Gone – Forty-Second Chapter
Clark and Lois walked several metres in front of Sam and Rory as the four of them made their way to the site of Chloe's safe house.
"So why is Dean staying behind?" Rory questioned. "I thought he liked the whole mystery-solving thing."
"He doesn't like staying in any one place too long," Sam replied. "So he's looking for a hunt."
"He's really that eager to leave?" Rory asked, hiding her sadness.
"Dean just wants to find Jason, tell him what happened to our dad, and move on," Sam explained. "He likes hunting. He's good at it. And he doesn't really have a reason to stay here, does he?"
"True," Rory sighed as they reached the top of the hill.
Before them lay an area surrounded with yellow police tape. Clark and Lois had already stopped, shocked at the devastation.
All that was left of the house was blackened rubble, including a burnt car. Some wooden beams still stood haphazardly, but they were the only things indicating that there had ever been a proper, standing house on that spot.
"This is Chloe's safe house?" Lois asked quietly, stricken.
"You mean this was Chloe's safe house," Rory corrected sadly.
"Oh my God, Chloe," Lois breathed in shock, "what did they do to you?"
Sam walked casually into the site, ducking under the police tape.
Rory followed him, saying quietly, "I forgot. You're an expert at crime scenes."
He glanced back at her, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I can't help how I was raised."
"I know," Rory sighed. "It's just, I've known Chloe for years, and... it's hard to see anybody being even slightly cavalier about her death."
"I thought you said she wasn't dead," Sam pointed out, looking around for sulfur. Hey, it never hurt to check out all the possibilities.
Rory shrugged. "Her body's not in her grave, but then again, from the looks of this place," she looked around, "I daresay there wasn't much left to bury."
"Sam, Rory?" Lois called from a little way away. "This place gives me the creeps. Can we go?"
"Sure," Rory called back. "Anything else you want to check out, Sammy?" she asked, lowering her voice.
He shook his head absentmindedly. "It doesn't have the traditional earmarkings of any supernatural being I've seen..." he murmured.
"That's because this isn't a case, Sam," Rory reminded him. "This is the work of Lionel Luthor."
Sam nodded and they turned to leave.
A sudden rumbling stopped them in their tracks. Not far away, Lois and Clark stopped too, turning to look for the source of the noise.
Sam grabbed Rory's arm and pulled her over to the other two, letting go once they were there.
"I think we should go, now," he called over the noise.
Lois's eyes widened. Rory turned to see what she was looking at and saw a jet black helicopter, flying close to the ground – and to them.
The helicopter stopped in mid air, hovering nearby. Two men dressed in black combat suits jumped out of it and lowered themselves to the ground quickly.
Both of them had large guns strapped to their backs.
"Run!" Clark yelled, shoving Lois towards the hill. Sam grabbed Rory's arm again and yanked her away, running after Lois.
"Clark!" Rory yelled over her shoulder. She used her strength to pull Sam off her, telling him quickly, "Go help Lois, we'll be fine!"
She ran back towards Clark. Sam hesitated before chasing Lois down the hill once again. He pulled out his gun and cocked it, ready for the men.
"Rory, get out of here," Clark hissed as the two men disconnected their cables from the helicopter. The helicopter flew off after Sam and Lois. "Go get rid of the helicopter!"
"And leave you here alone?" Rory pointed out.
"You'll distract me," he retorted. "Sam and Lois need you more."
One of the men ran at them, pointing his gun at them. Rory threw her arm up, telekinetically throwing him across the safe house.
"Clark," she glared.
"Look, my powers are more suited to hand-to-hand," Clark reasoned. "Yours are more suited to, say... bringing down that helicopter.
Rory sighed and supersped after Lois and Sam.
She stopped at the bottom of the hill, watching as Lois fought with one of the men in black, while another one fought Sam – he must have been disarmed.
The helicopter hovered nearby as if waiting for them to tire.
Rory concentrated on it, using her fire control to heat up the engine. Clark, you could have done this yourself, she thought to her brother.
He supersped up beside her and said with a grin, "My bad."
The helicopter sank to the ground, skidding along the dirt road. Sam knocked out his enemy seconds before Lois did the same to her opponent.
Rory and Clark supersped down to the dirt road and stopped not too far away from Sam and Lois. The latter two ran towards them. Lois had a small grin on her face while Sam looked agitated.
"Well don't just stand there," Lois said, as she got closer. She grabbed Rory's hand and said, "Come on."
The four of them ran away from the crash site.
Kent Farm
"Hey, Dean," Sam said to his brother, who was currently occupying the couch in the living room, using Sam's laptop to browse the internet.
"Hey!" Rory stopped him before he could sit down. "You're covered in dirt, remember? No sitting!"
"At all?" Sam asked. "Can't you just get me a towel or something?"
"Do I look like your servant?" Rory demanded.
"No, but it is your house," Sam pointed out, trying not to laugh. "I don't know where the towels are."
Rory glared at him and disappeared. A second later, she was back in her original spot, thrusting a towel towards him.
He grabbed it off her, spread it over the couch and sat carefully on it, making sure he was completely on the towel. He then grinned obnoxiously at Rory, who rolled her eyes and ran upstairs, saying, "Lois! Hurry up!"
"You two bicker like you've already been dating ten years," Dean grumbled, "or like you've been married twenty."
"Dean," Sam sighed. "Find anything?"
"No," Dean said, still in his world-weary tone. "Which I know pleases you, I mean, I know how happy you are to be getting out of this magnificent place."
"Look, Dean, Jason's going to be here in a couple of days," Sam reassured him.
"And then what?" Dean asked angrily. "We just sit around here so you can play happy families? Sammy, if you wanna get laid, I'm all for that."
Sam made a choking noise as Dean went on, lowering his voice, "But a seventeen year old high school student – not to mention alien – is not your best bet, okay?"
"I don't wanna get laid!" Sam hissed, outraged. "I know that you wanna hit the road again. And I wanna keep helping people too! But we haven't even heard of Jason in eleven years. Don't you wanna see your brother again? Get to know him like you never got the chance to?"
"As far as I'm concerned, he might as well not be my brother," Dean said resentfully. "He abandoned us. He ran away, Sam. Remember that? Besides, we both know that Jason is just an excuse."
"Maybe he is," Sam admitted, staring Dean down heatedly. "But I feel like I can talk to her, Dean. It's not just these feelings for her you seem to think I have."
Dean looked at him patronisingly.
"I don't feel anything more than friendship for her!" Sam whisper-yelled.
"All right, Sammy, whatever you say," Dean agreed in a clearly disagreeing tone. His face brightened as he said mischievously, "Does that mean I-?"
"No," Sam interrupted shortly.
"But-"
"No!"
Dean shook his head, a wide grin on his face.
Half an hour later, Rory came down the stairs wearing a plaid shirt that came down to her mid-thigh... and apparently nothing else.
"Hey, do you guys want anything to eat or drink?" she asked the brothers. Both of them were focused on the computer until she spoke, at which point they both looked up at her.
As soon as Dean saw her, however, he looked over at Sam, an even wider grin on his face now.
"What do you say, Sammy?" Dean asked his little brother, who was currently struck dumb by seeing Rory wearing just that... in broad daylight.
"Huh?" Sam snapped out of his daze after staring at Rory for a full minute.
"Are you okay, Sam?" Rory asked, looking concerned.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, great, really, I'm just... I'm good," Sam finished lamely.
"Hungry?" Rory now looked as though she was struggling to hide a smile.
"No," Sam answered quickly. "No, I'm good."
Rory nodded, still fighting a grin. "Dean?"
"Um, do you have tomato, bacon, lettuce, cheese, ham, and... oh I don't know... surprise me," Dean said with a grin.
"You want all that?" Rory asked, surprised.
"On a sandwich."
"Okay," Rory shrugged. She supersped around the kitchen, frying the bacon with her fire-control and sticking it all together quickly, then putting it on a plate.
"Here you go, Dean," she handed him the plate. "Now, I'm heading back upstairs to stop Clark wasting all the hot water. Sam, you're up next."
Without waiting for a response she ran (at normal speed) up the stairs.
Sam let out a thankful sigh, leaning back on the couch.
Dean took a bite of his sandwich and groaned happily. He looked over at Sam, his grin still firmly in place.
"I take back what I said about Sarah," he said.
"What did you say about Sarah?" Sam asked monotonously.
"I told you to marry her, remember?" Dean reminded him. "Anyway, I take it back. Marry her," he pointed after Rory.
Sam merely groaned, and not happily, either.
The next morning, early
Rory woke up, the early morning sun shining in through her window. She sat up in bed and saw Clark, lying on a mattress at the foot of her bed. Oh, right, she remembered. Lois and the Winchesters.
She quickly got out of bed and got changed as silently as possible. She walked down the stairs just as quietly and paused when she saw Lois sneaking through the kitchen to the door.
Rory backed up a little, watching Lois leave. Where is she going? she thought to herself. Only one way to find out.
She concentrated on her thoughts and soon found them.
Good. I'm out of the house. Now it's off to the graveyard to see if Clarky was right with his little freak-hunch. But-
That was all Rory needed to hear. If she wanted to find Lois, she now knew exactly where to go.
A few hours later
"Has anybody seen Lois?"
Rory looked up at Clark. "Why?"
"She is supposed to be helping me find out what happened to Chloe," Clark pointed out.
Rory stood. "I know where she is. I'll go get her."
"You wanna maybe take the truck?" Clark stopped her just as she was about to run off.
Rory smiled sheepishly. "Sure."
Clark tossed her the keys and she ran out, calling, "Back in a few."
Graveyard
Rory climbed out of the truck, walking into the graveyard. It was so quiet and peaceful – although she doubted that was something most people connected with graveyards. But still...
She was interrupted when she heard a crashing sound nearby and somebody yelling.
Rory began to sprint, without superspeeding, towards the noise.
She ran around some trees and came to a standstill when she saw what was going on.
Lois stood there, nearby Chloe's grave, which she'd apparently dug up. She was talking to another girl Rory recognised...
"Lana!" Rory shouted happily, running towards her friend.
Rory and Lana had made up for everything that had happened between them just before she'd left for Paris. Being almost killed by the clone of your mutual childhood best friend could do that to you.
"Rory!" Lana smiled, meeting Rory halfway and hugging her.
"When did you get back?" Rory asked excitedly.
"Yesterday," Lana replied. "I haven't heard from you at all the last three months, what happened?"
Rory froze up a little before explaining vaguely, "Well, things have been... happening... I guess..."
"Okay," Lana said with a confused laugh.
"You two know each other?" Lois asked, looking at the two of them.
Rory nodded. "Lana's been my best friend since we were about three."
"Wow," Lois said, impressed.
"Lois, Clark was looking for you, so we should probably head back to the farm," Rory told her.
"Well I should probably take off too," Lana said with a small smile. "Rory, I rented the apartment over the Talon from Lex, so..."
"Okay," Rory said, smiling back. "I'll see you later."
Lana nodded and walked off.
"So what happened here?" Rory asked Lois, slightly accusing.
"Look, Clark said that Chloe's body wasn't in her grave," Lois replied defensively. "So I came and dug it up to see if he was telling the truth."
"You dug up a grave just to see if my brother was telling the truth?" Rory laughed incredulously, taking Lois's arm and walking towards the entrance of the graveyard.
"Your brother must have ESP or something, cause he was right," Lois ignored her taunts.
"Just a hunch," Rory said breezily. "Come on; let's get you back to the farm."
Kent Farm
Rory got out of the truck, back home once again. Clark walked over to her, saying, "You found her, good."
"Hey, Clark," Lois said with an obnoxious grin. "Guess who we saw today?"
"Nobody," Rory interrupted, shooting Lois a warning glare.
"Who'd you see?" Clark directed his question at Lois.
"Some girl named Lana Lang," Lois said, blissfully unaware of Rory's glare. "Rory's best friend."
Sam came outside to greet the girls as Clark asked, surprised, "Lana's back in town?"
"Since yesterday," Rory sighed.
"Lana, as in your best friend?" Sam asked quickly.
"Yeah," Rory admitted. "She's back from Paris. I forgot to ask why."
"Oh," Clark said lamely.
Awkward silence ensued.
"Well I'm just gonna go clean up," Lois said loudly, breaking the silence.
"Hey Rory, can I talk to you for a second?" Sam asked.
"Sure," Rory said, leading him into the barn.
As they walked up the stairs to the loft, Sam questioned, "Lana Lang is home from Paris, is that right?"
"Yeah," Rory confirmed again. "Why does it matter so much to you?"
"Because I saw her, in my vision of Jason," Sam explained.
"Who's Jason?" Rory asked.
"Jason is Dean's twin brother. He got sick of the whole hunting gig, and one night after he and Dad had a massive fight, he ran away," Sam told her sadly. "He was fifteen."
"And you haven't seen him since?" Rory guessed.
Sam nodded. "It's been over a decade. And we came to find him, because I had a vision that he'd be here soon. In that vision, he was in Paris...
"With Lana," Rory realised. "Are they together or something?"
"Yeah, they are," Sam sighed. "So if Lana's here, then I don't think Jason's too far behind her."
"Why exactly did you come to find him?" Rory asked. "You and Dean have been travelling for a year; surely you could've tracked him down before now."
Sam looked down, uncomfortable and upset. "Our father is dead."
"Sam, I'm sorry," Rory said, putting her hand on his arm.
"It's just, even if Jason chose to leave us, he's still family, and he deserves to know, right?" Sam asked edgily.
"Of course he does," Rory smiled gently.
Sam looked at her and was glad she couldn't read his mind; otherwise she'd know that the real reason he'd been so eager to come to Smallville was not in Paris, but standing right in front of him.
That night
"Listen, I really think we're onto something here," Lois's loud voice drifted up the stairs to Sam, Rory and Dean. Dean was still on the laptop, looking for a hunt.
"I did my research, and it turns out LuthorCorp paid for Chloe's funeral," Lois went on. "Why would they do that? It doesn't make any sense."
"I guess the real question to ask would be why they buried an empty casket for nothing," Rory called out to her.
"Exactly," Lois said. There was silence as she and Clark reached the loft. "Clark, have you heard a word I've said?"
"Huh?" Clark said, his eyes focusing again.
"Oh, Clark," Rory sighed. "You probably won't even run into her until school starts again."
"Who?" Clark said in an attempt to be casual.
Rory shook her head. Suddenly, there was the sound of a helicopter just outside the loft. A blinding white searchlight shone inside and debris blew in through the window.
Rory stood and went to the window, trying to see what was going on.
"Come on!" Lois shouted. "We gotta go!"
She grabbed Clark by the arm and went for the stairs, dragging him with her. Dean had shut the laptop and was looking worried, as was Sam.
Just as Lois and Clark reached the top of the stairs, a man walked up the stairs towards them. He was dressed in a military uniform covered in badges and medals. There was a hard, cold look on his face.
He stared down Clark for a moment before looking at Lois angrily.
"Hi, Daddy," Lois said, unafraid.
The other four jerked their heads towards her, shock on all their faces.
Lois just smiled.
A/N Sorry about the lack of updates, my muse went AWOL. And I'm going to Tasmania tomorrow for a week and a half, and will be completely without internet. Then I go back to school. So updates may become erratic... sorry everybody!