Part 3

Part 3

Chloe whispered into Clark's ear

"Not that I'm not thrilled to see you, but a little air would be nice!!"

Clark immediately loosened his grip (with a sheepish looking blush taking over his face) so Chloe could take a step back, but still kept his arms around her. As Chloe stepped back, she winced a little in pain causing Clark to immediate x-ray her for broken bones, although finding none he still asked,

"What happened, are you okay?"

Chloe shifted weight away from her sore leg as she answered Clark saying,

"Yeah, I'm great now that you're here!!"

And pulled Clark back into a hug to try to reassure him that she was okay. Chloe smiled as she rested her chin on Clark's shoulder. It did not matter how many times she got to hug him, she always felt a sense of peace and safety that even she, Chloe Sullivan – world class reporter, could not put into words. At the same time, Chloe's memory drifted to the last time she was in Clark's arms in the Planet's basement offices. She knew she had taken a big risk by running up to him to kiss him goodbye. Even now, Chloe could feel her mind start to reel as what she figured to be a sweet 'goodbye-take-care-of-yourself' kiss had turned into a passionate lip-lock that betrayed all the insistent and resolved comments they both had made that they were "just friends".

Yet Chloe was pulled back from these thoughts as she felt the tension and worry in Clark rise from her silence. So, Chloe gently moved back so she could look him squarely in the eye as she spoke,

"Hey, I'm fine; I just twisted my ankle during all the craziness that Milton Fine's virus caused earlier."

Chloe continued, with her usual snarky tone back in her voice,

"You know; as much as you complain about not being normal, let me tell you that you are lucky to not have to worry about things like sprained ankles!"

Clark could not help grinning as he laughed lightly, Chloe always could find a way to bring humor into every situation. Then Clark saw Chloe's gaze turn serious as she asked,

"What about you, are you okay, where did you go? What happened?"

Clark knew Chloe needed to know everything that had happened, that was the reporter in her, and that persistence was just one of the things he realized he loved about her – he just had to figure out how to tell her.

As Clark started to respond, an unknown voice interrupted him (well, unknown to Clark anyway) saying,

"Hey bright eyes!"

Chloe turned with a start saying,

"Oh, hi Jimmy."

As she pulled back out of Clark's arms (noticing this took much more effort than normal) she continued,

"Jimmy Olsen, this is Clark Kent, Clark Kent, meet Jimmy Olsen, I worked with him a few years ago during my summer internship here at the Planet."

Clark was half listening to Chloe and half irritated to have her out of his arms as he politely extended his hand out to Jimmy.

"Whoa, they growing them big in Kansas, don't they!?"

Jimmy exclaimed as he shook Clark's hand. Jimmy continued,

"I ran into Chloe as I was making my way up from the scanning room, and she nearly killed me!"

Clark worked hard and succeeded in repressing a grin at the thought of Chloe killing anybody. Chloe quickly interrupted explaining,

"Lionel had given me a gun to protect myself from the looters, and all I could tell from where I was working under a desk was that someone had come into the office. I hollered out asking if anyone was there, but there was no answer so I fired a warning shot."

Jimmy laughed,

"Yeah a warning shot that hit a light fixture which nearly took my head off!"

Chloe snarked back in defense (although this time there was more of an accusatory tone in her voice than her usual humorous tone that she used for snarky remarks),

"Maybe so but I had to push you out of the way of a falling book case which, by the way, resulted in me twisting my ankle!"

Clark felt a twinge of anger at hearing this bit of information, but let it go as he again remembered the words of his Dad, "Son, I know all there is about loosing your temper, but you cannot afford to do that. You always have to be strong and be the better for it."

Jimmy sheepishly scratched the back of his neck at Chloe's retort and weakly said,

"Yeah sorry about that. Look, uh Chloe, I was wondering if you wanted to go grab some dinner down at the vending machines. CK, you are welcomed to tag along as well."

Chloe looked to Clark and as she started to reply to Jimmy's inquiry, Clark interrupted,

"Actually Jimmy, Chloe and I have plans for tonight. In fact, Chloe, we need to get going otherwise we are going to be late."

Now Clark was terrified as he had planned on asking Chloe back to the farm so they could talk, but had been cut off before he had the chance. Clark now looked to Chloe, giving her an "I know I should have asked sooner, but please go along with this" look on his face. Now, there were very few occasions that Chloe found that she was speechless, and this was one of those times.

However, being speechless did not keep her mind from racing to find a quick resolution to the situation at hand. Chloe said a quick prayer of thanks as she turned to face Jimmy, finding the words to say,

"Oh that's right!! I'm sorry Jimmy, with the hectic goings on that we've had here this afternoon I forgot to tell you."

Jimmy smiled as he replied,

"Hey no big deal, it was going to be a quick stop off anyway. With everything that's been going on, I'm sure my inbox of things that need to be scanned into the Daily Planet's database is going to be overflowing by the time I get back to it. I hope y'all have a nice time this evening. Good night Chloe, see you CK."

Jimmy waved to them as he headed off towards the hall that led to the break room, leaving Chloe and Clark to be on their way. Chloe quickly turned to Clark with a mischievous grin on her face as she asked,

"So, when did we make plans for going out this evening? I mean, I know it has been really busy here lately, but I know I would have remembered Clark Kent asking me out."

Chloe couldn't resist tilting her head and eyeing him over as she often did to try to evoke a straight forward reply from, as she called him, 'the illusive Clark Kent'. Clark felt his face redden up again as he caught the familiar look Chloe was giving him.

"Well, uh, Chloe, I uh, that is, I was trying to answer your questions about what all had happened since I left you to find Zod."

Chloe widened her grin as she stepped closer to Clark and spoke,

"That's not what I asked you Clark, I asked when had you asked me to go out with you?"

Again Chloe eyed Clark with a mischievous look that she knew would make him nervous, but then again making Clark stumble over his words was the highlight of her day – plus a little levity seemed appropriate considering all of the grim events that had transpired as of late. Clark started to loose his train of thought completely as he was being captured by Chloe's eyes looking at him, in fact if he did not know better, Clark could have sworn that Chloe was using x-ray vision to look right through him.

Yet Clark managed to shake his brain back to action as he tried once more to say what he was thinking and feeling,

"Chloe, that's what I mean – that is to answer all your questions I was going to suggest we go back to the farm so I could explain everything. I mean, I know how much you love being at the Planet, but the office area isn't exactly the best place to discuss everything that has gone on, you know? Anyhow, I was doing my best to get to that when Jimmy walked up."

Chloe was surprised at how quickly Clark was finding his words now (then it hit her, 'earth to Chloe - alien from another planet with abilities I can only dream about' - being a little tongue tied would not take long to get past) and waited before saying anything to see if he would keep going – he did.

"Look Chloe, Jimmy seems like a nice guy, and I remember you talking about him after getting back from your summer internship at the Planet in the beginning of our sophomore year, but with everything that's been happening this year with Fine, the ship, the other kryptonians, and now Zod – I just…. I just thought you would be able to spare some time for me to fill you in. Plus, there's something else I want to discuss with you, and this isn't the place to do it. So, before some other natural disaster tries to interrupt us…"

(Clark smiled a little as he remembered being at a dance with Chloe years ago where that indeed did happen).

"Chloe, would you like to go out tonight?"

Clark took a deep breath and let out a sigh, uncertain of Chloe's response, but thankful to not have run over his words anymore than he had. It was still strange to him to have this feeling of being tongue tied around Chloe, who he had spent more time with than any girl he could think of off the top of his head. Chloe knew everything about him. Plus he had to blink his eyes every so often to fight off the tingling sensation he recognized as being the start of his heat vision trying to work, Clark just prayed that Chloe was not paying attention to that little fact.