A/N: Ok, so I was trying to update, but everything I was writing just sucked and I didn't know what to do. So eventually I just wrote it all anyways, and I really don't know about this chapter. And I know you guys hate me because I tricked you into a false sense of Chlark security and now all I give you is angst, but hopefully I can make it work out so that it will all be worth it. :)

Oh, have I mentioned this chapter sucks? Read at your own discretion. lol.

Chapter 11

Chloe stared into her cup of coffee. Just friends. That's what he'd said he wanted to be. But could she really go back to doing that with him? Pretending like her feelings for him were strictly platonic? She'd done that for years, and at first, it had nearly killed her. She'd thought that she'd found a way to cope with it, but then they kissed and they were slowly moving together and everything was perfect. She wanted nothing more in the world than to go back in time and just relive those moments over and over. She didn't even like to think about the series of events that came afterward. The one that ended with their declarations of love being turned back around into friendship territory without any warning.

"I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend." The letter she had read to him all those years ago rang through her head. How could she go back to feeling the way she did in high school? After everything?

Somewhere in her thoughts, Lois had walked into the room completely unnoticed.

"Aren't you late for work?" she asked.

"I'm not going," Chloe sighed. Lois raised an eyebrow, but Chloe shook it off. "I'm just not feeling so well."

"I take it things didn't go so great with Clark?"

Chloe sighed. She didn't really want to talk about Clark right now, but Chloe knew that Lois was like her in that once she got her teeth in something, she didn't let go. When Chloe had told her that she was going to have the talk with Clark, she'd latched on. It had been the first big thing since she'd broken up with Clark and Lois had split with both Oliver and Jimmy. Chloe almost felt like she was about to break Lois's heart along with her own.

"He just wants to be friends," she said simply. She knew Lois was going to harass her about everything anyways. She didn't need to give all the details up front.

Lois looked at her like she didn't believe her. Like she actually didn't believe her. Because that was something that Chloe would just make up for the hell of it.

"No, he doesn't," was Lois's response.

Chloe wanted to sigh in frustration, but she figured she had sighed enough for one day. "Lo, I'm just telling you what you he told me."

"Well, he lied," she said.

"Does it really matter?" Chloe shook her head. "I can't be with him if he's resolved to not be with me."

Lois sat down next to her on the couch and put a hand on her shoulder. Chloe resisted the urge to turn around and start sobbing in her cousin's comforting shoulder. After the last couple of days she'd had, it was everything that she could do not to.

"I don't understand," Lois said, almost a whisper. "That boy would do anything for you. I mean, I especially thought after you'd told him about what happened with Jimmy…"

"About that," Chloe said, making Lois raise her eyebrow again. Lois really had that look down. "I didn't exactly tell him about that."

"What?" Lois asked. "Why not?"

"I didn't get the chance," Chloe said. "He basically came in and just said what he wanted to say. I didn't want to tell him after that because then it would be like I was guilting him back into a relationship."

"And that would be wrong, why?" Lois asked.

"Lo," Chloe said. "Clark's not like the guys from Metropolis that you go out with. If you jerk him around, he's bound to get hurt."

"You call that jerking him around?" Lois asked, a vindictive smile creeping across her face. "You should hear some of my stories."

"And that would help me how, exactly?"

"Chloe, why do you worry about hurting Clark so much when he obviously doesn't pay you the same regard?"

"Because he does," Chloe insisted. Lois stared at her for a second before she continued. "That's why he said what he did. He said that all he did was hurt me, and that it only made things worse that we were a couple. He said our friendship was too important to ever risk losing."

"And what about the Lana thing?"

"The Lana thing… it wasn't him," she said. "I mean, it was his fault, but at the same time it wasn't." The truth was she had forgiven Clark the moment Jimmy had kissed her. Something had snapped in her and she realized in her heart that it wasn't completely him. It had hurt her that Clark would have chosen Lana over her under any circumstances, but the fact that there was red kryptonite involved and he didn't have control over his inhibitions was wrong to just gloss over because she was hurt. "I can't really explain why he did the things he did, or why I can forgive him, but Clark's still this really great guy."

"I know that, Chloe," Lois said. "Clark is a wonderful guy. But just look at his track record. Either he subconsciously keeps himself from getting anything he wants, or he's just dumb as a doorpost."

At this, Chloe had to laugh. She figured it was probably a mixture of both, though. He did pull away whenever things got to close to him. She'd seen it happen with Lana again and again. She'd thought her relationship wouldn't self destruct like his with Lana had because there weren't all these lies between them, but it had, leading her to believe Clark just didn't handle relationships very well. Maybe he couldn't blame everything that went wrong in his life on where he came from; he could just as well be screwing some things up all on his own.

It didn't change his intentions, though. It was his warm, caring heart Chloe had fallen for. Even when he had been lying to her she could always feel something there, something that transcended whatever other problems were going on. It was the whole reason why she hadn't just bolted back in high school. He had pissed her off so many times, but despite all of her opportunities to do so, Chloe never decided that she was just done with Smallville. She had known that staying would be worth her while even if she couldn't explain it at the time.

Now she knew that it was pretty much Clark pulling her back each time. Sure, she loved Pete and Lana, and all of her friends in Smallville, but she didn't have that connection with them that she had with Clark.

She was beginning to wonder if maybe he just made everybody feel that way. It would explain why practically every girl he came into contact with, meteor freak or not, had fallen for him. Hell, he'd even charmed Lex Luthor for awhile, and when that friendship did come to an end, it had all been on Clark's terms. Clark had been lying to the face of one of the richest men in the world for years, and still Lex never would have left him, despite his downfall from decent human being, to whatever the hell he was now.

There was definitely something about Clark, but the fact was that he had chosen her. And then he had let her go…

When she finally pulled herself away from her thoughts, she noticed Lois with a very sympathetic look on her face. Obviously she needed to re-learn how to mask her feelings, because she'd apparently gotten very bad at it.

"I wish I could stay, but I do have work to get to," Lois said.

Chloe smiled. "Go," she said. "Stop worrying about me!"

"Well, that's just not going to happen," Lois shrugged as she left the apartment.

/

Lois couldn't figure it out. From an outside perspective, it was obvious Chloe and Clark had something very special. Why were they so content to let that go to waste? Why wasn't Clark fighting like hell for his woman, and why was Chloe just accepting the fact that he wasn't? They were both so afraid the relationship would fail that they couldn't see how strong it actually was. Sure, they'd get into fights and they'd hurt each other, but they'd get over it because they were and would always be head over heels for each other. Their denials and platonic assurances meant nothing in the end.

"Well, if Chloe and Clark aren't going to fight for Chloe and Clark, I'm going to have to fight for Chloe and Clark," she said out loud. She really needed to get out of the habit of talking to herself, but she was alone in the elevator, so it didn't really matter. Besides, she felt that that statement needed to be dramatic. These two people meant so much in her life, and she would do anything to make sure they got the happy ending they deserved.

Chloe was her cousin, but she was more like her sister. She'd been there through everything: her mother's death, trying to raise Lucy. She didn't know what she would have done without Chloe there. The only reason Lois had even come to Smallville was because she'd thought Chloe was dead, and the thought of that was nearly killing her.

And then there was Clark. Hopeless, naïve, idealistic, Clark. He had some issues, sure, but he was always there for his friends when they needed him… Lois included. Clark was with her the first time she'd faced the weird shit that went on in Smallville, and he'd even saved her life a few times. Now that she thought about it, actually… it was more than a few times. How the hell was Clark always there? But he was, and she couldn't fault him there.

As she reached her floor, she realized she was going to need a plan. She was going to find a way to make them happy if it killed them all. She reached her desk and instead of starting to work on her current story, she started brainstorming her plan.

"Step one," Lois wrote. "Revenge."

/

"Revenge," the word tasted bitter in Lex's mouth. Was that even really what he wanted? He wasn't so sure anymore. There was the stunt Clark pulled at Lex's engagement dinner with Lex's fiancée, but this was so much more than that. It was years of friendship culminating in lies and distrust that tore them apart.

Lex had always known in the back of his mind that someday, somehow, this would come to a head, but now that he'd actually admitted it to himself, he decided he needed this to be on his own terms. Everything in his friendship with the guy had been on Clark's terms. Clark decided how much Lex needed to know about him and Clark decided how close they were able to get. It was up to Clark to tell Lex what he was doing right and what he was doing wrong. And when Lex had finally been done with it all after the meteor shower, he gave Clark the opportunity to change things and Clark walked away.

Lex wasn't going to do things on Clark's terms anymore. He couldn't take the self-righteous boy scout coming at him with one more accusation of lying until he faced the truth. Lex needed answers, and he needed Clark to listen to him, but more than anything, Lex needed a modicum of control. He was the CEO of a billion dollar corporation, and the fact that a farmer's son from Smallville had done this to him more than got under his skin.

Maybe it wasn't exactly revenge Lex was after, but his plans would still work for what he wanted.

He looked down at the blueprints. He'd had his men build him a room for what he needed to do with Clark. He knew Clark wasn't normal—he couldn't possibly be normal—but he wasn't taking him anywhere near 33.1. Lex was so angry with Clark, but the thought of him being treated like one of those things did not sit well with Lex. Besides, 33.1 was too much his father's. He knew Clark and Lionel were somehow getting closer, but he shuddered at the idea of his father having control over him in that way.

The fact that Clark wasn't normal posed problems in their own way. The other mutants were easily taken down with drugs, but after the scene in the barn, he had some ideas about that, too. Everything was being set into motion, and Lex almost smiled at the feeling of being back in control.

/

"You are an idiot," came a voice behind him. He knew who it was; that was undeniable. But he didn't want to turn around. This was the last thing he needed right now. He was supposed to be reviewing the farm's annual budget, but he couldn't quite figure a couple things out.

Maybe you shouldn't have quit college, the incessant voice in Clark's mind said. He just didn't know how his dad had always done this. One of the neighbors had helped the previous year, but this year Clark was on his own, and he felt stupid. Supplies, feed, fertilizer… it was all starting to blur, and he decided he just couldn't be a farmer the rest of his life. He was way too restless for this.

He almost rolled his eyes as he turned around to face her. "What do you want, Lois?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to your mom and maybe borrow some eggs," Lois said, but Clark felt like that wasn't where she was going to leave it. If he knew anything about Lois she was here to talk to Clark about Chloe, and borrowing his eggs was like saying, "I was in the neighborhood." Granted, in Smallville, you're pretty much always in the neighborhood, but it still wasn't the reason she came over.

"So you want to talk to me about Chloe…" Clark said.

"Damn," Lois rolled her eyes. "When did you get so perceptive, anyways?"

"Well, I did just take my vitamins." He almost hoped it would warrant a laugh, but he knew better than that with her. With Lana, it might work like a charm, but Lois didn't grow up with small town humor.

"Ok, smartass," she said. "So, about Chloe…"

"We're fine," Clark said.

"So fine that my cousin is taking personal days to deal with being… fine," Lois offered.

Damn, Clark though. He really thought Chloe was fine with everything. Obviously, he'd been mistaken, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He'd meant everything he'd said to Chloe, and he still felt the same way. He loved her more than he'd loved anyone, but he just kept ruining things, and he didn't want to ruin Chloe. He wouldn't be able to live with himself.

"Maybe you could've done with some more vitamins last night," Lois said. Great, capitalize on the fact that Clark had tried to be funny and had failed miserably. That was exactly what he needed right now. "Because I think your Chloe meter was definitely off. She's anything but ok with this."

"But she said…"

"Clark, shut up," Lois cut him off. "Chloe's been practicing hiding her feelings from you for six years. It's almost automatic by now. And your little announcement last night kept Chloe from telling you something important."

/

Lois tried to read the emotions on Clark's face, but they were moving too fast for her to tell. Until he settled on anger, that is.

"I'm going to kill him," Clark said, and in that moment Lois saw so much of Jonathan Kent's temper in her son that it made her want to laugh. But she knew better than that. The last thing Clark wanted right now was to be laughed at after such a statement, however uncharacteristic it was.

"Don't worry," Lois said. "I've got everything covered on the Jimmy front."

Clark looked up at her, searching.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Believe me, he's going to wish he never crossed my cousin."