Interviews with Lex Luthor were hard to come by, so it was only natural that Chloe conducted one at his mansion well into the night.
Clark and Emmeline were taping the interview. Chloe had invited Emmeline to sit next to her, but she insisted that she'd rather be behind the camera.
Clark was having trouble getting the camera started, and Chloe was looking at him impatiently.
"Are you ready now, Clark?" she asked.
"Yeah, I forgot to press the record button. Sorry," Clark answered.
He finally turned it on and Chloe turned back to Lex. "So, Mr. Luthor. Are there anymore secret construction projects going on at LuthorCorp like Level 3?"
"Please, call me Lex," Lex smiled.
Chloe didn't look amused. "Okay, Lex. Are you going to answer my question?"
"Chloe," Clark said a little embarrassed.
"What?"
"It's okay, Clark," Lex said smoothly. "'Our critics are our friends. They show us our faults'."
"Benjamin Franklin."
One of Lex's servants entered the room. "Excuse me, Mr. Luthor. Your father's on the phone."
"I need to get this. I'll take it in the conservatory." He looked over at Chloe. "I look forward to resuming our verbal judo."
Chloe smiled a little as Lex left the room. She stood up and began looking around the study. "I wonder if he's really taking a call or if he's just trying to avoid me."
"Well, you certainly don't hold back when it comes to interviews," Emmeline said. "I would've been uncomfortable."
"You wanna get a story, you have to fight for it." She looked at an urn on his bookshelf. "Wow. That's really cool. Do you think it's real?"
Emmeline and Clark went to look at it. When they turned around, Chloe was nowhere in sight.
Clark sighed and the both of them went to go look for her. When they found her roaming around the halls and trying out doors, Clark glared at her. "Chloe, you can't just go snooping around someone's house."
"Clark, it's a mansion. It's designed for snooping." When Clark looked her pointedly, she added, "Okay, fine. We'll go and wait in the library for Lex to officially blow us off."
They returned to the study and Clark walked to the camera. "I'll put the camera away."
"Okay. I'm gonna go get my bag."
As Chloe packed her things up, there was a noise behind them and they saw two masked guys attacking Clark, one of them having him in a chokehold.
"Chloe, Em, run!" he choked out.
The two girls ran out of the study and bumped into yet another masked man. They tried to run, but he grabbed the both of them before they could get far. Chloe and Emmeline began hitting him, trying to get him to let go so they could get away. The man flung Chloe towards the window and she crashed through it.
"Chloe!" Emmeline screamed. The masked man hit her on the face and she crumpled to the ground, feeling a massive bruise begin to form on her cheek.
The robbers all ran out of the mansion as fast as they could.
"Em!" Clark cried as he got to her.
"Help Chloe!" Emmeline said weakly.
Emmeline heard a loud scream and a sickening thud. Clark ran to the window and there laid an unconscious Chloe on the ground below.
Clark and Emmeline were sitting in Chloe's hospital room watching her sleep. She had a huge bruise on her eye and her arm was in a large cast. It would take a while for her to fully recover. Emmeline fought the urge to burst into tears. Her first true friend and she had almost lost her. It was weird to see Chloe, someone who was tougher than metal, lying in a hospital bed all broken and banged up.
"Clark, Emmeline," they heard. They turned around to see Lex walk into the room and join them. "Don't worry. I brought in the best doctors from Metropolis."
"Is she gonna be all right?" Clark asked.
"The doctors aren't sure."
At that, Emmeline could no longer hold back her tears and two fat ones ran down her cheeks. Clark noticed and put his arm around her.
"The fall was pretty bad," Lex continued. "She broke her left arm and has a concussion. They want to make sure there's no brain swelling."
"I should have gotten to her."
"I don't mean to belabor the obvious, Clark, but this isn't your fault."
"I just don't know what happened. One minute the room is empty and then they appear out of thin air. Do the police have any leads?"
"They don't think I'm the first one that's been hit. There have been over a dozen of these robberies all over the county. This gang somehow gets in and out without busting a single lock. They even tried to hit the Smallville Savings and Loan."
"I didn't hear about that."
"Banks don't publicize attempted robberies, Clark. It's bad for their image."
"If nothing was taken, how do they know they were robbed?"
"Apparently they tripped an alarm inside the vault. Although no one knows how they got in there in the first place."
"And the stuff they stole from you, can the police trace it?"
"I didn't report anything stolen, Clark."
"Why not? I saw them walk out with two bags."
"I don't care about that! I just want to find the people who did this to Chloe and when I do, I promise you they will be dealt with accordingly."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you should let me worry about it. Now, why don't you go both home and get some rest?"
Lex left the room and the two turned back to Chloe. More tears spilled from Emmeline's eyes. "I can't lose her."
Emmeline sat in the privacy of her room with tears continuing to make strides down her face. There was a soft knock on the door.
"Emmeline?"
It was her mother.
"Baby, are you alright?"
Emmeline turned to her and her mother could see the many tear stains that rested on her bruised cheeks. She came and sat down on the bed next to her.
"Mom, Chloe is my first real friend," she cried. "What am I supposed to do if I lose her?"
"Oh, sweetie," her mother said wrapping her arms around her. "From what I know about Chloe, she's tough. She's going to be okay."
The house phone rang so her mother left to answer it. When she came back in, she was all smiles.
"Sweetheart, that was Clark. Chloe's dad called him and he said she's awake. Clark's on the way to see her now!"
Emmeline bolted up and booked it to the hospital as fast as she could. She met up with Clark, who was carrying a bouquet of flowers for Chloe, at the entrance. They checked in and headed down to Chloe's room.
Chloe looked up at them and smiled. "Hey."
Emmeline ran up to her and hugged her as tightly as she could without hurting her. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"You guys are officially my first visitors."
"How you feeling?" Clark asked.
"Like a million bucks…thrown in the washing machine set on spin."
"Everyone was real worried about you."
"Yeah, I noticed. Looks like Nell's flower shop's been stripped clean. I especially like the ones from Lex. They make me feel like I won the Kentucky Derby."
Clark awkwardly handed her his own bouquet of flowers.
"They're beautiful, Clark. They're my favorite."
Clark sat down on her bed. "I, uh, I just want to say I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Letting you get hurt."
"Well, I am perturbed with you, Clark." After a pause, she added, "I'm also mad that you didn't put out the Chicago Fire of 1871, or prevent the fall of the Roman Empire, making you directly responsible for the Dark Ages."
Clark smiled. "Thanks. Do you, uh, do you remember anything about those guys?"
"There was one thing. The guy that grabbed us, he had a tattoo on his forearm, an octagon maybe. What's going on, Clark?"
"I don't know. Let me do some digging."
Chloe smiled at him. "Clark Kent, investigative reporter. Has a nice ring to it."
Clark looked at her with a smirk then leaned down and kissed her forehead. Emmeline smiled a little and raised her eyebrows.
"You get some rest."
"I'll try."
Clark left and Emmeline looked over at her. "He just kissed you on the forehead. And you'll actually remember this one!"
Chloe laughed. "Well, at least one good thing has come from all of this."
Emmeline's smile disappeared. "I was so scared I was going to lose you. You're the only real friend I have. I couldn't bear to not have you in my life."
"Don't you worry, Em. You're not going to lose me for a long, long time."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I have someone like you who will make sure of that."
A nurse came into Chloe's room. "Excuse me, miss?" she said to Emmeline. "You have to leave now. Miss Sullivan needs her rest."
"Yes, ma'am." She turned to Chloe and hugged her again. "Feel better."
A couple days later, Pete caught up with Emmeline in the hallway. "Hey, Em! Chloe called. She said we should meet her at the hospital."
"Why? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. I told her what Clark and I were up to, you know trying to figure out who attacked you guys."
"What have you found so far?"
"It looks like it's a couple of guys who lost their futures when they were in high school. Injuries and drugs and stuff like that. So now, they're taking what they believe is owed to them. Somehow, they can walk through walls to do this stuff."
"You know, one of these days, maybe a crime will occur that doesn't involve anything completely out of the ordinary."
"That'll be the day. I thought we could walk over to the hospital."
"Yeah, sure."
Emmeline grabbed her things and the both of them headed over to Chloe's room. It wasn't long before Clark walked in. "Pete? Em? What are you both doing here? We were all supposed to meet at the Torch."
"Yeah, well, Chloe called and I told her what we were doing."
"So I insisted that you guys come here," Chloe finished.
"You should be resting," Clark said firmly.
"You know what? All this resting is driving me insane. These so-called healthcare professionals just want me to stay in bed and eat Jell-O. And they won't even let Em stay for longer than ten minutes."
"Those fascists."
Emmeline and Pete laughed together, but Chloe looked like she was on her last nerve. "Clark, I need to do this, okay? Don't cut me out of it, please?"
"Okay."
"So I was surfing the net, doing some research."
"How'd you get online here?"
"Pete hijacked the phone line for me." Pete smiled proudly.
"What have you got?"
"What if these guys are using meteorite tattoos to speed up their metabolism? I mean, their molecules are literally moving at hyper speed."
"That's how they're able to go through solid objects?"
"That's crazy," Pete remarked.
"Well, they're doing it," Chloe told him.
"It's like the ultimate rush," Clark said.
"But there's no way their bodies can handle that kind of stress for long."
"What are you saying will happen?"
"You take the ultimate rush, you pay the ultimate price."
Clark and Pete left as the girls stared after them. "There goes Clark again to save the day," Emmeline said.
"He'll always be that person. That's why I love him."
"I have to admit, whenever I'm in trouble and he saves me…it almost makes it worth it."
"I will gladly second that. Better get out of here soon or the nurse is going to come in and kick you out again."
"Alright, I'm leaving. When are you being discharged?"
"Hopefully, they'll release me by tomorrow."
"I'll be there."
The next day, Clark, Lana, and Emmeline all went to the hospital and Chloe was released to them.
"Ah, the sweet smell of freedom!" Chloe said as they walked down the street.
"Chloe, you were in the hospital, not Alcatraz," Clark said.
"You spend a week in there, and you'd feel like a prisoner too. I mean, come on. Eating bad food, lights out by nine, and no cable? I'm thinking about doing an exposé." She looked over at Lana. "How's Whitney, by the way?"
"He's taking it one day at a time," Lana answered.
"Good. All right, well bye." Chloe began rushing off.
"Chloe, where are you going?" Clark called.
"I'm just gonna go do a little checking with the police. Apparently none of the tattoo ink was found at the loft and Scott and Derek aren't saying anything to anyone, so I smell a cover up."
"Chloe. It's good to have you back."
"Thanks."
Emmeline looked at them. "I have to go too. Mom's preparing a big meal for me and Dad. We don't get family dinners often so she wanted to make the most of the one we're getting. I'll see you both later."
Emmeline began to walk back home. Chloe was back and all was well. And she was going to make sure that it would stay that way.
