Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville
Chapter Six
00 Hourglass 00
In American High Schools community service was a graduation requirement, one with set hours that you have to complete for every year of high school. Besides the Beanery, city hall, and the Saturday market, I didn't go into town much. So when I was faced with the decision on where to work I did what I always did when faced with a new situation, follow Clark.
Unfortunately, I forgot that ever since puberty Clark has been following Lana.
So when Clark, Pete, and I went in the assisted living home I was hopelessly naïve, thinking that if something went wrong, Clark would always be there to help me out.
"We need an orderly to room 206. Orderly please to room 206," called a female voice over the intercom.
"Man, I don't know how I let you talk me into this," groaned Pete, eyeing an old man passing us in a walker.
"Every Smallville High student needs to complete 30 hours of community service," stated Clark.
"Yeah. But we could have served our community by life-guarding the girl's swim class instead of hanging out with the denture crowd."
"For once I agree with Pete," I said and rolled my eyes at their identical looks of shock, "Not about the girl's swim team, about not being here. You could have told me that I'd be stacking books for the soon-to-be-departed instead of at the library when you handed me the sign up sheet."
"You could have read the paper before signing it."
"Anyway, whats the attraction of working here?" Pete asked Clark.
Pete's questioned was quickly answered by the appearance of Clark's long time crush, Lana Lang, who was currently pushing a cart of books.
"Hi, Clark, Pete, Clara."
"Lana, I didn't know you were volunteering here," said Clark happily.
"Liar," I muttered, feeling betrayed.
"Yeah, right," I heard Pete mutter beside me, and I was disturbed for once again being on the same wavelength as Pete.
"For a couple of weeks now. You part of the companion program?"
"I'm reading with Cassandra." Clark answered.
"She's an interesting woman. Some of the nurses say she can see the future." Lana said smiling, before pushing the cart past us.
"I didn't know senility was contagious," I said innocently.
0000
As my shift started 30 minutes after Clark's I decided to join Clark as he visited the senile fortune teller.
She looked like any old woman, I noted that she was blind as the book she was reading from was written in braille, but she didn't seem to have any of the stereotypical attributes of a charlatan, there was no eastern European decent apparent or excessive beads or scarves. She was wearing a scarf, but it was a bland gray, the only ornament was the pendent pinned to the white lace collar of her pristine shirt.
"It takes three of you to read to me now, does it?" she asked sharply.
"No, just one, we were just hoping for a show." I shot back instantly.
The aged woman smirked, "Don't just stand there, come in."
"How'd you know there were two of us?" asked Clark.
"Well, I'm blind, not deaf." The woman laughed, pulling off her shaded glasses to reveal eyes grayed with cataracts, "I head your little friend's shoes squeaking all the way down the hall."
"Can you really tell the future?" asked Pete excitedly.
"Way to go, Pete, real subtle," muttered Clark.
"What's your name?" Cassandra asked.
"Pete Ross."
"Well, Mr. Ross, if you want your fortune told go to the circus." She said leaning forward, dislodging his book and causing it to land on the floor.
Pete leaped forward and grabbed the booklet, and when he handed it to her she wrapped her hands around his.
"It's a long walk home, Mr. Ross. Check your pockets."
Pete did so, "Oh, man. I locked my keys in the car." I snickered at his misfortune, "Dude, you're on your own." Pete said, obviously spooked, as he walked out.
"Are you going to do me next?" I asked curiously.
"What would your name be dear?"
"Clara Kent." I answered.
She held out her hands, and I pushed aside my doubts and fears about my past, this woman was a fraud, so there was no reason to worry. I delicately place my hands in hers and watched comprehension pass across her face.
"You are not where you belong, but someone will come and put you back."
I yanked my hands back and became suddenly aware of Clark's presence next to me, so I laughed off the vague prediction that made me feel as if my blood was ice cold. "Put me back? That is very vague, and a huge waste of time. See you later Clark, I should be getting to work."
I left without looking back, feeling annoyingly superstitious all of a sudden.
0000
Clark came by to pick me up from my shift, and afterwards Clark took me, Chloe, and Lana to the Beanery because Lana needed comforting after what had happened during her shift. She had apparently made volunteer history today.
She had lost her old person.
"It's not your fault Lana," Clark comforted.
"Do you know anyone else who's lost an entire old person in a wheelchair?" she asked him.
"Nope, that's pretty impressive, even by Smallville standards," chimed in Chloe.
"Maybe he was kidnapped," suggested Clark.
"Who'd want to kidnap Harry? He's just a harmless old man."
Clark turned to me but I shrugged helplessly, no theory I could come up with even made sense. Speaking of what didn't make sense, since when was Chloe on conversational terms with Lana?
"Maybe a koi turned into a piranha and ate him," suggested Chloe, smiling.
The guy sitting behind Clark chuckled and he was definitely eavesdropping.
"What? You asked for my help. I'm just thinking outside the box."
"I like your theory." It was the guy sitting behind Clark, he had sandy blond hair slicked to the side, tan skin, and a cutely upturned nose and I couldn't help feeling like I had seen him before. I noticed he was wearing suspenders, an unusual fashion choice for people who didn't look much older than us.
"You know you might want to work on your eavesdropping technique," Chloe said.
"Sorry. I'm new in town. I just heard this is where young people congregate." Something about his speech was a big clue, but I didn't know what so I just kept scrolling back through my day.
"Yeah, we congregate here often," said Lana, dragging out the uncommon word in a clear attempt at mockery.
Clark finally broke and stuck out his hand, "Hi I'm Clark, this is Clara, the rude one's Chloe, and this is—"
"Lana Lang," the man interrupted, "Name tag was a big clue. So, uh, good luck finding your missing old person."
"Oh, my god," I said, awe and utter glee evident in my tone.
"What?" the guy asked.
"I just remembered where I've seen you before." I watched the panic flash across his face.
"Where?" asked Chloe.
I shook my head, eyes never leaving Harry, "Oh, no, I'm not sharing this yet. Can I sit with you? I'd love to pick your brain."
I took the man's open mouth as agreement and moved into the seat next to him, "This is unreal, don't wait up Clark. I'm going to spend the rest of my day with my new buddy, not worrying about Lana's missing dude, or your vague prediction."
I had never seen a de-aging before.
This was so cool!
0000
Once he was certain that I wouldn't out him at the first opportunity, he was much less reluctant to have me tag along with him on the way back to the nursing home. He was just as interested about how he de-aged as I was, but when he explained to me how he had fallen into the pond and been electrocuted I had a theory.
"You think it was the meteor rocks?" He asked disbelievingly.
I smiled smugly, "You probably wouldn't have realized as you seem to have been stuck in the last century, but ever since the meteor shower things have gotten weird. Chloe, the rude one, even made a wall of articles of all the freaky stuff that has happened. It's quite impressive."
"Really?"
I frowned thoughtfully, "Well, you probably won't want to see it, she has a knack for discovering all things wacky, so you should probably keep your distance. De-aging grandpas are definitely front page news."
"I'm not a grandpa, I never even married," he said smiling.
"Well, that's a shame. Without all those wrinkles you certainly are handsome."
"Thanks, your not so bad yourself, doll."
"So why are we going back to the nursing home? Besides a change of clothes, the ones your wearing now fit the term 'dated'."
"Well, I figured that since my hands weren't shaking and stiff anymore it was a good chance to tickle the ivories."
I smiled, "You play piano? You any good?"
"I was very good," Harry said, sounding almost bitter.
"Will you teach me? I'm a fast learner, and there's only so much you can learn on your own." I pouted at how I knew every bit of theory, but I still couldn't get the piano at the school to sound like anything other than planking keys.
"Well, sure thing," He agreed as we walked into the nursing home, "Why don't you wait for me in the rec room while I get a change of clothes."
I smiled and ran off.
0000
I was watching Harry play me to shame and loving every minute of it.
He had been teaching me how to make my notes flow, and to imagine the sound before I played it, so it sounded like music instead of just notes. Right now he was playing a piece just for the fun of being able to. He didn't need the sheet music, he just sat there in his blue scrubs and let it flow.
I was a little jealous.
"You play beautifully," I looked over to see Cassandra sitting in a nearby chair.
Harry closed the piano lid, "I was supposed to attend the Metropolis Conservatory."
"Your voice sounds young. The conservatory closed it's doors in the '70s."
Harry laughed off his mistake, "I mean, I've always dreamed of attending there. If I'd lived ina different time."
Harry got up and I rose silently to join him, not wanting the attention of the old woman on me again.
Cassandra laughed, putting back on her shades, "Any chance you could give an old lady a hand back to her room?" she asked, holding out her hand.
Harry eyed it derisively, "I already know my future." He said, walking out.
I quickly followed him, looking back to watch Cassandra, "Any chance she lost her sight in the meteor shower?"
"As a matter of fact, she did."
I felt my face turn into a snarl, "Predicting the future is impossible, she probably just view the scenario with the most probability. Doesn't mean a thing."
"I take it she read yours?" he asked, eyeing me knowingly.
I frowned at his smile, the smug bastard.
0000
Harry and I spilt up a little while later, he told me there was someone he wanted to visit alone, so I took the opportunity to go to the music shop and play on their piano. The owner didn't kick me out as I created a show that was apparently good for business.
When I had finally finished all the sheet music in the book night had fallen and Harry was nowhere to be seen.
That next morning I was greeted with more Clark drama, he had apparently shared a vision with Cassandra of being all alone surrounded by the graves of everyone he loves.
After that charming announcement I didn't think it appropriate to bring up my piano lessons.
"Clark, maybe you were having some kind of hallucination," mom suggested.
"It wasn't a hallucination, it was a glimpse of the future. My future."
I scoffed, "Don't be so dramatic, it's impossible to see the future, only to predict the possible scenarios of what might happen, and the probability of those scenarios decreases exponentially the further from the present you get. Even if you did see something, there is no certainty that it will actually play out."
"That is so helpful, Clara," Clark said sarcastically.
"And you saw an endless graveyard."
"Like I was the last person on Earth," Clark answered Dad gravely.
"Even if that's true, there are other planets. There's proof to that in the storm cellar," I muttered, annoyed that once again everything was about Clark.
"Look, so, I don't know what you did or didn't see, but, come on you gotta consider the source."
"Your dad's right," said mom, "We don't know anything about her."
"I know she lost her vision in the meteor shower."
I chose to not comment in favor of putting everything together for school, including season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer so I could show it to Harry. He was remarkably deprived of any culture from the 80s onward.
"And that makes it so that she can predict the future?" Dad asked sarcastically.
"Is it so crazy? I get hit by cars and I'm fine, I walk through fire and I'm okay. What's next?"
"You can't let this one image consume your whole life," said mom.
"Now that would be crazy," I said, pulling on my coat.
"What if it is my destiny, to outlive everyone that I love. I don't want to be alone."
"Even if that were true," I said, ignoring Clark's look of horror, and our parent's looks of outrage, "It is highly improbable that we will all be buried next to each other, and there is no way our coffins would fit in the circle you described. The scene was meant to be taken metaphorically, so it really is all open to interpretation. In that case you really shouldn't obsess over it." Hadn't he ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? If not then that really needed to be corrected.
"She's not a fraud!"
I gave up, if he wasn't going to listen to logic, there wasn't much I could do to help. "I'm going to go wait for the bus, if you have time between your broods, maybe you could join me at this little thing called school."
I looked up to see he was ignoring me, in favor of brooding.
I walked out, not wanting to have anything more to do with this discussion.
0000
I ignored a message from Chloe about Harry in favor of searching for him myself.
I was finally able to locate him back at the Beanery, probably drawn in by their piano. Unfortunately for me it was after nine, which was when the Beanery closed. He had probably charmed the waitress, whose name I dimly recalled being Zoe, who closed into letting him stay late, unfortunately I doubted that would work for me. I settled down on the ground next to the door, content to wait for him when she finally kicked him out of the café.
I turned to look back in the restaurant to see Harry walking forward toward the waitress as she backed warily away. I focused on my hearing to listen in on what he was saying.
"…And your grandmother, she helped kill that future. And now," Harry wrapped something taunt across his hands that looked remarkably like piano wire, "I'm gonna kill yours."
I shot to my feet and began pushing on the door, drawing Harry's attention, as well as the waitress. "Run!" I screamed at her as I backed up and ran forward, crashing through the glass door.
She caught the hint and turned toward the back while I pulled myself off the ground and tackled Harry. He quickly overpowered me, rolling us over so that he was on top of me, pining me to the ground. He used his hold on me to lift me up slightly so she could properly slam me into the ground.
As I layed there dazed Harry got up and went after the waitress. My vision spun and landed on a napkin with a Greek phrase written on it. It was Euripudies, "The sins of the fathers are visited on the children."
I'd always hated that quote.
Harry grabbed the waitress and put a knife to her neck, herding her out of the shop. Of course that was the moment Clark chose to arrive.
"Let her go."
"Don't move, don't move!" Harry shouted, maneuvering the waitress into a choke hold and holding up the knife threateningly.
"I said, let her go."
I pushed myself up, ignoring the wetness I felt from the back of my head. I wiped the glass away with my sleeves as I crawled over to see what was happening.
"Didn't your parents teach you to respect your elders?" Harry asked, before pushing the waitress out in front of a speeding truck.
Clark ran forward to throw himself over the waitress, and I got up and once again charged Harry. I tackled him to the ground again, but then I grabbed a fistful of his hair, pulling up his head and then smashing it into the ground, effectively knocking him unconscious.
I pulled myself off the ground, walking shakily over to the counter to grab a clean washrag to press to my bleeding skull, directing a signal to the cells there to speed up division so that I could heal faster.
With all the financial problems we had been having, the last thing we needed was more doctors bills.
0000
Once we were back at the house I downed eight aspirin and settled down at the counter for the standard after-incident-Kent-family-discussion.
"Zoe's gonna be okay, but that truck driver could have sworn he hit you," Mom said to Clark. "Don't worry, he's not asking any questions."
"Is that kid in jail?"
"No, he's in the hospital overnight for observation," mom answered dad.
"Does Zoe know why he wanted to kill her?"
"She's just grateful you happened to come along."
"'The sins of the father are visited on the children'," I muttered, at their questioning looks I elaborated, "It was a quote in Greek written on a napkin. Mr. Volk said since her grandmother ruined his life he was going to end hers. Speaking of odd reasons, 'come along'?" I asked Clark.
"Is that what you told the police?" asked dad.
"I figured they wouldn't want to hear I got a vision from an old, blind lady."
"I'm not sure how I feel about Cassandra," mom said.
"Mom, she's my friend. She told me my destiny was to help people," Clark said firmly.
"You don't think she knows your secret?" asked dad.
Clark very obviously didn't answer, causing our parents to exchange looks.
"Hey, enough about me, why were you there Clara?" Clark asked, distractedly.
"I forgot what time the Beanery closed," I said lying into my ice pack, pretending my lack of eye contact was due to embarrassment, "and when I went by I saw that guy threatening that waitress, Zoe."
"Didn't I see you with that guy before?" Clark needled.
"I thought I recognized him from the trophy case at the school, but was mistaken."
"You, mistak—" Clark began mockingly.
"Stop trying to shift the focus onto your sister Clark, we were talking about Cassandra finding out your secret. I don't think you should see her anymore," dad scolded.
"If I hadn't seen her, Zoe would be dead!" Ignoring me again, I see.
"Your destiny may be to protect people, but ours is to protect the two of you, and that's gotta come first, okay?"
End of discussion.
0000
Later that night we received a call from Lex to come over. When we got there he led us to a room I had never been in before.
Once Lex turned on the lights it became clar the only thing in it was Lex's wrecked Porsche that tried to kill us.
"Is this the Prosche from-?" Clark asked. "I don't understand. Why do you still have it?"
"I once read about a rich man who survived a hotel fire," Lex answered without answering, "He hung onto the ledge for an hour before the fire department rescued him. Afterwards, he bought the hotel. Always stayed in that room. When the asked him why, he said he figured fate couldn't find him twice."
"Utter crap, some things are a death trap no matter how many times it tries to kill you," I muttered, feeling like crap.
"I thought you didn't believe in fate," said Clark.
"I don't. But every time I look at this car, I wonder. I had a team go over this thing inch by inch. They told me that I shouldn't have survived."
"They must have made a mistake," deflected Clark.
"Do you remember anything about the accident?" asked Lex.
"I remember your car coming at us, me pulling Clark over the railing, swimming down and through your broken windshield to unbuckle you, and then Clark swam us both to shore, same thing I told the officer," I said, "Oh, and Clark kissing you. Thank you for reminding me of that Lex, I had almost forgotten."
Clark groaned, "I wasn't kissing him, I was giving him CPR!"
I smirked at him, "That's not what I'll be telling Lana."
As we started to leave I pulled Lex aside, "Do me a favor, don't obsess, okay? You're my friend, and I don't want you wasting all the time you have living focusing on the two minutes you weren't."
I left him in silence, hoping he took my words to heart.
0000
The next night came with an unpleasant surprise, Harry had aged back to his original state. He was claiming that he was kidnapped by this kid who was obsessed with his old case. He was then set back to the nursing home where he disappeared again, with his wheelchair abandoned near the same pond that had de-aged him before.
So I was spending the night sulking the fact that my only non-Clark related friend was actually a serial killer, with lots of Chocolate-peanut butter smoothies.
"I don't know what's got you so depressed, Clara, but I'd wish you'd talk to me about it."
I eyed mom moodily, sucking up some more smoothie goodness.
"I know what with all the drama surrounding Clark you have a tendency to get put on the back burner, but that doesn't mean we don't care about you."
I stubbornly remained silent.
"Clara, look—" whatever mom was about to say next was interrupted by the door bell, "I'll get that, stay right here.
I heard mom go over to the door and open it, "Can I help you?" she asked politely.
"Yeah, got a report about a gas leak." I heard Harry's voice speak. "You mind if I come in?"
I quietly set down my spoon and walked over to the phone.
"Gas leak. I don't smell gas." Mom said, turning back to look at me, I pressed a finger to my lips in a shh motion, and started dialing 9-1-1.
"Your husband called about it earlier. Is he around?"
9-1
"He'll be back shortly."
1
"Where's our regular gas man, Kurt?"
Ringing.
"Vacation."
Ringing. What was taking so long?
"That's right. Would you excuse me a minute?"
"9-1-1. What's your emergency?" the receiver asked loudly.
There was a bang at the door and suddenly mom was running, grabbing my arm and dragging me with her, making me drop the receiver. I considered objecting for roughly four milliseconds until Harry broke down the door.
Once we made it outside and noticed the slashed tires on out truck, so mom started heading toward the silo, but I dragged her to my work shop instead. Once inside I activated the security system, primitive, considering the materials I was limited with, but it would be enough to slow him down. I searched for potential weapons and located my welding torch.
I lit it and held it out in front of me, and felt mom come up behind me wielding a metal pipe I had been planning to weld down later.
Harry started kicking the door, it was solid but he was a well built seventeen year old (in body at least), and very determined. Eventually the door broke, Harry came in wieding his piano wire but I was holding a lit propane torch and mom had a heck of a swinging arm.
In seconds he was down, and then, before our eyes his form shrank and stretched and I noted with some horror that he was aging, like all his lost years wee coming back at once. He didn't move but I was hesitant to check his condition. Eventually the suspence broke me and I leaned down to check him for a pulse.
"He's dead."
Mom faltered, "We killed him?"
I frowned, checking his body, I had given him mild burns and mom had caused a light cut at his temple but that shouldn't have been enough to kill him. "No, I think his heart gave out. His aged body must not have been able to handle the strain he put it through, trying to kill us."
"Mom, Clara!"
We looked up to see Clark standing at the ready with dad.
"A little late hero, we stopped him already," I scoffed at his confused expression, before heading back to the house. Leaving mom to deal with the aftermath.
I wasn't finished with my smoothie.
0000
The next day I went over to the retirement home to quit from the program, it had too many bad memories.
I was very surprised to run into a very spooked Lex.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I wanted to check out Cassandra." He answered eventually.
"How'd that go for you?"
He fumbled with the fancy bouquet he was holding, "She touched my hand and then she died of shock."
I hummed, "Wow that sucks, I tried to make a friend without Clark and he ended up being a serial killer."
We eyed each other, waiting for someone to break the silence.
Finally I was reminded of the videos in my bag, "Want to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"
"What?"
"You've had a crappy day, I have had a crappy couple of days, I think what we both need is to eat too much junk food and watch some awesome fight scenes with cheesy special effects."
"Really?" Lex said, eyeing me slightly disbelievingly.
"Yeah, they are really cheesy, and it's always helped me, so what do you say? Want to watch some mind numbing TV and ignore the world for a couple hours?" I asked, taking the banquet from Lex.
"Ignore the world? That sounds pretty good right now," Lex said, laughing weakly.
"You drive."
"Let's go."
I smiled, at least everything wasn't bad.
After all, I did get to introduce Lex Luthor to Xander Harris.