Discalimer:- nothing is mine

A/N:- thanks to all my reviewers, sorry for the wait but i'm having internet issues, in that its not working 80 of the time, anyway heres the next chapter. enjoy!

Chapter 8: And now for light hearted explanations.

'What?!'

Clark winced, his sensitive ears crying out at the assault of Chloe's voice. He didn't think knowing Lois knew his secret was cause for such a reaction. Then again, it wasn't everyday he told someone he was an alien from another planet.

'You told her?'

'Well, yeah.'

Chloe stared at him as though waiting for him to explain what type of head trauma he had suffered to make him tell Lois. He decided to elaborate before Chloe started shrieking again.

'She saw me floating in my sleep.'

'You float in your sleep?'

Clark frowned. 'I didn't tell you that?'

'No.'

Chloe got this look on her face that Clark didn't understand but had no time to attempt to find out what was going on in her head because at that moment Lois stumbled out of her room and practically tossed Clark aside to get to the coffee. Clark rolled his eyes and handed Lois a mug he had poured for her. She glared at him but took the offered coffee. It was a few moments before she realized that Chloe was staring at her.

'What?'

'You know?'

Lois looked at her cousin blankly and then looked to Clark for answers. He obliged around a mouthful of pop tart.

'I'm an alien.'

'Ah.'

The way Lois went back to drinking her coffee and Clark eating had Chloe just about bursting.

'So you know.'

'I know.'

'You know.'

Lois smirked at Clark; Chloe seemed to be having trouble grasping the concept.

'Chloe, I know, we have covered that. Is there something else?'

Was there something else? That had to be the understatement of the century. Chloe had a thousand questions floating around in her head all begging to be asked, some which required her to be alone with Clark, others, Lois. She just didn't know where to start. For so long it had just been her, there was know one he could talk to more than her and she thrived on that. Chloe thrived on the knowledge that she was the one person Clark could confide in.

Now, things had changed. He had Lois. On some level he'd always had Lois; she was the one he talked to when things were bad. She was always there; either living in town or in his house and now she could be there on an entirely new level. And they were only the ones Chloe was aware of.

'You're okay with it? With Clark not being from around here?'

'Smallville is Smallville, even if he comes from Krypton.'

'Thanks,' Clark said with a smile.

Lois smiled and then turned to Chloe with a wicked grin.

'You wanna hit him with a sledge hammer?'

Chloe choked on a mouthful of coffee.

'What?' she sputtered with laugh.

Clark rolled his eyes and moved to collect his boots while Lois set about explaining all the different ways she'd tested his strength over the last two weeks. At first Chloe found it a bit off putting that Lois had spent a large amount of time hitting Clark with various large and heavy objects. Then the amusement kicked in and by the time Lois got to last Wednesday's tractor experiment Chloe was laughing with her.

'As much as I am enjoying hearing about Lois hitting me with heavy objects, I have chores to do.'

'You still want to go see Jor-El this morning?'

'Nah, I think you pretty much answered all of my questions this morning.'

Lois smirked at him and he rolled his eyes. He was out the door and on his way before Chloe spoke again. With Clark gone she was able to ask the portion of her Lois centered questions.

'You really are okay with this, right?' Chloe asked hesitantly. 'It would kill Clark to find out you were just putting on a strong front.'

Lois placed her mug on the counter and leaned back against the sink. She crossed her arms over her chest and studied her cousin not sure what to make of that. It was only then that Chloe realized Lois was once more in one of Clark's plaid shirts. Had she stolen all of Clark's shirts to sleep in?

'Look Chloe, I would never do that to him. If I was freaked he'd know about it. Trust me, I wasn't freaked, if anything I was tur—I wasn't freaked,' Lois reaffirmed.

'Clark seems so happy now that he has someone else to talk to.'

The way Chloe's smile wilted slightly when she said that gave Lois pause. Suddenly Lois understood what Chloe was doing. She was trying to find an outlet for everything she had felt. She wanted someone to confide in about the difficulty of keeping Clark's secret but she was also afraid of losing her best friend. She was torn between feeling happy for Clark that he had found someone who liked him for who he was and sad because she might be losing the close relationship they had developed.

'I'm not trying to take him away form you Chloe,' Lois started. 'But I also think that out of the two of us you're the one freaking out.'

Chloe looked lost, like she hadn't quite followed Lois down that street.

'Chloe, I didn't freak at all, I cracked a joke about finally having a reason for his love of plaid and whacked him with a crow bar.'

Chloe snorted; that sounded like something Lois would definitely do.

'I think Chloe, that maybe, you're looking for me to be just a bit as freaked as you were when you first found out. I'm not here to justify you reactions Chloe. Its okay that you freaked out, I guess not knowing Smallville as long you have made it easier to accept this. I'm here if you want to talk to me Chloe but I'm not going to pretend to be freaked to make you feel better about your initial reactions. The man hasn't changed Chloe, he's still the same he's just more special than we realized.'

'You're really okay with this?'

Lois laughed. 'Yeah, Chloe, I'm okay.'