

KentCharm: I have my suspicions for the rest of the season, but they have to get over the Lana angst soon. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. ;D