Chapter Seven

Chloe and Clark woke up in each other's arms. It was early. Chloe kissed him quickly, saying "good morning, Clark," and tried to get up, but Clark was wrapping his arms around her waist and was pulling her closer, kissing her slowly, enjoying the kiss and her closeness.

"Clark, Clark… come on I don't want to be late on my first day of returning to work in a month," said an overexcited and full of energy Chloe, moving into his arms.

"Hey, it's so early… we have a lot of time," protested Clark reluctant to let her go.

"No! Come on! Get up," Chloe answered trying to get out of bed.

"Chloe…" Clark whispered near her ear as he started to give her small kisses on her neck and throat.

"Come on, I feel so good today," Chloe protested again. The passion of the night before had left her with a happiness that she could not keep inside.

Finally Clark gave up trying to keep her in bed for a little while and let her go. After she got up and took a shower, Chloe continued clamoring for Clark to get up too. So he, knowing how difficult it was to stop Chloe's intentions, got up reluctantly and went to take a quick shower. Clark returned to the bedroom with a towel around his waist, and found Chloe wearing one of her elegant work suits.

"You are so sexy when you're dressed as a business woman," whispered Clark near her ear, and kissed her cheek. Then he leaned in to kiss her lips but Chloe pulled gently away.

"Stop it farm boy! I am a busy woman right now, don't ruin my make up."

"Do you use make up every day?" he asked surprised. He always thought of Chloe as a practical girl who only uses make up on special occasions.

"Well… I painted my eyes and my lips… and I don't want to ruin it until we are finished at work…but after work I'll let you ruin it as much as you want." she said smiling seductively.

Clark reluctantly forgot his intention to give Chloe a kiss and went to get dressed. He took a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans from the wardrobe. But Chloe walked to him and took the shirt and the jeans from his hands.

"No!" she said leaving the shirt and the jeans on the bed and walking to the wardrobe. Chloe took some shirts, pants and neckties from the wardrobe and left them on the bed and started to study them one by one, putting every shirt and necktie in front of Clark's face.

Clark looked at her confusedly, and asked her, "What exactly are you doing?"

"Trying to find one that gives you the image of a journalist from a big newspaper," she answered turning again to the bed and studying the other shirt. Finally Chloe chose a blue shirt and gave it to him saying "This is the one."

Then she turned to the bed to choose a necktie. Clark remained looking at her amazed; it was as if they had been married for many years. An idea that Clark really liked.

Finally she chose a pair of pants that went with the shirt and gave them to a surprised Clark saying, "These are perfect." Clark found it so funny that Chloe was acting like a politician's image assessor.

Clark got ready quickly and then, he and Chloe walked down stairs and headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Thirty minutes later, they were getting into the car.

"Now that you don't need to impress the girl, I suppose you'll let me drive," said a smiling Chloe.

"Wow, you are really difficult."

"Hey! Clark. It's only a joke… yesterday night was a beautiful date, really, I loved it. You were so nice to me, thank you."

"You deserve it, Chloe," he said leaning in for a kiss. This time Chloe didn't protest. They kissed for some time before they started on their way to Metropolis.

*****

They arrived early at the Daily Planet. Chloe sat down at her desk and checked to make sure that she had everything she needed for work. Clark found his nameplate on the desk opposite Chloe', and sat down watching her working. His first thought was about how he wouldn't be able to concentrate on his work having a sexy Chloe in front of him. He tried to stop thinking these thoughts, but he wasn't very successful when Chloe bit her lower lip, and he felt as if the world was turning around him. He was thinking about kissing her in bed and pulling off her clothes, slowly… "Stop it Kent," he said to himself.

Thirty minutes later, Lois came by with an annoyed face. "Hey team, do you know my assignment for today? Ms. Mercer read some of my articles from the Inquisitor and wants me to write about 'Aliens in Metropolis'. Do you know any little green men?" asked Lois.

Both Clark and Chloe couldn't help themselves, they found this so funny and it was a big effort not to laugh.

Lois walked away from them to take a file from her desk. But then she turned to them again. "What's happening here?" she asked suspiciously. Clark's heart jumped in his chest but Chloe who knew her cousin better knew exactly what Lois was asking.

"It's our first day together at work, Lois. You know how I missed working with Clark since our high school days," explained Chloe to an unsatisfied Lois. "Okay, Clark took me out on a date last night," she finally admitted.

"You did it!" said a deductive Lois raising an eyebrow.

"Lois!" protested Chloe and Clark in one voice.

"Oh my God, you did it!" said Lois in a loud voice in the middle of the newsroom, now being more sure she was right.

"Hush!" protested Chloe, "these kinds of things are personal Lois."

"I knew that all this sharing the bed in a platonic way had no future," explained a self satisfied Lois.

"Can we talk about other subjects, please?" asked Chloe.

Then they heard a sound like an explosion that came from the street, and some debris fell to the floor from the ceiling next to them, because of the expansive shock wave. All three were surprised. Clark and Chloe rushed to the street. Lois followed them.

Next to the Daily Planet, they found a bus accident. The bus was lying on its side with small flames coming out of it.

Chloe asked Lois something to distract her and gave Clark the opportunity to super speed to the accident place to help the people in the bus. Lois turned to Clark again and asked Chloe. "Where is he?"

"Oh… he is trying to help the people in the accident."

"But I didn't see him go… it's as if he vanished into the air," said Lois.

"Sure! Lois." answered Chloe sarcastically, smiling to herself.

"Okay, what do we have here?" asked Chloe to the air, taking the notepad from the pocket of her jacket.

Clark super sped closer to the bus; looked around studying the scene. He opened the hatchway and also with his hands pulled the metal on the bus top to make a bigger hole, and helped the people inside to get out. He noted between them a nervous girl and helped her to get out, but he thought it was normal in a situation like that.

Then Clark looked inside the bus and his eyes fell on a young woman that seemed very hurt and was lying unconscious. He walked into the bus fearlessly and took her gently in his arms and very carefully got both of them out of the bus.

When he got out of the bus, he saw two police cars arriving at the accident scene and in a few moments the firemen and the ambulances arrived too. Clark was walking with the woman in his arms, secure, when she woke up and looked at him. He released the woman to the paramedics, and searched around to help more people, when he was sure there was no one else to help, he left the accident scene. At a distance he watched Chloe and Lois behind the police barrier, and he walked slowly towards them.

When he reunited with them, Chloe wrapped an arm around his waist, looked up to him smiling and silently congratulated him.

They saw a girl who was stumbling toward the street and afterwards fell to the ground. Chloe crossed the police barrier to go help her, and Clark followed her. Lois smiled sarcastically and went to talk with a police officer.

Chloe arrived near the girl and kneeled next to her touching her face gently. "Can I help you?" she offered. Clark was standing next to them. Chloe looked up at him and said, "Search for help!"

Clark walked to where the ambulances were and started searching for a paramedic.

"Can you help us?" he asked a paramedic that was storing some material. The paramedic turned to him.

"Are you injured?" he asked, looking intensely at him. Clark felt something strange inside him, like a shiver that went through his body when he looked at this man.

"No, we found a girl, my girlfriend is with her now, she doesn't seem well."

The paramedic took a bottle of oxygen and his briefcase and walked with Clark to meet Chloe and the girl.

The paramedic kneeled next to the girl and looking at her asked "What is your name?"

"Bette," answered the girl.

"Hi, Bette I am Davis. You inhaled a lot of smoke. We're going to give you a little fresh air. Take slow, deep breaths."

The girl nodded. Davis put the oxygen mask on the girl, and then looked at Chloe, "I need you to hold on to this," he said gesturing to the oxygen bottle. Chloe put a hand over the oxygen bottle and Bette put her hand over Chloe's searching for support. Davis started to examine the girl. "I'm going to check you over. Tell me if anything hurts."

Clark who was standing next to them looked around searching for anyone else that needed his help.

"Well, Bette, apart from breathing in all that smoke, you're going to be okay. We should still get you to Met General just to be sure. You think you can make it to my rig?" Davis asked the girl. She nodded, "yes."

Then Davis looked at Chloe and smiled, "You are so good doing this…helping I mean…"

"Sullivan, Chloe Sullivan" she answered, Clark came to them, and Chloe added "he is my boyfriend Clark Kent." Davis looked at him with jealousy. He wanted a girlfriend like Chloe.

"Davis Bloom," he replied.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bloom," answered Chloe.

"Nice to meet you two, Miss Sullivan, Mr. Kent."

Clark and Chloe walked away from the accident scene and met Lois who was joking with a policeman. Lois looked at them, "If you two want to play Boy Scout and Girl Scout, I have an article to write," she said sarcastically.

"Lois, we only want to help people in trouble," assured Clark.

"Hey Lois, your article is about 'Aliens in Metropolis'?" asked Chloe smiling. Lois turned to the policeman and asked him smiling, "Have you heard of any cases of abduction by aliens in Metropolis?" Then Lois turned to Chloe again, "this is more interesting… come on, you could find some other story. Or you could always change your career and become a paramedic."

"Lois… this is our section, and I need something good after a month without work," protested Chloe.

"Okay, Chlo, I will start my search for aliens."

Clark and Chloe stayed a little while around the accident site and questioned the eyewitnesses. Then Clark's super hearing caught a conversation between two members of the Bomb Squad inside the damaged bus. They were saying they didn't find any explosive debris.

When he was alone with Chloe, he told her, "Chloe I heard someone say that there aren't explosive debris in the bus, maybe someone with a meteor power caused the explosion."

"We have enough here," said Chloe, "what about if we go to visit the patients in the hospital, maybe someone saw something unusual, and we can check for this girl, Bette," suggested Chloe.

"Okay," answered Clark nodding and added, "I want to ask about the young woman I saved before too, she seemed very injured."

Chloe gave him a confused look, "What?" he said, and added "I only want to know how someone I saved is doing…what is wrong with that?"

"Nothing," answered Chloe realizing she didn't have any reason to be jealous and that Clark was worried about someone he saved, even though she was a woman.

"But we best go to the Planet first, and write a draft report about it, right? Before someone else does."

"Do you mean, Lois?" asked Chloe, "She is too busy searching for aliens," she added with a wide smile.

"Chloe, it's not funny. Lois told us that the new editor Tess Mercer gave her this assignment. Maybe Tess suspects something or maybe Lex told her something about me."

"I am not seeing any reason to suspect that Lois has any clue about you, Clark. She is searching for little green men, and green is your least favorite color," said Chloe with a mischievous smile.

"You aren't right; I love the green in your eyes, and your dress last night," said Clark looking at her eyes and smiling.

"You know that's not what I mean," replied Chloe.

"Yeah!"

Some minutes before Chloe and Clark were working at their desks. Lois had just arrived and was working at her desk too. A young secretary called them, "Sullivan, Kent, the boss want to see you two in her office."

Lois made a gesture of discomfort and said, "Wow, you've just arrived and the boss wants to talk with you two. I've been trying to get her to see me for more than a week without success."

Chloe knocked lightly on the Editor in Chief's office door.

"Come right in," Tess said from a distance and where Chloe and Clark couldn't see her. They opened the door slowly and walked in.

"Miss Sullivan, Mr. Kent take a seat. Tess Mercer, acting CEO of Luthorcorp," said Tess meanwhile both Clark and Chloe felt like they were being examined by Tess.

"Are you our boss?" asked Clark in surprise.

"You weren't this shy when I was the damsel in distress, Kent. Don't tell me you're intimidated by a powerful woman," said Tess looking to him insistently. Meanwhile Chloe didn't understand what they were talking about.

Tess looked at Chloe's surprised expression and explained, "This morning Mr. Kent saved my life in a bus accident, a thing he is used to doing, according to what I know."

"No, It's just I'm surprised to see you back at work so soon," said Clark.

"I have big shoes to fill. And the paramedics told me that I was fine."

Tess looked at Chloe, "I am glad you are better from you illness, Sullivan, maybe sleeping so much helped you." she said in irony. Chloe only smiled lightly.

Then Tess looked slowly to Clark, "I had intended to talk with you anyways, you are on my 'to-do' list today," she said biting her lower lip and smiling in pleasure, her eyes looking at Clark's big chest muscles.

Chloe looked at her with an evil look, and took a step towards Clark.

"Sullivan, will you be able to handle him?" asked Tess wickedly.

Chloe's face turned a little red until she realized what Tess meant, then Tess added, "I mean teach him the ropes."

Chloe smiled, "of course, I've been doing it since freshman year at high school."

Tess looked at Clark again smiling lightly and said "I am sure it is very interesting. Okay Sullivan he is your new partner, make him a good journalist. And Kent, Lex explained all about you."

"Well, not much to tell, really" assured Clark. Chloe felt uncomfortable.

"I could see the truth in his words this morning," said Tess looking insistently at him again.

"What do you mean?" asked Clark.

"He said that you have a thing for saving people," said Tess.

"Tell me something, why does Luthorcorp's new CEO take the bus to work?" asked Clark.

"I am going green. You know, doing what I can to save the planet. But for the sake of the shareholders, let's keep that between ourselves."

Tess looked profoundly at them again. "If you need anything else from me… like some triangular shaped crystal… don't hesitate to ask me for it, you don't need someone does it for you."

Clark faked surprise "I don't know what you are talking about, Ms. Mercer."

"I suppose that your visit to the accident scene served for something more than saving people. Do you have an article?"

"Of course we have one," answered Chloe quickly. She looked at Tess fearlessly and said, "Tell Lex I said thank you, I enjoyed his hospitality so much."

"Lex is missing, Miss Sullivan."

"Seriously? Did you check Montana? Something tells me that he was there some weeks ago."

Tess looked at them threatening, "You two had so much luck today… see that it continues."

-tbc-