Freshly showered and with his hair still dripping, Davis tied a towel around his waist and left the steam-filled bathroom. Moving over to the bedroom's dresser, he pulled out a pair of soft sleep pants and his usual dark tee. Then a knock came at the door of his hotel room. He frowned at the door, wondering who it could be.

It was the middle of the day. Clark would still be at work at The Daily Planet. Victor or Courtney would have called. His frown dissolved as he decided who it must be.

Chloe.

He raced across the room to fling the door open. It opened two inches then slammed shut again.

He had forgotten to remove the security chain.

Feeling sheepish, he undid the security chain and opened the door to see Chloe standing in the hallway, holding two large paper bags and grinning madly. "You forgot the security chain, didn't you?" she asked, her eyes dancing.

"Yeah..." he said sheepishly, shifting from foot to foot.

"You always did that in the motel rooms when we..." Her voice trailed off and her smile faltered slightly, then recovered. "But anyway, I've brought food since I figured you wouldn't have a good place to cook in a hotel room. Can I come in?"

Davis grinned in response, obviously delighted she was there. The brilliant smile sent her heart to racing and she shifted the bags in her arms awkwardly to distract herself. He opened the door wider to let her in, but suddenly she froze as he moved out from behind the door.

He was wearing nothing but a small white hotel towel low over his hips, and his dark hair was dripping onto his shoulders. She had thought he had looked gorgeous in that glimpse she had gotten a little bit ago of him in that thin undershirt.

She almost felt sorry for Courtney missing out because this was so much better.

She tried hard not to stare, but a thousand memories flashed through her mind. The time when she had come over his apartment and he had answered the door in a towel just this way...though there had been another woman with him then. Her eyes did a quick perusal of the room and she didn't see anyone else.

Then she remembered the dozen little motels they had stayed in when they had been on the run together. How they would take turns toweling each other off and laughing about how each motel seemed to have smaller and smaller towels. She recalled one place that had towels so tiny that when she had complained it didn't even cover her from breast to butt, Davis had teased that he would make sure not a single drop of water would escape his attention, no matter how tiny the towel was. Then he had thrown the towel across the room and instead used his tongue to lick the drops of water from her body. That had led to...other things and they had ended having to shower all over again.

Chloe felt her cheeks flame at the memory, and cleared her throat. "Did I come at a bad time?" she asked awkwardly, trying very hard not to look at him.

Well, she did try. She just didn't succeed very well.

The glimpse she'd gotten earlier through lashes and hair at Watchtower wasn't quite he same as being a foot away from him. Now she could smell the fresh scent of his soap and feel the warmth radiate from him. She could even follow the individual drops of water that fell from his thick hair to travel over his smooth chest and down the ripples of his abs, only to be caught in the terry cloth that seemed to be held in place by nothing but sheer willpower. His skin was still as smooth and pale as marble. You'd never know he had spent the better part of the last several years in the jungle. Except for the muscles. He had put on bulk since she had seen him last. It hadn't been so obvious in clothes, but once they had come off, she could see the changes from the form she had once known so well. She guessed all the hard physical labor associated with building and running a clinic with Emergency International had built him up in ways that being a regular EMT hadn't.

"What's wrong, Chloe?" Davis asked in confusion as she stared at him. She could tell the exact moment when he realized he was wearing nothing but a towel, because suddenly he was a bundle of motion. "Oh, sorry! Come in. I'll go get dressed in the bathroom." Turning around, he snatched up a bundle of clothes from the bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

Now that she was no longer confronted by nearly-naked Davis, Chloe's mind started working again. She closed the door behind her and moved to the small table and chairs set by the window. From the paper bags, she pulled out Styrofoam containers that did little to suppress the smell of fresh, crisp waffles inside.

She had just finished putting out the syrup tubs and plasticware when the bathroom door reopened and Davis came out, now more appropriately dressed in soft sleep pants and a dark tee. He was sniffing the air appreciatively.

"Do I smell waffles?" he asked.

"Yep," Chloe responded, smiling. "I wasn't exactly sure what meal this would be between working all night, then a near-coma in the middle of the day, but I figured you can never go wrong with waffles."

Davis slid into the chair across from her and pulled one of the overstuffed containers to himself, grinning. "You know I would agree with that."

The next few minutes were a combination of familiar and strange - the once-comfortable ritual of eating together in a motel room countered by years and distance. So they found themselves eating mostly in silence, though each accidental touch of feet under table or hands going for syrup brought small smiles. When they had both eatten their fill, it was Davis that broke the odd tension.

Leaning back and studying Chloe intently, he said, "Not that I don't appreciate the food delivery, Chloe, but what are you really doing here?"

She had known this question was coming since she had decided to come over, and in all the time since, she still hadn't come up with a reason that didn't sound foolish to her own ears. So she settled on something closest to the truth. "I thought we needed some time to talk. Alone."

"Alright..." Davis drawled the word out. "What did you want to discuss?"

Chloe took a deep breath then let it out, steeling herself. "Back at the plant, you said something that didn't make much sense at the time. You said 'No matter what you or anyone else may believe, I came here to help.' What did you mean by that?"

Chloe saw Davis go very still for a moment. When he replied his voice was slow and measured. "I told you I'd had dreams about Doomsday breaking free before the quakes and that is what brought me back."

"Right..." Chloe encouraged.

"The part I'm not clear on myself is the origin of those dreams." He held Chloe's eyes with a magnetic gaze. "Even in the rainforest I caught some of what happened out in the rest of the world. The other aliens...what might have even been other Kryptonians."

Chloe nodded, confirming his statements.

"I even felt a strange pull at what I later found was when a vortex opened up in Metropolis. I think the only reason I could resist is because by that time, I had cut myself off from that side for so long."

Chloe frowned. "So you think that the dreams might have been sent by some other power? And they are more than just a reflection of your Doomsday connection?"

"I don't know, Chloe. Nothing that happened went according to the plans of the ones that made me. I was supposed to be a disposable skin for the monster. I wasn't supposed to have a mind, a will, a purpose of my own. But I have all those things, and most of all, I am a weakness for a creature that overcomes weaknesses. I am a flaw in its impenetrable shell that can be exploited or destroyed for good or ill."

"Is that another reason why you stayed hidden all this time? I mean, we really could have used you a few times..."

Davis smiled without much humor. "No, I knew you would all do fine. Clark was the hero born, not me."

Chloe smiled softly. "I'm not so sure about that. From what I saw in the plant, you still seem to have Hero written in your DNA."

Davis' smile faltered. "I'm trying, but my DNA is part of the problem. Even separate from Doomsday, we are linked, and while I can exploit that link against against it..."

Chloe understood instantly. "You fear others can exploit it against you too."

"Exactly. What if my coming back here was what some evil power wanted?"

Chloe's brows knit as she thought. "So why did you come back? If you feared this was part of some evil plot?"

Davis eyes were very intent. "Several reasons. I have no way of knowing if it could be something good drawing me back and not something evil. I am able to go up against Doomsday, even if only for a time. And that monster is my responsibility."

Chloe opened her mouth to argue that point, but Davis spoke over her.

"But mostly, because the dreams showed...things I couldn't let happen. No matter what pulled me into the fray, I had to do everything I could to stop those events from happening."

Chloe swallowed. She thought she knew the answer, but she still had to ask. Her voice came out very soft. "What things, Davis? What did you see?"

His face grew haunted. "Doomsday was free and coming to destroy Metropolis, kill Clark." He waited a significant moment, then continued. "To kill you."

"Davis, I am not the same person that you knew. I may not have super powers, but I am not defenseless. I've been lost to darkness and fear and death since then, and it has made me strong."

"You were always strong, Chloe."

Chloe's voice turned soft. "No, I wasn't. After you...were gone...it was only because of...others that I've been able to pull myself together again."

Davis smiled ruefully. "I know something about that too, Chloe. Having to pull yourself back together. But you are wrong, you were always strong. If you weren't, you would have shattered and never come back. But I can see the core of you is still the same." This time his smile was warmer. "You aren't the only one that saw a hero during that Plant incursion." Then his smile faltered. "I'm just sorry I wasn't here to help you when you needed it, though I am glad Oliver was."

Chloe hesitated. "You knew about that?"

Again his smile was rueful. "I told you I kept up on things in the outside world."

Chloe hesitated again before asking. "Did you...have someone in the rainforest?"

"Yes. Her name is Marta."

"Is? Oh. So you are still together then?"

Davis smiled in that sexy, lopsided, teasing way. "Are you asking me if I'm single, Chloe?"

"No! Of course not!," came her immediate reply.

Davis burst out into laughter. Chloe's first reaction was to blush, but when she saw the absurdity of the situation she started laughing as well.

Still smiling, Davis said, "No, Chloe. We aren't together. Not like you mean. She is my best friend at E.I. She lost her husband in a landslide shortly after I got down there, and I was kind of lost myself after..." Davis voice trailed off, before he continued in a breezy tone again. "So anyway, we both found ourselves alone and it kind of worked."

"Because you could get your jollies with no expected commitment?", Chloe said mockingly, looking away. She was strangly hurt by the idea of Davis finding comfort with another woman.

"More or less, yes. You see, we were both still in love with other people, even though we couldn't be with them. Marta with her dead husband and me with..."

Chloe looked up and met Davis' eyes as his voice trailed off. Her breath caught as she read the look in Davis' eyes. They burned with a hunger that had nothing to do with waffles.

The word hung in the air unsaid for an infinite amount of time...

"You."

Chloe wasn't sure if it was her body or her heart that directed her first, but she found herself leaning forward towards Davis across the small table. She saw him shifting forward in the same way and she knew he was going to kiss her. After all this time - miles and lifetimes, and world disasters - he had returned to her and he was going to kiss her once more. Her eyes slid closed and she caught a wisp of his breath, warm and sweet with syrup and waffles. A small sound of want and excitement squeaked in the back of her throat and her lips softened and parted for his kiss...

Then the table shook violently and Chloe fell back into her chair in surprise as Davis bolted out of his chair and nearly leaped over the table and over to the door of the hotel room. He flung the door open with such violent force that Chloe felt that if she had replaced the safety chain back on, it would have torn straight out of the wall. Davis eyes were wide and wild and his breath was coming in pants as he stood across the room with the door open. His voice was harsh as he said. "I think you better leave now, Chloe."

Chloe blinked in confusion and more than a little frustrated desire. "W-Why?"

Davis remained by the door, but his voice rumbled through her. "If you stay, I will kiss you."

"Yeah, I got that...and that is bad why?"

Something hot and animal flashed in Davis' eyes, but he didn't move. "If I kiss you, I won't be able to stop until I am buried inside you. And I don't want to do that until you are ready for all that means."

"Oh." It was all Chloe could think to say to such a declaration. Feeling disoriented, she gathered up her purse and jacket and crossed over to the hotel room door that Davis was still glued against.

She paused as she passed by him, but except for the rapid pulse she saw beating against his throat and his hot eyes following her, Davis remained still.

"I guess I'll talk you later, Davis."

His eyes didn't lose any of their heat or intensity, but the tone was slightly different when Davis replied. "Chloe. Whenever you need me again - as a friend...or anything else - I'll be here."

"Thank you, Davis," she replied, unsure what else to say.

As Chloe walked down the hotel hallway towards the elevator, she heard Davis slowly and carefully close the room's door, as if trying to make up for the violence with which he had opened it. But her mind was spinning on Davis' words.

'If I kiss you, I won't be able to stop until I am buried inside you. And I don't want to do that until you are ready for all that means.'

She knew what he wanted...and had to admit it was what she wanted too. That was a large part of what had sent her over here. Ahead could be heartache and pain, but wasn't it always that way when it came to love? The only question was, was she willing to face those risks for what they could have together?

She saw now that he was clearly in love with her...and not just the memory of her as she had been. He saw who she was now - tougher, deeper, not so naive, but still a person who saw and fought for the good in the world.

She also saw he had grown too. He was a much deeper thinker and more guarded person than he had been. She guessed that after being under Doomsday's influence that he now took a much deeper look at the nature of his thoughts and the results they would cause. He also seemed to have a stronger need to put the welfare of others above his own desires - even if it came at great personal sacrifice. He hadn't said as much, but she had seen the pain it had caused him to keep away from Metropolis - from her - all this time.

Yes, they were different, but could that be...better? After all they had been through apart, they had been brought together again. They still didn't know if what brought him back was good or evil, but she found herself glad either way.

Because it gave them another chance.

Without another thought, Chloe spun on her heel and marched back to Davis' door. She planted her feet, and firmly knocked on the door.

She heard the scrape of the security chain being removed and a moment later, the door opened to reveal Davis. Before he could get a word out, she barreled past him and into the room. She slammed the door shut behind her and turned to face him. She gave him her firmest, most determined look. "Kiss me, Davis."

His voice came out low and deep, almost a growl. "Chloe..."

She pressed herself against him firmly, feeling the hardness of him. "I'm in, Davis. I want it. All of it."

His eyes flared to life with a passion beyond anything she had even seen in the eyes of another man. "Oh, thank God," he growled.

Then he was kissing her.

Author's Note: Next chapter this story will be moved to a MATURE RATING. So look for it there or bookmark this story. Also HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!