Thank you, everyone, for the loverly reviews! I do appreciate your interest in this story.
A quick reply to Pem21: while I have never been an ardent Chloe fan, I still enjoy her character, and I can't really see writing off her friendship with Clark. I had serious issues with her behavior in S2-S3, but if Clark was able to forgive her, then I figured I could too. As for the lack of Lois in this chapter...while this is a Clois story, it is even moreso a Clark story. Everything is told from his POV and the story is very Clark-centric. But don't worry, she will be having a bigger role later on!
The two of them walked slowly back towards Chloe's car and Clark said, "That was awkward."
"No, that was just weird. I think it's the first time I've ever seen Clark Kent NOT go ga-ga over Lana Lang. The universe must be ending."
"I really liked her a lot, then?"
"Clark, you were practically obsessed with her. That telescope in your loft? I don't think it was pointed at the sky very often," Chloe said wryly.
"Wow, I'm really kind of creepy, aren't I?" Clark said, a little uncomfortable with the things he was finding out about himself. It was certainly strange to be discovering these parts of his personality from the outside rather than in.
"No, it's not that you were creepy about it…okay, maybe a teeny bit…but really, she's your first love. You've had a crush on her since before you really understood what a crush was." Chloe gave a little sigh, and Clark glanced over at her curiously.
He had a sudden horrible thought. As he was obviously the world's worst at intimate relationships, Clark feared he might have broken Chloe's heart at some point. "Did, um, did you and me ever…" he trailed off, unable to complete that sentence as she turned her intense gaze onto him.
"For about half a minute, yes, we did, Clark. But it was a long time ago, and while I admit that I may still have some…wishes, vain as they seem to be, in that direction, I'm very happy to be your friend."
"I'm really sorry if I ever did anything to hurt you, Chloe," he said sincerely.
Chloe smiled at him, and while it wasn't as bright as it normally was, it made Clark feel a little better, at least.
"It's all right, Clark. It really is. Frankly, I've kinda enjoyed watching the disaster that is your love life imploding in front of me. It's been very entertaining and a nice bit of revenge at the same time," she said with a wicked smirk. She ducked into the car, leaving Clark standing by the passenger door with a stunned look on his face.
Finally, he crammed himself into Chloe's tiny car and gave a glare at her continuing laughter. "Boy, I think I'm glad it never worked with you. Obviously, you are the evil supervillain to my superhero," he said, adding a touch of fake haughtiness to his voice, while desperately hoping she wouldn't be offended at his attempt to joke.
"Muhahahaha!" Chloe laughed in a silly imitation of a cartoon villain and Clark couldn't help laughing along with her.
"Now, Lois, on the other hand. I sure wouldn't mind her being my damsel in distress," Clark said, as his smile turned dreamy.
"Okay, what in the hell is this sudden fascination with Lois?" Chloe asked.
"What, do we really not like each other or something?" Clark asked, his disappointment showing.
"Let's just say you usually mix about as well as oil and water," Chloe scoffed.
"Well, that just proves that the real me must be an idiot, cause Lois is hot," Clark said fervently.
Chloe turned to look back out towards the road, a dazed expression on her face. "I think my brain just exploded from my sudden entry into the Twilight Zone," she murmured.
"Sorry," Clark said, even though he wasn't sorry for thinking that Lois was amazing, because she definitely was. But he wasn't sure if he was really making Chloe uncomfortable or not, so he attempted to change the subject. "So where are we headed now?"
"That day pass was for a local rifle range, so we're heading to the Torch and my computers, so I can try and figure out who it belongs to."
Of course, then Chloe had to explain what the Torch was, and Clark was a little sorry that he'd asked. Obviously, the school newspaper was Chloe's passion, because she went on and on and on about it. She only stopped when they pulled into the parking lot of Smallville High. He had to admit that he was intrigued by her description of her Wall of Weird. At the same time, he got the niggling feeling that there was more to his own story than just the meteor shower. Still unsure of everything, he decided not to share his doubts with Chloe. He tried very hard not to feel guilty about that.
When they got to the Torch office, Clark was surprised – and delighted – to see Lois there, sitting at one of the computers. He gave her a huge grin, which only faltered a little bit when she gave him a nervous look and then turned her attention to Chloe.
"Lois, what are you doing here?" Chloe had asked while Clark was gazing his fill at Lois.
"Well, I'm a little peeved that some twerp stole some of my memories, not to mention nearly half a day's receipts at the Talon, so I decided to come over here and do a little research. I figured you and Smallville would end up here sooner or later."
"Find anything interesting?" Chloe asked as she sat down at a computer next to Lois and immediately got to work.
"A few reports of robberies in the last couple of months where the victims seemed to zone out like I did, but no descriptions of any suspects cause no one can remember even being robbed in the first place," Lois said, with a huff of frustration.
"Clark and I had a little more luck. We went back to the Talon and found this on the floor behind the counter," Chloe said with a big grin and flashed the day pass at Lois. As her cousin took it and looked it over curiously, Chloe's fingers flew over the keyboard and she continued, "If we can figure out who that belongs to, it should give us a huge lead to the identity of our memory thief."
"Way to go, cuz. I guess Smallville's not slowing you down too much then?" Lois said as she handed the pass back to Chloe, while she smirked at an embarrassed Clark.
"Actually, Lois, Clark was the one who found the pass. He has really good eyes, you know," Chloe said with a wink in Clark's direction. Thankfully, Lois didn't see because she was still looking at Clark.
"Interesting. But not as interesting as why you keep staring at me, Smallville. What is up with you?" Lois demanded.
"I, um…" Clark stammered, befuddled at having been caught out. "That's a really nice shirt you're wearing, Lois! The color really looks good on you," he blurted.
Lois's jaw dropped and she couldn't speak for a moment, but when she found her voice, she managed to sputter, "Are you attempting to flirt with me, Smallville?" At this, Chloe looked up from her computer, her interest captured by the blushing farmboy as well.
"No?" Clark said with a wince. Then he changed his mind. He'd apparently been a liar for most of his life, but he was going to tell Lois the truth about the fact that he was extremely attracted to her. "I mean, yes. Yes, I am, Lois. I find you incredibly beautiful and I would like to get to know you better," he said with a nod.
It didn't really help his ego that both girls stared at him like he wasn't speaking English.
"Oh. My. God. He hasn't just lost his memory, he's lost his whole personality!" Lois said. "Smallville, you and I don't date. We don't get along, we don't like each other, and we're never going to date. I've only told you no about a billion times the last couple of weeks, so when is it finally gonna sink into that thick skull? No you and me, ever! The sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be."
Clark felt his shoulders droop at her emphatic words. His stomach suddenly seemed to be somewhere around his knees. How could she not feel the electricity between them? Clark certainly felt it!
"Wait, wait, wait. Hang on a minute. What do you mean, you've told him no a billion times the last couple of weeks? Clark only lost his memory and started perving on you today. Right?" Chloe said and stared at Lois.
"Er…" Lois said, and then she was the one blushing! "Figure of speech, that's all that was."
Clark could barely keep the elated smile off his face. He knew there was something going on between the two of them! As sharply as he'd felt it when he'd first seen her in the Kent's kitchen, there had to be. Before either he or Chloe could question Lois further about her slip of the tongue, Chloe's computer beeped and their attention was drawn back to the problem that had brought them all here.
"Oh, we got something! The pass was registered to a Kevin Grady and yay, we even have his address. Let's get out there right now!"
Clark and Lois were both swept up in Chloe's enthusiasm. They allowed her to lead the way out to the parking lot, Lois determinedly avoiding Clark's gaze the entire time. He decided then and there that he wasn't going to let it go, though. Something was happening between the two of them and he'd be damned if he was going to let her just deny it. He'd just wait until he got his memory back, that was all.
The trip out to Kevin Grady's house didn't do them much good, as Kevin's dad wasn't very forthcoming. They felt a little guilty at pushing him while he was dealing with Dylan's death. When Chloe found a sticker on Mr. Grady's car from the Summerholt Institute, she seemed to think it was very significant.
Clark didn't know why Chloe's face went all grim when she confronted Mr. Grady with about Summerholt, but for some reason, just the name of that place seemed to give Clark the chills. He forgot about it as he gazed longingly after Lois when she announced that she was going to check out the back of the house.
Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to ask Chloe about Summerholt before she was telling him to run after the motorcycle he heard and the next thing Clark knew, he was standing in the middle of a field of cows. He panicked for a few minutes, because he didn't have a freaking clue as to where he was, until he remembered that he had a cell phone and Chloe's number was already programmed into it.
It took her thirty minutes to figure out where he was and to come and pick him up because Clark wasn't trying super speed again anytime soon, no way, no how. He whined a bit when he saw that she was alone, as in without Lois, but Chloe gave him a look and he quickly shut up. Since he wanted to keep on at least one person's good side in the mystery that was currently his life, Clark decided to get her thoughts back in the direction of the puzzle they were trying to figure out.
"So where are we heading now?"
"To the stately mansion of one Lex Luthor, boy billionaire," she said, and Clark could definitely detect a little bitterness in her tone.
He wasn't going to touch that with a ten-foot pole, but he did think he needed more of an explanation. "Any particular reason why?"
"You and he are friends, well, sort of. You're not as close as you once were, but you saved his life and the two of you were practically joined at the hip for a few years there."
This news was surprising to Clark. Not the fact that he'd saved Luthor's life, because according to Chloe, he did that sort of thing quite frequently, but that he'd be best friends with a billionaire. It just seemed way too bizarre to contemplate.
He said as much again as they were shown into an office in the castle. A castle, for crying out loud!
"Funny, it never seemed to bother you before," a cool voice said and Clark turned to see a man in his mid-twenties enter the room.
Clark tried hard not to stare at the man's completely bald head, but it was difficult. "Mr. Luthor," he said uncomfortably.
Luthor smiled at him, but Clark couldn't help noticing that it didn't seem to reach his eyes. "I think you can still call me Lex, as well, Clark." He walked over to the bar that was beside the desk and poured himself a drink before turning to face Clark and Chloe. "What brings you two here to see me?"
"Well, I explained to you about Clark's memory being lost during the Talon robbery. We've uncovered a few leads, and one of them led us to Summerholt Institute. I wondered if you still had some contacts there that we might be able to get some information from," Chloe said nervously.
Clark wondered why she was so apprehensive now, when she'd struck him as the no-nonsense, charge-ahead kind of girl from the moment he'd been reintroduced to her.
"Chloe said they did some experiments on you," Clark said. Lex turned sharp eyes on him at that statement, and Clark could feel his cheeks warming in embarrassment at his own lack of tact.
"We, um, we think that the guy who did this to Clark is undergoing some sort of treatment to have his memory wiped."
"That doesn't seem a far stretch considering the advancements they've made. I'll make a few calls and see what I can find out," Lex said.
"Right. Well, thanks for that," Chloe said, and took a step backwards towards the exit. "I guess we'll just be going then."
"Chloe, I'd like to talk to Clark alone, if I may."
"I promised that I'd get him home," Chloe said, sounding unsure.
"I think I can manage that," Lex said dryly.
"It's okay, Chlo. You've been handling Clark chaperone duties all day. I'll be all right," Clark said.
He didn't know what instinct was telling him to talk to Lex Luthor, but if he'd learned anything on this day, it was that sometimes it was a good idea to follow those instincts. Although it did make him a little nervous that Chloe felt she had to warn him to 'be careful' via his super hearing.
"I have something that I want to show you that I think might be helpful, Clark," Lex said and Clark couldn't help but be curious. So he went with Lex.
He was a little surprised – and confused – when Lex brought him to a dirty, old cave. Lex said that he and Clark were researching the cave paintings together, but that didn't seem right. Hadn't Chloe said they weren't as close friends as they'd once been? Clark wondered why Lex would lie to him and then he happened to glance at Lex's face while he was looking at one of the cave paintings, a weird hybrid of two figures with one lower body.
There was an expression of such intense longing on Lex's face that it took Clark by surprise, and then Lex looked over at him and the longing intensified for half a second until Lex realized that he was being observed. The cool mask that he'd displayed back at the castle fell back over his face.
"We're not really friends anymore, are we?" Clark asked quietly.
Lex actually looked surprised for a moment then, before he tried to bluff his way through another lie.
"Of course we are, Clark. It's just that we don't have time to see one another as often as we used to. I do run a business, and this is your senior year. We're both very busy people."
"No, I don't think so. I kept things from you, too, didn't I?" God, the lies he must have been telling from the time he learned to talk.
Lex's jaw clenched tightly and he stared at Clark with a stony expression for a long time. "Yes. Yes, you did," he finally ground out.
"I'm sorry for that," Clark whispered, and a part of him wanted desperately to tell Lex everything, all the things that Chloe knew. He wondered how much Lex had already figured out. If Chloe had managed to guess most of his secrets, then surely someone he'd been 'joined at the hip' with would have deduced them also?
"Lex, I…" Clark began and then trailed off. He couldn't shake the sense that it wouldn't be right to tell Lex anything when he himself hadn't a clue as to most of his own feelings and secrets. But as he looked uncomfortably away from the eager gleam in Lex's gaze, Clark's eyes fell on a section of the caves that he recognized from the many drawings in the loft. Maybe he could give Lex just a few little crumbs. "Hey, this wall isn't supposed to be here."
"What?" Lex said, immediately distracted from Clark's stalled confession.
"This wall," Clark said, as he moved forward to lay his hands gingerly on the stone. "There's supposed to be a room here. I remember seeing it on the drawings I have back in my loft."
Lex held his breath for so long that Clark feared he might need to give him CPR, before he finally stepped up to place his hands on the wall alongside Clark. "A room," he murmured. "Do you know how to get in there?"
"No," Clark answered honestly. Maybe he did know in his 'other' life, but he certainly had no clue at the moment.
Lex looked at him almost as intently as he had been staring at the immovable wall. For a second, Clark wondered if Lex had x-ray vision, too.
"Thank you, Clark, for sharing that with me," Lex said softly.
Clark wasn't sure how to reply to that, so he settled for saying nothing. The silence, strangely more comfortable than it was before, lasted for another couple of minutes before Lex spoke up.
"I should get you back home to your parents."
The ride back to the Kent farm was easier somehow than the ride out to the caves. Clark wondered if they'd taken many rides like this together early in their friendship. Wanting to know, Clark decided to just ask.
To his surprise, Lex grinned. Clark thought it made his face look much nicer than the cold expression he'd been wearing since he and Chloe had walked into the mansion.
"We wasted many, many hours roaring around the back roads of Smallville, Clark. I think you tried to persuade me that you were comparing different models for a school report, but in reality, you just wanted to drive really fast."
Lex's smile faded a bit as he seemed to realize that the driving was just another instance of Clark lying to him. Clark hated the fact that his untruths appeared to be determined to slap him in the face at every turn. He really wanted to go back to the ease he and Lex had felt just a few minutes ago.
"So how fast will this one go, Lex? Can you show me?" he asked, attempting to get Lex's mind off the subject of lies by trying to look mischievous.
Lex let him get away with it – Clark wondered how many times in their friendship that had been the case – and pushed the accelerator to the floor with a big grin on his face. When they finally arrived back at the Kent farm, they were both laughing and exhilarated with the speeds they'd reached. Clark thought that Lex seemed a bit wistful when he'd finally taken his leave, and promised himself that he'd be a better friend to Lex when he got his memory back.
If he ever did get his memory back. He was pondering how difficult life would be if he never remembered anything when Lois called him, frantic with worry over Chloe, who'd called saying she was going to send her a video file, and then their phone connection had been abruptly cut off. She ordered Clark to get over to the Torch right away.
Luckily Clark knew exactly how to get to Smallville High from his house so he ran to the school. When Lois gave him an odd look at how swiftly he'd shown up, Clark told her that he'd already been on his way here when she called. He then wanted to kick himself for how easily that lie had come to his lips.
Clark swore silently to himself that things were going to be different when he got his memory back. But all that was pushed to the back of his mind as he watched the video file that Chloe discovered. Someone was pretty determined that the truth about Dylan's death remain a secret. Chloe was probably in danger as she was right in the middle of this mess, and obviously didn't know when to quit.
There was only one thing to do. Clark had to find Kevin Grady. The place where his brother died seemed like a good place to start. Making his excuses to Lois, Clark ran to Audrey Clearing. This super speed thing wasn't so bad once he'd got the hang of it, he decided.
Clark could see how deeply Kevin was devastated when he realized his father was the one who'd really killed his brother, and then tried to blame it on him. It made Clark grateful for the wonderful friends and family he'd been blessed with. While he still couldn't remember his parents at the moment, Chloe had gushed about their relationship with him and how lucky he was to have them for parents.
Later, after he'd rescued Chloe and gained his memories back from Kevin, Clark was grateful that Kevin had taken away the memory of his powers from Lois. Not that he wanted to continue to lie to her, but he wanted to tell her the truth in his own time, and in his own way. He'd been completely stunned that Chloe apparently knew about his abilities, but after they'd talked, Clark was glad she'd figured it out. Well, she still didn't know he was an alien and not a meteor mutant, but Clark thought maybe that talk could come later.
It was just really nice to have someone – that wasn't one of his parents – to talk with about the things he could do. Maybe soon, he could even manage to have a talk with Lex. It had been comforting, in a way, to have their relationship go back to the way it was in the beginning, when the two of them hadn't got so caught up in secrets and lies.
When he went to bed that night, Clark felt as exhausted as if he were a normal guy. It wasn't surprising, he supposed; after all, it had been a very long day. As he drifted to sleep, the one thing that made Clark smile was that he could resume his 'battle' with Lois Lane tomorrow.
TBC