Part 4
Chloe kept the mischievous grin on her face, she felt as though she could soak up Clark stuttering over her all day. Still, Chloe's rye side was taking more of a hold than she expected – the words that sprung forth surprised even her, to some degree.
"Clark, do you realize how rude that is?? I mean it's late, you rush in here from God knows where, you don't even take the time to call first to see what is going on,"
(Chloe let go the fact that cell service would be questionable with Fine's virus having caused chaos),
"and to top it all off you put me into an awkward situation with my old boyfriend Jimmy!? Not to mention that your Mom called just a few minutes ago to let me know Lois just woke up in the hospital, and I haven't even had time to go over and check in on my own flesh-in-blood!!"
Okay, so the term "boyfriend" was not vrai when it came to describing her past with Jimmy. The truth was that Jimmy was a guy that happened to be in the right place at a bad time. Chloe recalled her internship at the Daily Planet, and the disappointment she felt from Clark not keeping his word to visit her in what he so eloquently referred to as being her "natural habitat".
Jimmy had caught her on an off day when, for the umpteenth time, Clark had failed to meet her in Metropolis for a night out on the town. She finally gave into the many times Jimmy had asked her out, and well one thing led to another, which resulted in her making the biggest mistake of her life.
Chloe had always heard that a person's first time was supposed to be special, that you were supposed to be with someone you loved, and that in that moment of physical intimacy, all of your feelings for one another were supposed to bond you both together in a way that transcends all manner of description. Instead all Chloe had experienced was anxiety, awkwardness, and pain as she had let Jimmy talk her into loosing her virginity on their night out.
Chloe remembered waking the next morning feeling sick to her stomach, and even when she went to her reliable standby of coffee to feel better – all it made her do was throw up. Well, the feeling of nausea eventually passed and after spending an exorbitant amount of time in the shower cleaning up, she finally felt human again. After that, she told Jimmy in clairvoyant terms that there would be NO further dates between them, though Chloe did agree to meet him for coffee every now and then during the rest of her internship with the strict understanding that it was only as friends.
Besides that, Chloe remembered Clark's strange reaction upon starting their sophomore year when she had told him she had met, as she put it, '…this really hot guy in Metropolis that made her forget all about Smallville.' Now Chloe waited to see what Clark's reaction would be, after all Clark had put her through so much drama with 'Lana this' and 'Lana that' that she thought making Clark sweat it out for a bit would only be fair.
Clark was completely dumbfounded, jealous, and lost all at once. Considering Chloe's reaction to when he interrupted her response to Jimmy's inquiry about getting dinner, he figured that Chloe would have accepted his invite to spend some time together this evening. After all, it was not unusual for them to spend time together – in fact as he thought about it – they seemed to spend a great deal of time with each other everyday.
Even on the odd day that they did not get to see each other, they would make up for it by talking each other's ears off over the phone. Clark never could understand why they needed to talk so much over the phone; he had tried to explain to Chloe on several occasions that he could just super-speed to wherever she was in a matter of minutes – even after his profuse apologies for an earlier incident. However, this method of persuasion never went over well, as Chloe was always quick to point out the one occasion he'd apologized time and again for.
Chloe had called Clark from her dorm room to give him some information on the latest meteor infected victim they were looking into, Andrea, - who Chloe had given the name Angel of Vengeance. Well, at hearing the stress in Chloe's voice, Clark immediately sped over to Chloe's dorm, bursting in with such zeal that he ripped the door right off its hinges. Not only had the door suffered misfortune upon Clark's arrival, but several reports Chloe had laid out to put together in their respective binders went astray as if a hurricane had hit the place. Although these were embarrassing results of Clark's hastiness, they were not too bad as Clark was able to repair the door good as new. He not only had all of Chloe's reports sorted back out in a blink of an eye, but he also had them safely complied into their respective binders.
No, what really had set Chloe off (and Clark had a feeling he would remember that moment for as long as he lived) was that Chloe was, well (Clark blushed at the thought even now), as Chloe put it when she yelled at him, "Hello, not-ready-for-company!!" state when he had burst through the door. Now Clark recalled having used his x-ray vision to look into the girls' locker room back in high school, but that was an innocent mistake as he was still learning how to control his new found ability – though Chloe was not in there at that time.
No, the occasion that made him blush even more was the first time he had been exposed to red meteor rock, and had met Pete, Lana, and Chloe at the Talon for a study session. He recalled when Chloe and Lana had gotten up to fix everyone some drinks to put in all-nighter to prepare for their history exam the next day. Well, he was on red meteor rock for goodness sake, and he used his x-ray vision to give Chloe what he liked to call, "a thorough examination", informing Pete that Chloe had a birthmark on her cheek.
Clark laughed to himself as Pete, matter-of-factly, told him "no she doesn't" to which he had to clarify with a sly grin, "not that cheek". Well, upon bursting into Chloe's dorm, x-ray vision was not necessary to see that what he told Pete was true. Evidently, Chloe had just gotten out of the shower and had called him once she got a fax confirming a theory about how Andrea had acquired their abilities. Then as he had burst in the room, Chloe was in the process of tossing the towel she had wrapped around her to get dressed. No doubt about it, Chloe would never let him live that one down, so he always had to be sure to knock three times before entering her dorm.
"Hello?? Earth to Clark, is anyone home?? You're turning as red as a beat!! I know you're thinking hard to figure out a reply, but straining so hard that your face turns that red is not a good sign!!"
Clark snapped out of his current train of thought by Chloe's words and was faced again with his current predicament.
"Chloe…I…uh…that is I thought….I mean you just told Jimmy…it seemed to me…rather it appeared that you were…"
Clark was on the wrong track and decided to stop yammering for a moment to collect his thoughts, though this was no easy task with the most beautiful hazel eyes in the world staring him straight in the eye.
"Chloe, I didn't know Jimmy was your boyfriend, you never mentioned having a boyfriend before. In fact, I don't recall you mentioning Jimmy at all, and with all the times I came to you about the trouble I was having with Lana – I just figured you would have told me if you were having trouble with a boyfriend."
Well, that did it!! Of all the times Clark had stepped in it in the past, this time really took the cake!! Clark witnessed something he had never recalled seeing, Chloe's face changed from an expression that could be described as, "sometime today would be nice" to an expression that defied any adjective one could think of to illustrate anger.
Not only that, but Chloe's face changed color about a dozen different times as it settled on a deep crimson color that Clark worried would end up with her spewing steam from her ears!! Finally, the boiler that Clark witnessed building steam burst, and the force of it hit Clark full out.
"Clark, for someone with abilities that still defy my imagination, sometimes you are the most mindless, moronic, naïve, witless, unenlightened, oblivious, disregardful, inattentive, hung up, malapropos, inept being I have ever met!!"
With that Chloe stormed off from her desk towards the hallway. Clark thought about going after her to talk, but thought better of it, he had seen Chloe upset before – and even on those occasions one had to be real careful what was said around her. After the giant explosion that had just went off, Clark was clueless as to what he could say that would not illicit another burst of anger from her.
Not to mention that the people who were present in the Daily Planet basement had stopped what they were doing to stare at him upon hearing Chloe's diatribe. Clark put on his best "puppy dog" face and made his way out of the basement offices to the hallway, doing his best to not make direct with anyone for too long.
Upon making it to the hallway, Clark quickly ducked under the stairwell to try to collect his thoughts. "How in the world do I get myself into these debacles? I show up here to try to get some answers, and I wind up being the lamb to the slaughter!?" Clark couldn't help but shake his head at the irony of it all, a natural disaster had interrupted them again this time around, but the tornado he confronted years ago now seemed much less daunting!!
Clark smashed the palms of his hands against his head at this realization; it was remembering the tornado that did it – now he knew why Chloe had flown off the handle. Again Clark heard words of wisdom from his Dad, as clearly as if he were standing right beside him, "Son, sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees, when this happens; you have to step back far enough to gauge what you are looking at." Suddenly Clark noticed a rumbling around him and concluded it was caused from him slamming his hands against his forehead too hard.
Sighing to himself Clark observed, "I've gotta stop doing that!" Clark sat down now under the stairwell, leaning his head back to think more on his Dad's words. He felt sure the answer to his quandary was to be found in them, but he still had to figure out what the answer was. Clark began going over possible conclusions to his thoughts, this time aloud, but only audible to his ears,
"Chloe….I….I mean I did not think about what I was saying…I was so caught up with what just happened with Zod that…I am so sorry…." The more Clark thought, the more one thing become more and more conspicuous was that he had to quit focusing on "I" when he spoke, and focus more on "her" and "we" – after all he was there to try to sort out where their relationship was and where it was going. Clark smiled as he realized that was what his Dad had meant by those words. He closed his eyes as he felt a tear escape and run down his cheek. He said another silent "thank you" to his Dad for helping him.
Clark got up with a new found resilience to set things straight between him and Chloe, and hoped to finally get to have that much needed talk with her. As he followed the hallway down he could hear the unmistakable sound of Chloe's laughter coming from the break room. Clark turned the corner to find a sight that made his heart sink (and caused his resilience to fade away at the same time), there was Chloe sitting across from Jimmy sharing a "fresh from the vending machine" dinner. Evidently they didn't notice him as they continued talking with one another, stopping only occasionally to take a bite of food or get a sip of coffee.
Clark did not know what to do; he was filled with a sudden rage that was prompting him to run over and through Jimmy across the room. Knowing that he could move fast enough without Jimmy seeing him Clark could then easily scoop up Chloe and run her back to Smallville. Clark knew Jimmy was not knowingly trying to cause any harm, but the jealously still raged in him. The rage, now yelling at him said, "okay then forget Jimmy altogether, you can move fast enough to just swoop in there and carry Chloe back to Smallville." Clark was sensing a pattern to his jealous rage – running – this was an idea he could get behind. However, after seeing how happy Chloe looked sitting there with Jimmy, Clark told his jealousy to "stuff it" – and decided to follow the running part of the plan as he ran back to Smallville.