Chloe stood outside Clark's door and knocked. She had to use just about all the will power she had not to have come over sooner. But, she knew that when stuff happened Clark normally needed some time alone before he could talk about whatever it was that was going on. So, she had sat around, albeit it not patiently until she thought it was safe to approach him.
She knew something had happened because of the way Clark had been acting. He had seemed very nervous and withdrawn. She knew this wasn't related to Lana. A quick shiver ran down her spine as the thought that Lex might know about Clark crossed her mind. There was no way that could be possible and she pushed the thought out of her mind and put a smile back on her face as the door opened.
"Hi, Clark!" Chloe tried to sound perky, but when she saw that she only got a very small smile out of him she became concerned.
"Hey, Chloe" Clark moved out of the way allowing her to enter the apartment. Chloe grabbed Clark's hand and guided him over to the couch as she took her purse off her shoulder and laid it on the floor.
"Okay, Clark what is going on?" Clark could see the worry evident in Chloe's face. To be quite honest she wasn't the only one. "What happened the other day? I've tried to give you some space, but it has to be something serious for you to still be like this."
Clark decided this was one time not to beat around the bush. He let out a large breath. "Lex knows."
Chloe's eyes widened in fear, but her brain was trying not to accept what she had just heard. "Knows what exactly?"
"He knows about me." Clark stated sullenly. "He's known for a while now."
Chloe's mind was whirling. How could he know? Did he see something? Chloe couldn't help the feeling of dread and the knot that was forming in her stomach. She knew this was not going to turn out good. "How?"
"You remember back in high school Lex's experiment with Black K?" Clark waited as Chloe recalled the moment.
Chloe slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, but I thought he didn't remember anything from that time?"
"He said he didn't but they recently resurfaced and he does know now." Chloe still had trouble wrapping her brain around this. "So, why hasn't he acted on this already? I mean it's not really like him to sit back and not pounce when he's found someone's weak spot."
"Lana." Clark saw Chloe's slightly confused expression. "He told me he couldn't kill me earlier because of Lana. But, he almost did the other day if you and Lana hadn't shown up."
Chloe put her hand on top of Clark's. No wonder he had been so jittery the past few days. Clark had inadvertently shot a hole in the one shield he had. "So, what are you going to do?"
Clark shook his head in despair. "I don't know. I went home and talked to Mom about it."
Chloe felt a glimmer of hope. Clark's parents had always been able to come up with something to get them through whatever rough situation came up. "Well, what did she say?"
"She didn't know what to do either." Clark looked up at her and then down at the floor hopeless. "Lex could come after you or Mom or me anytime and I might not be able to help you. I could not live with myself if something happened to one of you because of his vendetta against me."
"Clark nothing is going to happen to me or your mom. Lex has definitely changed from when he first came to Smallville, but I don't think he would use us as bait." Chloe reached up and placed her hand under his chin. "We will figure something out."
"I hope so Chloe." Clark patted Chloe's hand softly as the phone began to ring. Chloe saw that Clark was not moving towards it, so she decided that she would answer it for him. Maybe it would be Mrs. Kent with an idea on how to get out of this situation. "Hello, Clark Kent's residence."
Chloe's face paled as she listened to who was on the other end of the phone line. "Clark, Lex is on the phone." Chloe handed the phone over to Clark who seemed to steel himself in order to talk to Lex.
"What do you want Lex?" Clark asked in a firm tone, not giving away his earlier fears.
"Meet me at the Luthor Plant # 4 in thirty minutes. Alone. We have some business to take care of." Lex spoke ominously into the phone. "If I even see a wisp of blonde hair out here—well I don't know what might happen." Before Clark could say anything else Lex hung up the call.
