Chapter 40

"Hi Mamá!" Mia happily greets her mother as she squirms her way off her father's lap and runs over to her mother.

"Hi sweetie," Andrea says as she bends down and collects her daughter up into her arms.

"Look! Papá's back!" the little dark-haired girl says excitedly.

"I can see that," Andrea dead-pans.

Clark rises to his feet.

"So just flew back from being abroad for work, right?" Andrea asks while simultaneously telling him what she has been saying to everyone.

"That's right. Uh…had a stopover so figured I'd drop by and see our little ball of sunshine here," he follows on with.

Andrea nods along. "Well, thank you Penny," she turns her attention to her friend.

"Your welcome sweetie. Just remember though you owe me. Big as I recall you promising."

"Yeah," Andrea says with no enthusiasm not looking forward to having to pay up this debt. "Clark, shall we," she strongly hints they should go.

"Yep. Thank you, Penny," he gives his thanks to the blond.

"You are most certainly welcome," the blond shamelessly flirts with him.

"What is it with him and flirty blonds," Andrea mutters under her breath as she departs with her daughter and Clark in tow.

As they walk down the stairs to Andrea's apartment all she wants to do is ask him where he has been but she can't in front of Mia so she limits herself to a more generic, "How are you?"

"I'm ok. Been a rough few weeks but it's over now."

"Missed you Papá!" Mia says.

"I missed you too. More than you can know," he says as he cups her cheek briefly.

"Seen Carol?" she inquires about adult Mia.

"Yes," he replies. "How has she been in my absence?" he genuinely wants to know considering the fragile state she had been in when he left.

"Better actually. She and I…well your absence gave us a chance to talk."

"Good. I'm glad."

The trio enter Andrea's apartment and as much as she wants to hear everything they won't be able to have that conversation until Mia is asleep.

"Goodnight my angel. Pleasant dreams," Andrea whispers softly as Mia drifts off. She leans down and plants a gentle kiss on her daughter's forehead. It is when she's asleep she looks most like an angel. At least as far as her mother is concerned.

Their child put to bed the parents retreat to the lounge and sit down next to each other on the couch.

"So where do you want to begin?" Clark wonders.

"The beginning," she replies a little bit surly.

"The beginning," Clark repeats with a weary sigh. "Carter's funeral was a trap. The VRA had planted a device in the tomb that knocked us all out. They then shipped us all off to a secret facility so they could study us. More precisely our powers and figure out how to turn them on and off."

"Figure out how to control you all," Andrea gets.

"Yes."

"How did they keep you imprisoned?" she has to wonder. Clark is so powerful she can't imagine any prison holding him. "Kryptonite?" she guesses.

"No," he corrects her. "They trapped us in a virtual reality simulation. Keep our minds occupied while they performed experiments on our bodies."

Andrea's hands tightened into fists. The more she is hearing the more pissed off she is getting. "That's sick," she expresses her very forthright opinion.

"Well I can certainly say I can think of better ways to spend 3 weeks then being trapped with my ex-girlfriend."

"What?!"

Clark winces. Ooh, he probably shouldn't have mentioned that. "Uh, yeah. Lois was there too," he confesses.

Andrea was just starting to accept her nebulous feelings for Clark and now she has to hear this and inevitably it brings out all her insecurities. Her imagination goes wild just thinking what happened between Clark and Lois during 3 entire weeks stuck together and it makes her heart ache because, perhaps inevitably, she is dreaming up the worst.

Flashback…

Clark knew something was wrong with the world. He didn't know what exactly but something was wrong. It's like something is missing. Something important. He couldn't place what it was though as he sat at the kitchen table this morning.

"Morning Smallville!" Lois cheerfully greets him as she enters the farm house.

"Morning…Lois?" he ends up saying her name like a question because for some reason he didn't expect it to be her. Who did he expect he can't tell you right this second.

"What?" she asks, slightly confused by his tone.

He gets up from the table and stares at her. "Why are you here?" he asks.

Lois laughs. "What do you mean why I am here? I'm here because…" the reason escapes her. She tries again. "I'm here because…" she stops again, unable to finish the sentence. "I can't remember," she admits, disconcerted.

"I remember…we were at Carter's funeral," it suddenly strikes him.

"So we must have come home…right?"

"I don't recall that."

"Neither do I," Lois concedes.

"Have we had this conversation before?" he asks, having the strangest sensation of déjà-vu.

Lois frowns. Have they?

"You've had this conversation a grand total of 20 times as matter of fact because the simulation keep resetting when you start to cotton on something is wrong."

Clark and Lois turn to face the source of that voice and exclaim together, "Chloe?!"

The present…

"Chloe?" Andrea queries with surprise. Clark had rarely mentioned Chloe since he walked back into her life so how the blond woman was involved in this she couldn't fathom.

"Well not precisely Chloe. It was an avatar of her being controlled by the real Chloe in the real world."

"Ok. I'm lost," the Latino woman admits. "How was Chloe there? Last you told me she was abroad?"

Clark leans forward slightly, rests his arms on his knees and locks his hands together. "There's some…stuff about Chloe I haven't told you," he says with a little reluctance on his part. He then takes a few minutes to consider his words before trying to summarise the true story about Chloe, her involvement in the team and the disconnection that has grown between himself and her over the decisions she has chosen to make lately. Not to mention her last decision, to leave with Flagg.

"She was dating Queen?"

"That's the part you pick up on?" Clark questions with no small amount of incredulity.

"I knew Chloe, at least a little bit, from when I worked at the Planet. Spoilt rich kids didn't seem her type."

"I told you Oliver isn't like that. Not really."

"If you say so. Want a truth. Until the rooftop I thought you and she might have been a couple."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you came to visit her at the Planet like every other day."

"We were just close friends."

"Can't help but notice you use the past tense."

"I'm not sure we can ever be that close again," he says regretfully. "And there's a good reason for that which I'll get to."

"Ok, then. Continue," she says, eager to hear him out.

Flashback…

Clark and Lois listened as Chloe, dressed in a white pants suit, explained to them that they and the rest of the team were trapped in a virtual reality simulation by the VRA who were trying to study them and figure out how to control their powers.

As he listened Clark started to get strange flashes of being tortured and experimented on by what looked like Chloe herself. It wasn't exactly adding to the trust that he already lacked in his friend the way he used to trust her which was a problem since getting out of here relied on trusting her or so she claimed. This had been burning away inside him for quite awhile so he finally just said it to her face. "I don't trust you."

After that she vanished leaving him alone with Lois.

"What happened?" the brunette asks him.

"Huh?"

"Between you and Chloe. You used to be so close."

"She stopped having faith in me to make decisions."

"That tells me nothing," Lois snarks.

Clark sighs and sits himself back down at the kitchen table. "It's a long story, Lois."

Lois sits herself down. "Funny thing there, Smallville. If we are to believe my cousin we're not going anywhere," she points out.

"Chloe thinks I can't make tough choices so she takes it upon herself to do it 'for me' to 'protect me'," he says with obvious bitterness.

"I'm getting the impression there's a lot that has gone on between you two I don't know."

Clark snorts humorously. "I warned you that learning about my powers is only the tip of the iceberg."

"Well, enlighten me, then," she requests.

Clark eyes her sceptically. "Can't exactly say the trust between us has been all that great lately either Lois," he reminds her.

"I remember…sorta. By the way do you feel like you can't remember certain stuff?"

"I know there's something I'm forgetting. Like there's something…missing."

"Great. Where's that cousin of mine to explain that?" Lois asks, looking around and getting nadda. "Look…Clark," she says his name bereft of her usual levity. "I get I might be the last person you want to share this with considering."

"Ya think?"

"But who else you gonna talk to? If we want to leave we need Chloe."

"According to her," he throws scepticism on it.

"And that means you and I are going to have to work through whatever issues you and she have so I need you to trust in me. At least enough to tell me what it is that happened between the two of you."

Clark looks upward as he gives Lois's words some thought. She is right in one regard, he concludes. He and Chloe need to hammer out their issues.

The present…

"What is the issue with your and Lois' memories?" Andrea is curious about.

"The simulation was designed to keep us docile and unaware of our true situation so it would try and suppress certain memories that would have us resist."

"This sounds really sophisticated…and sick," the brunette says, making a face. It's repulsive what the VRA was trying to do.

"Well they were trying to find a way to enslave us so what do you expect?"

"The government to have some sense of morality."

"Me too actually. Then again I'm not certain how much is them and how much is the Darkness twisting them."

"So what memories are we talking about?"

A shadow passes over Clark's face at that question. "I'll get to that. I promise. Now where were we?"

"You were debating whether to tell Lois the whole story about you and Chloe."

"That's right. The issue with Lois is that I was still debating if I was willing to tell her the whole truth about myself. It's kinda hard to explain what happened between me and Chloe if you're not aware of my alien origin."

"So what did you decide?"

Flashback…

"I'm kinda at a loss for words," Lois confesses.

"Well that's a first," Clark drawls which earns him a searing look.

"I mean I knew you were odd, Smallville. I just didn't realise how odd."

"If that's an attempt at a joke, Lois, you're slipping."

"Give me a minute. This is a lot to take in."

Clark gives her a minute, though he has to say her reaction is different from the last time he told her…before he travelled back in time and erased that whole day. Stupid Linda Lake. One of these days he is really gonna have to write all this down just as a reminder of what not to do when it comes to time travel.

"So I have a few questions," the brunette finally says when she thinks she's mentally prepared.

"Go ahead," he permits her. Now he's told her he can't exactly say no.

"So that twilight zone acid trip to the phantom prison, that place was...?"

"Kryptonian. My father created it to hold the absolute worst criminals in the universe."

Lois nods dumbly. "And that horny toad looking thing that crashed Chloe and Jimmy's wedding?"

"Kryptonian. In fact that may be where it really started. When things began to deteriorate between Chloe and myself."

"Uh huh. We'll get back to that in a second. I just have one final question for the minute."

Clark gestures for her to go ahead and ask it.

"The spaceship, that I found in the woods near the dam?"

"Also Kryptonian, that wasn't mine it was my cousin's."

"So tall and blond is…like you?"

"Yes."

"Where is she by the way because she would be handy in getting us out of our little virtual Alcatraz here?"

"From what I know she's in the 31st century."

"From what you know?"

"Well I haven't gone and visited her or anything. Though I probably should actually."

"You can just hop into the future? That another power of yours?"

Clark chuckles amused at that idea. "No. I have a device that can travel through time. It's actually the same one that…" he stops, his eyes widening as the barrier in his mind breaks and he recalls the one thing…ok, maybe two things that he wants to escape this place and see again.

"Same one that, what?"

"Mia," he says the name. "It's the same one my daughter used to travel back in time," he says, his jaw locking into a stern expression. "It…this place made me forget," he almost growls in his anger. He rises to his feet. "Chloe!" he shouts at the world. "Chloe! If you can hear me get back here right now! I'm warning you!"

"You're warning her?" Lois asks, slightly taken aback by the almost visible pent up anger radiating from her ex.

"I have had enough of this. Of her!" he yells, barely constraining his frustrations. "Sneaking around behind my back, making decisions for me. Want a fun fact, Lois? Your cousin isn't as nearly as clever as she thinks she is when it comes to keeping secrets. I know about a whole bunch of things she thinks she did without me knowing."

"Like?"

"Like did you know she's been spying on us all the time she's been 'missing'?"

"No."

"Well she has."

"I did that for your own safety."

Chloe. "You know there was a time not so long ago I would have just believed that but those days are long gone," Clark says, as she turns to face his (former?) BFF.

Lois can practically smell the tension. "Where have you been?" she asks her cousin.

"Helping the others escape. You're all trapped in this simulation together."

"I want to leave. Now," Clark tells Chloe.

"I told you you need to trust me."

Clark snorts loudly. "Give me a reason?" he asks of her.

Chloe's face tightens. "I have always tried to protect you, Clark. Sometimes at a high personal cost," she reminds him.

"Even if that means making decisions behind my back?"

"You don't want to go there, Clark," she warns him.

"I kinda think I do. After all I was telling my mother this exact same thing at Thanksgiving how I don't like people making choices for me like I'm a child."

"I never did that!"

"You justified it by saying how you were willing to do the 'dirty' jobs I wouldn't sully my conscious over. Did it ever occur to you Chloe that perhaps I just had another way to do it? That with my abilities I have options that might not occur to you?"

"You know a pot should be careful about calling a kettle black."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you've done to me the exact same things you're accusing me of," she hits back.

"At least I don't make deals with serial killers."

"You leave Davis out of this!"

"I was talking about Flagg but if you want to relive Davis and Doomsday we can do that."

"We can also do me kicking your ass!" the blond threatens.

"Oh go ahead and try it!" the black haired man dares her in return.

"OKAY! Enough!" Lois intervenes before the two comes to blows which she actually has a concern about right now as the are face-to-face, nose-to-nose. "Now sit down the both of you," she orders.

"He/she started it!" the two bickering friends claim.

"I don't care. Sit down or the only ass whoopings being dished out around here will be by me!"

Clark and Chloe huffily sit themselves down.

Lois rubs her head between her eyebrows trying to stave off a migraine. What on Earth happened between these two? "So who wants to start?"

The two simultaneously fold their arms across their chests.

"Fine. I'll decide. Well, since Smallville was explaining his alien origins to me why doesn't he keep talking. You can start…what did you say about that creature at Chloe and Jimmy's wedding being the start?"

"It was," Clark says, his tone reproachful.

Lois can't help but note the shadow that passes over Clark and Chloe's expressions at this moment. "Well, go on then. Lets hear it," she prods the farm boy to start.

Clark takes in a deep breath and begins…

The present…

"You forgot us?" Andrea asks with what sounds like clear hurt in her voice.

"No!" Clark vehemently rejects that notion. "The simulation tried to keep us trapped by suppressing the memory of what we would want the most in the outside world but it never held. Remember the bit where Chloe said Lois and I had had the same conversation 20 times because the simulation kept resetting. It was mainly due to my mind desperately trying to get back to what mattered to me more than anything else. Mia…and you," he says with real, deep sincerity and emotion.

Something flutters deep within Andrea at the intense look he is giving her. She is…not ready to deal with this. "So, what's the story about Chloe's wedding? I didn't know she was married."

Clark lets out a long sad, regretful sigh. "She's not. Not anymore."

"What happened?"

So Clark picks up the story, telling Andrea what he said in the simulation.

Flashback…

It was only as Clark spoke Lois truly began to grasp what he meant about 'tip of the iceberg'. The lengthy explanation of just who/what Davis Bloom had been had made her head spin. Then to hear just what sort of hole Chloe got herself into. Then to hear the arguments between the two friends over how it played out and how it ended.

"I did what was necessary," Chloe defends herself in what as far as Clark is concerned is a tried excuse.

"And I wasn't?"

"I was protecting you!"

"By leaving with a monster?" Lois questions.

"My presence kept him calm," Chloe justifies herself.

"Temporarily," Clark reminds her. "I should never have let you talk me out of it," he mutters.

"Out of what?" Lois asks.

"I was going to throw Davis into the Phantom Zone. She," he points accusatorily at her, "stopped me."

"What?! Why?!" Lois asks, unable to understand that choice.

"Because she was thinking with her 'other head'," Clark says almost nastily.

"Screw you, Clark!" Chloe shouts angrily.

"I'm not wrong. You wanted to try and save Davis somehow, though I doubt you had the slightest idea how when you intervened."

"I'm sorry, Chlo. I agree with Clark. If you could have gotten rid of him why the hell didn't you?" Lois wants to know.

Chloe shakes her head as if trying to rid herself of a bad memory. "You don't understand Lois. I was trying to save him from the guilt of tossing Davis in there."

"See what I mean? She thinks I'm a child. I can't handle tough choices," Clark says, thinking this just proves his point.

"The last time you tried to make a 'tough choice' you mind-fucked me!" Chloe reminds him in a loud angry voice.

Lois looks at Clark expectantly.

"That was a mistake," Clark says. "I admit that. Something you can never do."

"Stupid, smug, arrogant asshole!"

"I know you are but what am I?" he hits back childishly.

Chloe makes a move to get up and slap him one but her cousin intercepts her. "Whoa there! Ok, stop. Violence won't solve this," Lois says reasonably.

"I can't believe that came out of your mouth," Clark says, dumbfounded.

"Now you're making me glad we broke up, Smallville."

"Don't get me started on that one," Chloe mumbles which earns her peculiar looks from both of the other people. She waves them off.

Lois has an inkling they'll come back to that but for now she wants to focus on what Clark was meaning. "Why am I Dr Phil all of a sudden?" she randomly asks the cosmos. When she sees her cousin about to answer it she cuts her off. "At. That was rhetorical. Now, you, Smallville, explain the mind-fucking?"

"There's another thing I can't believe came out of your mouth," Clark remarks which earns him a death glare. "Ok, ok," he relents. "You're probably not going to like this," he warns beforehand as he retells his very, very bad decision to wipe Chloe's memory of his secret.

The present…

"OW!" Clark protests as he rubs his arm from a powerful punch from Andrea. "What was that for?"

"If I have to explain it then you are not as smart as I thought you were," Andrea says, steaming.

"Chloe's memory. It was wrong. I know that but I was panicking to be honest," he admits his true feeling.

"How so?"

"It felt like it was all falling apart. Chloe was being consumed by Brainiac. The threat of Doomsday. I thought if I could just…remove her from my life in some way she wouldn't be constantly sucked into the madness of my life and her life wouldn't be constantly in danger. I wanted her to get married and be happy," he tries to explain his reasoning of the time before he admits, "In hindsight I realise the choice was hers to make not mine. If I could go back I would not make the same choice again."

"Can't you go back?"

"Like Mia has you mean?"

Andrea nods.

"Time travel is dangerous. It can have unpredictable consequences. Sometimes there can be a terrible price you must pay for messing about with the past. You can easily make things worse not better as you were intending. Trust me. I know. I've done it. I've told Mia this. Honestly, I think deep down she knew it before she travelled back but she was too lost in her grief to think clearly about it."

"I know all about her grief. We've been working through it together."

"I'm glad," he says sincerely before he leans forward and rubs his face. "I'm not perfect. I don't think I've ever claimed to be. There are so many mistakes I've made. Ones I'm almost too ashamed to admit to. I like to believe I've learned from my mistakes. That those lessons are what is making me try to be the person I am now."

Andrea actually has more to say on this general subject but for now she wants to hear the end of the story so bites her tongue. "So did Lois hit you too?" she wonders over the other woman's reaction to this tale.

"Yes," he huffs which gets a tiny smile out of the brunette woman.

"So, how did it end with Davis?" Andrea returns to the story.

"In death," Clark says grimly.

Author's Note: While my version of the virtual reality world is different from the show I also felt no need to replay the beats of the Collateral episode when it is basically the same. I preferred this version of seeing parts of what happened in flashback. I also felt like Clark and Chloe need to have it out and try to work through their issues like they never really did on the show. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.