Coda - Epilogue

Epilogue

Through the storm we reach the shore
You gave it all, but I want more
And I’m waiting for you
With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you

-U2, With Or Without You

***

Clark sat in the loft, bouncing a ball between his feet. Lois had told him that she’d spoken to Chloe, who would be doing her work from Star City and e-mailing her stories to Perry for approval. Clark had waited two weeks before going to Star City himself, but he’d met an unyielding Oliver Queen at the door, who told him that Chloe wanted space from him, and would come back when she was good and ready.

 

He’d been ready to force the issue, until Oliver sat him down and told him what Chloe had said about being a better person without him. Every word had cut him to the core, but he also knew that Chloe was right. She had put him first for too long. He’d taken too much of her heart and her time, and not given enough in return. She was growing away from him, and as he now sat in the loft, bouncing the ball in a steady, unbroken rhythm, he knew that he’d never have Chloe in his life quite the same way.

 

It was like someone had died. Clark hadn’t felt this sort of grief since his father had passed away two years before, and what he felt now was almost that bad. The only consolation he could offer himself was that Chloe was alive, and he could see her, and maybe someday she’d forgive him enough to at least be a casual friend again.

 

Lana came up the stairs, sitting next to him, wrapping her jacket closed. They shared silence, as they had been doing for awhile now, until she finally broke it.

 

“I have something to say,” Lana said, “but I don’t know how it’ll make you feel.”

 

“You want honesty above all else, don’t you?” Clark asked. “So do I.”

 

“The truth is, I did want you to pull away from Chloe, so you’d be closer to me, but I never wanted this to happen, Clark. I never wanted you to completely lose her.”

 

Clark wrapped an arm around her. Lana, he’d always found, was easy to forgive. “I know.”

 

“Are we okay?” she asked, sounding unusually timid.

 

Clark nodded. “Yeah. We’re okay.”

 

Lana leaned into him, and they watched the day begin to fade, together, but they both wondered, to themselves, how long their happiness could last.

 

 

Six Months Later
The Daily Planet had never looked so good to Chloe Sullivan. She stood out front, looking at the revolving doors moved continuously in the morning rush, as people came to work, passing those who’d worked the night shift that were leaving bleary-eyed and tired. She’d driven into Metropolis from Star City, but it wasn’t until now, as she prepared to enter, that she felt she’d truly come home.

 

Lois came bounding out of the doors, all smiles, and swept her into a tight hug. “Welcome back, cuz!” Lois said, her voice a little shaky.

 

Chloe hugged her tightly. “Thanks, Lois. Are you crying?”

 

“No, don’t be silly!” Lois said, unconvincingly. “It’s the cold wind, irritating my eyes.”

 

“I see,” Chloe said, winking.

 

“Perry’s thrilled that the Daily Planet’s star reporter has come home to nest. Three front page stories in the past six months, not to mention bylines galore. I’m proud of you, Chloe.”

 

“Not jealous?” Chloe asked.

 

“Jealous as hell, but still proud. There’s going to be cake today at lunch, if you don’t mind coming back downstairs to eat it. Jimmy’s hoping to see you too.”

 

“I’ll be there with bells on,” Chloe said. “Seen Lex?”

 

“Not for the past few days,” said Lois. “I’d knee him in the nuts if he wasn’t my boss. You’re not going to go back to—”

 

“No. I made that clear to him on the phone last night. He wants me to keep the apartment.”

 

“But you’re not, right?”

 

Chloe shook her head. “Hell no. I’m not giving him anymore rope to hang me with. I don’t want to owe him anything—ever—and I’m not going to give him the chance to manipulate me again.”

 

“Good girl,” said Lois. She winked at her cousin, and they headed inside.

 

For the first time since she’d started at the Daily Planet, Chloe didn’t head for the stairs to the basement, but the elevators, with the other reporters, where she rode up to the fifteenth floor.

 

****

With a belly full of cake, Chloe stepped onto the roof of the Daily Planet. She needed air, and it was one of her favorite places to get some smog-filled air. She looked out over the city, which bustled along with so many lives tangled together, yet somehow never really touching. She heard the door behind her open, and turned, expecting to see Lois. It was Clark, instead.

 

It was the moment she’d been both anticipating and dreading the most. How would he react? What would he say, and what would he expect of her? He looked scared to approach, but she offered a smile, and he came closer, standing awkwardly beside her, he offered a hand for a shake. Chloe bypassed it to hug him, and she squeezed her so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe.

 

She didn’t complain. It felt good not to be angry with him for a change. It felt liberating to be able to hug him, and not want anything more from him than the hug that he offered.

 

“I’m glad you’re back,” Clark said. “I’ve missed you.”

 

“I’ve missed you too.”

 

“You have?”

 

“You can’t love someone like I loved you, and not miss them when you’re apart.”

 

“Loved,” Clark said, stepping back. He looked so wounded. “Past tense, huh?”

 

“I’m over you, Clark,” she said, not unkindly. “But I still love you, and I want to be friends again, if you want that.”

 

“Of course it’s what I want. It’s what I came to ask for.”

 

“How are things with you and Lana?”

 

“Same as always.”

 

“You’re happy?”

 

Clark didn’t answer right away, and Chloe realized he was right. It was the same with him and Lana, but this time she was determined not to let either of them use her as the rope in their constant tug of war.

 

“Yes,” he finally said. Chloe didn’t believe him, any more than he believed himself.

 

They spent some time together, looking down on the city below, enjoying the silence, and enjoying the feel of being together again without all the pain and anger that had been there before she’d gone to Star City. Time was limited for Chloe, though, and eventually, she had to bring their reunion to an end.

 

“Well, lunch is over, and I have a lot to get done. Thanks for coming to see me, Clark,” she said, pulling away, and heading for the door.

 

“Chloe, will we ever be able to get back to where we were?”

 

Chloe paused with her hand on the door to the roof exit. She looked back at Clark, thought about how things were before, and how good they could be again with some proper boundaries, and without her delusions that he’d ever fall in love with her, and shook her head no.

 

“No, but that’s a good thing, for both of us. I’ve got to get back to the bullpen, Clark. I have stories to tell.”

 

Clark looked resigned to the fact that that while they may become friends again, it would never be quite the same as before. They’d never have the same kind of closeness, and the bond would never be as strong again. Maybe Chloe was right. Maybe that was a good thing. For her, at least.

 

“See you around?” she asked, sensing his sadness.

 

Clark nodded. “I’m always around, Chloe.”

 

Chloe smiled and went back inside, pulling the door closed firmly behind her.

 

 

Start over on Chapter 1

Coda Part 6

6.

Oliver Queen had exquisite taste, but Chloe didn’t care for the ultra modern, futuristic look. She examined the room—everything was computerized, state-of-the-art, impersonal, and sterile. But she didn’t live here, she didn’t plan to stay for very long.

It was after midnight, and Star City twinkled beneath her, while behind her, Oliver bustled about at the bar, mixing a drink. He brought one over to her, bourbon, straight. She took it, but didn’t drink.

“Wanna tell me what you’re doing with Lex Luthor?”

“You’re a big boy, Oliver, you know what I was doing.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said shortly. “How could you, Chloe? Revenge against Clark for falling for Lana?”

Chloe turned her gaze on Oliver, and he leaned away from her. It enraged her when people spoke of things they didn’t understand like they were experts on the subject.

“You know nothing about me.”

“Before tonight, I would have disagreed. Now? I totally agree. I never would have believed you capable of going to Lex.”

Chloe sat the drink down on the nearest table and started for the door. It wouldn’t open.

“You’re staying here,” Oliver said.

“You can’t hold me captive, Oliver. You don’t have to right to keep me here against my will.”

Oliver shrugged. “I may not have the right, but that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”

If looks could kill, Oliver realized he’d be a corpse on the floor. Chloe went to a computer console and began tapping keys.

“I had your pass code disabled,” Oliver said.

“Of course you did,” said Chloe, a Luthor-like smirk on her lips. “I’m not using mine. I’m using yours.”

“I changed mine too.”

“You’d be a fool if you didn’t,” Chloe said. Oliver watched her tapping away, unconcerned, sipping his drink. He almost choked when the door slid open a few seconds later. Chloe looked at him.

“I’m not Watchtower for nothing.”

Oliver rushed over, hit a button on the wall, and a red light flashed, but Chloe only laughed as the doors closed shut. She waved at him before she disappeared from sight.

“What a woman,” Oliver said, shaking his head. He had to admire her style, even if it annoyed him. He attempted to get back into the system, but Chloe had locked him out. Now he had one option left. Rushing across the room, he grabbed a small crossbow, and then entered a second emergency elevator, but it refused to budge.

“Damn.” He quickly pulled off a panel and did some quick rewiring, and soon the elevator was dropping—a little too quickly for Oliver’s comfort—to the lobby. He rushed out and onto the street to see Chloe climbing into a taxi. She smirked as it drove by, but he lifted the arrow and shot out the rear two tires before slipping the bow into his back pocket.

The taxi stopped, and the driver jumped out to find out what had gone wrong with his car. Oliver hurried to the door and yanked it open, pulling Chloe out.

“I’m not the Green Arrow for nothing,” he said, just loud enough for Chloe to hear, and hauled her back toward the lobby. The taxi driver eyed them, wondering if Chloe was in danger or not, and thankfully she didn’t ask the taxi driver for help, like Oliver expected her to, but maybe she did want help, at least on some level, and as long as there was a chance she did, Oliver would give it to her.

Back upstairs, Oliver let go of Chloe’s arm. “Do I need to put padlocks on all the doors?”

Chloe shrugged. “Wouldn’t do you any good. Lois taught me how to pick locks when I was ten.”

“Fine. I’ll call for guards, but you’re staying here. And you’re giving me a blood sample.”

“Like hell.”

“I’m testing your blood,” Oliver said, “whether you like it or not, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

“Where do you get off, butting into my life like this?”

“That’s what friends do, in case you didn’t notice.”

Chloe paced the floor, feeling caged and claustrophobic. “I don’t want your help, Oliver. I didn’t ask for it, and I don’t need it. I know you think Lex has been drugging me. That’s why you took the champagne, so you can test it, but I’m not drugged. I’m finally waking up.”

Oliver sat down, weighing his next words.

“Chloe, its one thing to get angry, and to use that anger to change your life for the better, but it’s another to do what you’re doing. Sleeping with your worst enemy just to piss Clark off? That’s not like you. Something is wrong here, and I—”

“You wanna know why I slept with Lex the first time?” Chloe interrupted, going to stand in front of him. “I was horny.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“It’s true. I was horny, and he was there, and that’s the long and short of it.”

“If you wanted a man, you could have found anybody but him.”

“Yeah, but Lex was convenient.”

“You’re lying.”

Chloe laughed. “If that’s what you need to believe to make this easier for you, fine.”

“Okay,” Oliver said after awhile. “If the first time was just physical, why keep it up?”

“Lex is the best I’d ever had…and I knew it would really piss Clark off.”

Oliver looked disappointed. “I thought better of you, Chloe.”

“Well, I guess I’ve let you down. Now you know the truth, call me a cab, and this time don’t shoot out the tires.”

“So you’ll just go back to Metropolis, back to your job, back to Lex?”

“Yep.”

“Nope,” Oliver countered. “Not until I’m sure you’re not being drugged, or forced into anything. Now let’s get that blood sample.”

“I’m not giving you any blood.”

“Fine, then I guess I’ll have to take it.”

Chloe was rocked back as Oliver’s fist collided with her mouth, hard enough to make her lip bleed, but not hard enough to do serious damage. She tasted blood, and he roughly put a napkin to it to absorb it.

“That oughtta do it,” said Oliver. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who wanted to do this the hard way.”

“You hit me! You son of a bitch!” Chloe shouted, hauling off and hitting Oliver as hard as she could.

He took the hit well and wiped blood from his own mouth. He started to leave, but Chloe was so enraged, she didn’t stop at one hit. She kept hitting, kicking, and before she knew it, she was a sobbing mess on the floor, with Oliver’s arms around her. She clung to him, because he felt strong and stable, while her emotions were a whirlwind that threatened to tear her apart.

“Feel better?” he asked, when she’d begun to calm.

“No.”

“You will,” Oliver promised. “In time.”

****

Chloe curled up on Oliver’s bed. Her lip healed within seconds, but Oliver had a busted lip and a black eye forming. Her head was throbbing, and she felt drained. Her emotions had been raw and on the surface for weeks, and she felt as though she were going crazy. Oliver called for his personal physician, who gave her a shot of something that helped her pain, and helped her drift off to sleep.

It was nine in the morning when she awoke the next day. She showered, put on some clothes Oliver had ordered for her that fit her perfectly, and went into the main sitting room. Oliver had breakfast on the table, but the thought of eating made her stomach churn. She settled for orange juice instead.

“You were being drugged,” Oliver said, slapping a sheet of paper onto the table. “Toxicology report. You’ve got a psychotropic drug in your system, mixed with red meteor rock. It was made to lower your inhibitions and leave you open to suggestion.”

Chloe stared at the report, numb.

“It heightens your emotional state, which explains your erratic feelings and heightened sexual desire.”

“Lex didn’t make suggestions,” she said, but then she remembered little comments he’d made about how Clark had wronged her, and how it would be good to get revenge.

“I see from the look on your face that maybe he did. Feel sick?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“The doc left these for you. They’ll help with the nausea and the headaches while you withdraw.”

Oliver put a brown prescription bottle on the table. Chloe swallowed one and put her head down.

“I’ll call Clark. He’ll be glad to—”

“No,” Chloe said. “I don’t want you to call Clark.”

“Why not?”

Chloe looked up at Oliver. Despite her physical discomfort, she’d never felt so calm, and focused, and liberated. “I owe Lex a debt of gratitude.”

Oliver looked as though Chloe had hit him again. “Come again?”

“I know he was using me to get at Clark, but it was because of what he did that I made some really positive changes in my life. I finally let go of every hurt I’d ever held inside. I finally stood up for myself. I started putting my career first, instead of Clark, and I finally got to see what life without his constant demands could be like. Lex’s motives were selfish, but he liberated me, Oliver. I’m doing better at work, and I’m no longer carrying around all the pain Clark’s made me feel over the years. If this hadn’t happened, I’d still be in the basement of the Daily Planet, still hoping that one day Clark would break up with Lana, and fall for me instead of some other girl. I’d still be hoping that he’d finally appreciate me. I’d still be dropping everything in my life to solve his problems as soon as he breezed into the room, even if that meant making my own work suffer. I’m a better person because of all this. I’m a better person…without Clark.”

Oliver sat back, looking at her with a strange expression of confusion mixed with surprise. “So...you never want to reconnect with Clark?”

Chloe shook her head. “Someday, but not right now. I need space from Clark, before I end up falling back into the same old routine. You could help me with that.”

“How?”

“Let me stay here, in Star City. I can act as a journalist abroad. I know Perry would let me submit my work via e-mail. I’d still have my job at the Planet, I’d be able to do more work for you as Watchtower, and I’d have the space I need from Clark.”

Oliver sipped his juice and thought it over. “Wouldn’t I be replacing Clark, in a lot of ways?”

“Hmm…” she said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Stay here, as long as you want,” Oliver said. He reached out and took her hand. “Concentrate on your job, and don’t worry about me, but only on one condition. You never have anything to do with Lex Luthor again.”

Chloe smiled. “Deal.”

Feeling warmth spread from his hand, where Chloe held it, through his arm and up to his face, Oliver reached up and probed his lip and eye.

They were completely healed.

Epilogue

Coda Part 5

5.

“She has to be getting drugged,” Clark said, pacing the living room. This had been one of the worst nights of his life. The things Chloe had said had hurt Clark like hell—because nothing quite hurt like the truth. He remembered every word, and when he tried to come up with a defense, he couldn’t.

He and Chloe had gotten so close after she learned his secret. They’d even become a couple in every way that mattered, except for sex. He’d loved her, had even wanted to try going to the next level, but Jimmy had gotten in the way. He thought now that maybe he should have fought for her.

But he hadn’t fought for her. He’d gone back to trying to get the perfect life with Lana, because that had been the dream he’d so stubbornly held on to. He was happy with Lana, that was true, but was he as complete with her as he had been during the year and a half when it had just been him and Chloe in on his secret? He didn’t think so, now that he viewed that part of his life in retrospect.

In many ways, he thought he’d been a lousy friend, even then. Chloe had waited and waited for him, and then decided to think of her own happiness by giving a relationship with Jimmy Olsen a shot, and how had he behaved? Like a jealous schoolboy. He’d put a dampener on her happiness, because he was being selfish, trying to keep her to himself. In fact, now that he looked back on it, he’d been rude to anyone who showed Chloe interest, or had been willing to openly see her as the beautiful woman she was.

Now she was with his worst enemy. He blamed himself for everything Lana ever did wrong, and now he was doing the same regarding Chloe because he felt it really was his fault. He had replaced Chloe with Lana—in every way. After the closeness he and Chloe had shared, he’d turned his back on her as soon as Lana came back into his life. Even when Chloe was with Jimmy, she’d always put him first,.

She always put me first…

Guilt was like a gnawing, clawing animal in his guts. He’d always taken for granted that Chloe put him first in her life, to the detriment of everything else—her love life, her career, everything. He hadn’t been willing to do the same. Instead, as soon as Lana and a perfect domestic life had come within reach, he’d all but turned his back on Chloe, putting her not just second in his heart, but last. He had Kara in his life too, and he'd gotten so wrapped up in dealing with her that Chloe had been shifted to the bottom of the list-unless he needed something. Then she was the first one he ran to.

“Clark?”

Lana stood in the kitchen entrance, watching him. He felt a sudden rush of dislike for her, but reined it in immediately. It wouldn't be fair to blame Lana for his failures. She didn’t tell him to turn his back on Chloe.

But she didn’t tell me that maybe I should be a better friend to Chloe, either.

He’d always known that Lana was a little insecure about his friendship with Chloe. She’d always known that he shared something with Chloe that no sexual relationship could ever quite compare to. Maybe Lana had been aware of just how much he was hurting Chloe by pulling away from her. Had she intentionally seduced him into breaking his dinner date with Chloe that night, to drive a wedge between them?

“The night I was supposed to take Chloe out to dinner. You insisted I stay home with you. Why? Why not let me go hang out with my best friend for one night?”

Lana looked pissed. “You can’t blame this on me, Clark. If you really wanted to go out with Chloe that night, you could have told me no.”

“If I recall correctly, I did tell you no. Four times.”

“But I badgered you into it, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes,” he said. He was angry, and getting angrier.

Lana approached him slowly. “You’re trying to have two best friends, Clark, and that’s a hard thing to do, especially if they’re both women who’re in love with you, and want you for the same reason. You made your choice, and it was me, now Chloe can’t deal with it.”

“You can’t either, can you? You can’t deal with me wanting to spend time with Chloe.”

“I can deal. I won’t lie and say I like it. Would you want me hanging out with a man you knew was in love with me?”

“If he was as good a friend to you as Chloe had been to me, yes.”

“Even if you thought that maybe I returned his feelings, at least on some level?”

“I know you're talking about you and Lex, Lana, but there's a big difference with your friendship with Lex, and mine with Chloe. You know I’m not going to cheat on you with Chloe, and you know she's not trying to break us up, the way Lex had been.”

“The question is would you want me with a male friend like that, even if he wasn't trying to break us up?”

“If he meant to you what Chloe meant to me, then I’d want you to hang on to that friendship, even if it meant leaving me sometimes to hang out with him, yes. It’s very rare to have a friend like Chloe, Lana. If you’d ever had a friend like that, you’d know how important it is to stay connected with them.”

He started for the door. Lana was suddenly the last person he wanted to be around now.

“Where are you going?”

“To find Chloe.”

“How? She doesn’t live with Lois anymore, and you don't have her new address.”

“I can pick her heartbeat out of every heartbeat in Metropolis. I can single out her voice, I know what her breathing sounds like.”

Lana looked hurt to hear this. “Can you do that for…me?”

But Clark was gone, and seconds later, he stood in front of the Daily Planet. He allowed it all to come in, every sound in the city. He heard every car, every cat meow, dog bark, every scream, every song, every word, every sound of passion and violence, every laugh, every breath. Chloe wasn’t in the Daily Planet, so he relaxed, and allowed himself to filter everything out until he heard that familiar heart rhythm, or that familiar breath, or that most familiar voice. He finally found her, crying, and still focusing on her, he ran for the sound of her voice.

She was in a high-rise across from Oliver Queen’s place. He was about to force his way into the building and go up, but he heard a second voice—Lex Luthor.

“You need to forget Clark, Chloe. He’s obviously forgotten you. He never really cared about you. He just settled for being with you whenever he couldn't have Lana.”

Clark made his way to Oliver’s place and went to a wall that afforded him a view of Chloe’s place, even though there was no window. She was sitting on the bed, naked, her hair wet from a shower. Lex pulled off his coat and sat next to her, rubbing her back, a look of wicked glee in his eyes that Chloe couldn’t see. Seeing Lex with his hands on Chloe, filling her head with lies, made Clark’s blood boil. He had to make conscious effort not to blast heat through Oliver’s wall.

“I know that,” Chloe said.

“And it hurts like hell, I know," Lex said soothingly. It made Clark's teeth grind hard together. "Come here. Let me comfort you.”

Lex turned Chloe’s face toward him, eased her onto her back, and put a hand boldly between her legs and kissed her deeply.

“No!” Clark shouted, filled with disgust and anger. His hands nearly broke through the plaster as he watched Lex violate Chloe.

“Clark?” Oliver was there, coming to stand beside him. “Something wrong with my wall?”

But Clark could barely hear Oliver. Lex was trailing kisses down Chloe’s stomach. Her heartbeat increased, her breaths came quicker, more evenly as she stopped crying and gave in to the lust Lex’s touch aroused in her. Clark was almost sure he could smell her, even from here.

“Clark!”

Clark looked away. He couldn’t watch anymore, he couldn’t watch Lex unzipping his trousers and thrusting into Chloe. He looked at Oliver’s face instead.

“Oliver. What are you doing here?”

 

“I live here,” Oliver said dryly. “Lois called me, said there was an emergency she needed help fixing, but wouldn’t say what it was over the phone. What are you doing here, Clark? Are you peeping at someone across the—”

“It’s Chloe. She’s with Lex. She’s letting him…letting him…”

Oliver’s brows had never gotten closer to his hairline. “Our Chloe? Chloe Sullivan? She’s having sex with Lex Luthor? No. I don’t believe it.”

“See for yourself.” Clark said, pointing at the wall.

“I would, if I could see through walls, but I can’t, Clark. Come here, have a drink.”

“Alcohol doesn’t affect me.”

“Okay, then I’ll have a drink.”

Oliver poured himself a scotch and downed it in one, then poured another. He was starting to look angry. “Chloe and Lex. What’s she thinking?”

“It’s my fault,” Clark said.

“How so?”

He began to explain everything that had happened between him and Chloe over the past few months. Oliver listened quietly, and shook his head.

“It’s her choice,” Oliver said. “It’s not your fault.”

“I drove her to him, just like I did Lana! Don’t try to absolve me of this.”

“Let’s crash their little party,” Oliver said, finishing his second scotch. He walked around behind Clark and surprised him by hopping onto his back.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I need a ride. I don’t feel like going green, and I can’t keep up with you, so run. Don’t feel self-conscious. Bart gives me zippy lifts all the time.”

He clapped Clark on his shoulder a couple of times.

“Giddyup, cowboy.”

“I don’t think Chloe wants company right now.”

“Too bad for her. We’re heroes, Clark, and there’s a damsel in distress that needs saving. A damsel we both care about very much, so go.”

Clark didn’t need more urging. He made sure Oliver was secure, and then took off at top speed.

****

Clark

unceremoniously broke the lock on the door and pushed it open. At once both he and Oliver could hear Lex and Chloe straining to reach climax, and just as they crossed the living room they did.

“First, you’ve got to calm down, Clark, before you do something you'll regret,” Oliver said, seeing the rage in Clark’s face, but Clark pushed past Oliver, ignoring his advice, and pushed the bedroom door open. He was ready to break Lex’s neck. The smug sneer on Lex’s face didn’t do anything to ease that violent feeling in Clark, neither did the livid expression on Chloe’s face.

“Sorry, Clark, but you’re a bit late. Chloe’s made it clear she won’t be part of a ménage a trois. Oh, Oliver, I didn’t see you.”

“Get up, Lex.”

“I’ll need a few minutes for that one, I’m a bit spent at the moment.”

“Get out, both of you!” Chloe shouted.

Clark started forward, actually growling with rage, but Oliver jumped between them, while Chloe disentangled herself from Lex and pulled a sheet up to cover herself. “Wait a second, Clark! Lex, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get up now. Chloe, get dressed. You, come with me.”

Oliver urged Clark toward the door so Chloe and Lex could get dressed in private. A few minutes later Lex emerged, fully dressed, smelling strongly of sweat, and Chloe’s juices. Clark pushed past him to go into the bedroom, where Chloe stared out of her window at the clock tower apartment Oliver used when in Metropolis, wrapped tightly in her sheets.

“You have Ollie with you,” Chloe said softly. “I’m guessing you were in his apartment, watching me, and he convinced you to barge in here, unwanted.”

“…you drugging Chloe, Lex?” Oliver was saying in the next room. "Because that's the only way she'd ever let you into her bed."

“I didn’t need to drug her. Clark did all the set up work for me.”

“Get out, Lex,” Oliver said, disgusted.

“Do you hear that, Chloe? Lex is just using you to get at me. Why can't you see that?”

“You think I don't know that? I was using him, to get at you too. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement,” she said. Her voice was oddly flat. It was unsettling.

“Would you at least go and wash his stink off yourself?” Clark asked.

Chloe snorted. "Go to hell, Clark," she said, as she heard the door close behind Lex; she was relieved he was gone. She wasn’t sure what Clark might do to Lex, as angry as he was now.

“I know I haven’t been the perfect friend, Chloe, but you’re going too far.”

“I thought I told you and Lana to stay out of my life, that I didn’t want anything to do with you ever again. What’s your problem with all of this, really, Clark?”

Chloe stood and faced him. Clark couldn’t avoid looking her over this time. She was freshly fucked and beautiful. Her skin was flushed and covered in sweat. It was Lex’s scent all over her that sickened Clark and ruined the effect.

“Did you ever stop to consider that I’m a woman and not some soulless tool that you can use to do your thinking in a crisis? Did it ever occur to you that I have needs, feelings, and desires, the same as you, or Lana?”

“Of course I know that.”

"Why didn't you ever see that, then? No, wait. I already know the answer to that one: Lana. Just...why are you still coming around?”

“I’m trying to be your friend, Chloe.”

“We don’t have a friendship anymore. I look at you now, Clark, and I feel so much disgust and disappointment. You just seem like such a fool to me. A self-absorbed fool. All you ever cared about is what I could give you, what I could do for you."

"That's just not true, Chloe," Clark said, somewhat weakly. Chloe had never said such things to him before. He was almost invincible, and he never would have believed it was possible for such a small woman to hurt him so much with nothing but her words. For all his strength, he felt like the weakest man alive, listening to the person who'd been his best friend using all the right words to beat him down, and cut his heart.

"I don't know what I ever saw in you. I don’t know why I wasted so many years of my life pining away after you, believing the little hints you would drop that you were just about ready to take our friendship to the next level. That maybe, someday, you'd give me a chance. That just maybe, someday, you'd try to love me the way that I'd always loved you.”

Clark looked down. He had been guilty of just that, of keeping her in his back pocket, so that if someone else ever came along, she’d still put him first above them.

"I hate you for that," she whispered. She meant those words. He could see it in her eyes. "Leave, Clark. Get out of my life, and stay out."

“Clark,” Oliver said from the doorway. He was looking across the room, rather than at Chloe. “Maybe you should just go, like she asked.”

Clark looked at Chloe and he knew that this time, she wasn’t going to forgive. This time, he couldn’t talk her out of her anger. There was too much hurt that had been built up over years, not just the past few months, and it had all come crashing down with a little help and attention from Lex Luthor. But maybe it would have even without Lex. People can only hold in their hurts for so long before they either confronted them, or were destroyed by them. Clark would rather have Chloe confront these things, than let them destroy her. People grew apart, he realized, and he could feel Chloe slipping from him.

I’ve lost her, Clark thought. This time it was for real. She was gone. She really wasn’t his friend anymore, and he felt as though part of his soul had just died.

He moved too quickly for either Chloe or Oliver to fully comprehend until he was gone from the room, leaving a breeze behind him. Oliver finally looked at Chloe, and she realized he had a bottle of champagne from the bar Lex had stocked in his hand.

“Take a shower and get dressed, Chloe. You’re coming with me.”

Chapter 6

Coda Part 4

4.

Lois took the news that Chloe had been promoted much the same way she’d take the news that she’d have to have a root canal. Chloe knew that it wasn’t so much that Lois didn’t want her to get the promotion, as much as she hated losing.

“I suppose you think this is because of Lex and me?”

Lois looked Chloe in the eye. “I think it’s because you’re a great reporter who got the job under your own merit. I just don’t like coming in last. First Jimmy, now you. I guess I’ll be the last one out of here, when I’m sixty.”

“You’ll b up there with me in no time. You’ll see.”

“I’ll help you pack up.”

Chloe and Lois found boxes and started packing away Chloe’s things. “It’s amazing how much junk I’ve got in this desk.”

“Have you told Clark about your promotion, or your new digs?”

“Why would I? He wouldn’t give a damn.”

“You should tell him because he’s your friend. Look, I know he’s been wrapped up in Lana lately, and you don’t see him like you used to, but that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly your enemy.”

“This isn’t something that’s been happening just lately, Lois. Look, I don’t want to get into this right—Lex.”

Lois followed Chloe’s gaze. Lex stood at the steps across the room, looking at Chloe, who felt her thighs quiver with anticipation, and her stomach flipped at the smirk on his lips. Lois didn't fail to notice that when Lex's eyes flicked to her, they looked unbearably smug.

"I really hate that guy," Lois said. "Chloe, rethink what you're doing. Don't-"

"Lois, we've been through this," Chloe said quietly, so none of the other fledgling reporters could hear what she was saying. Gossip traveled fast, and she didn't want to spark rumors about her and Lex.

“Lex is giving me a lift to the Talon,” Chloe said. “I have a few things to pick up and take to my new place.”

“You're making possibly the biggest mistake of your life, being with him," Lois said.

She had such pleading in her eyes that for a moment Chloe wanted to give in and promise she'd break it off with Lex. But then she thought of Clark, and she was filled with bitterness again, and she'd be damned if she stopped seeing Lex now.

"I’ll finish here,” said Lois, seeing Chloe's eyes harden again. “Will I see you any at all this weekend?”

“Sunday, my new place for dinner. I won’t forget you, I promise.”

Lois caught Chloe by the arm as she moved to pass. “Don’t have sex with him on my bed.”

“I won’t.”

“Or the couch—”

“—okay—”

“—or the kitchen—”

“—I won’t—”

“—not in the bathroom either—”

“—Lois—”

“I’m just sayin.’”

Chloe prized her arm from Lois’s grip and started for Lex, shaking her head. They didn’t touch one another, or even speak to one another, but Lois had a feeling that once they were in the back of that limo—

She shivered with disgust, and started formulating a plan to get her cousin out from under Lex Luthor’s spell. A familiar face came to mind, and she smiled. She knew just who to call.

****

Lex’s body was almost totally hairless. He was smooth, and soft in all the right places. She liked his hands, though. They were large and manly, and somehow they were rough, despite the lack of physical labor in his life. He was cupping her ass as she rode him, helping her stay balanced as the limo took a tight curve. His tongue flicked out to tease her nipples as she bounced enthusiastically on his lap, and then climaxed in time with Lex.

If Clark knew I was fucking Lex Luthor, Chloe thought with malicious glee, he’d shit himself.

She found herself laughing while Lex’s lips grazed her throat.

“What’s so funny?”

“I wonder how Clark would feel if he knew about us.”

“And that made you laugh?”

She climbed off of him and fixed her underwear before pulling her skirt down. She wore skirts a lot lately, to make it easier to fuck Lex spur of the moment.

“Ever wonder how Lana would react?” he asked, pouring her some champagne. It was her favorite brut, which he kept stocked in her new apartment and in the car, just for her. It made her eyes water at the potency.

“I don’t think she’d give a damn, to be honest,” Chloe said. Lex’s eyes became hooded.

“Want me to come up?” he asked.

“No, I just have a few things. I won’t be a minute.”

The car pulled up in front of the Talon and Chloe jumped out, heading inside. Lana and Clark were there, and it looked as though they’d been waiting to ambush her. She passed by them, and Lana’s smile turned quickly to a frown.

“I’m not looking for a fight,” Chloe said, passing them. “Just leave me alone.”

Chloe saw Lana hold Clark back, and she was surprised by the anger she felt from that one simple move. She hated both of them in that moment.

****

“Chloe smells like…sex,” Clark said, his face pinched.

“Clark,” Lana said, holding his arm to stop him from going after Chloe. “Did you smell that aftershave on her?”

“I smelled more than aftershave on her.”

“It’s Lex’s.”

Clark’s head whipped around from the apartment and Chloe’s diminishing form to look at Lana.

“Lex?”

“He’s parked outside. I thought I saw her get out of his car.”

Clark saw the stretch limo out on the curb, and fury like he’d never known in his life set his blood on fire. He pulled free of Lana’s grasp and headed for the stairs.

****

Chloe entered the Talon apartment and headed for her side of the closet she'd shared with Lois. All of the clothes she hadn't moved into her new place hung there. It was strange, picking them out to move to her own place. A place she'd share a great deal of the time with a man she never thought she could tolerate, let alone accept as her lover. When she came back through to the living room, she saw Lana and Clark in the doorway.

“Where’ve you been?” Clark demanded. “Who’ve you been with?”

Chloe tried to move past him to get a bag she’d left on the counter, but Clark grabbed her arm. He wasn’t letting her walk away this time.

“Tell me!”

“Clark!” Lana said, watching Clark grip Chloe’s arm tightly.

“It’s none of—”

“WHERE!”

“Fine, you want to know? I’ve been fucking Lex Luthor in the back of his limousine, and I loved every second of it!” Chloe shouted, feeling herself give in to the seething rage she’d felt building for weeks.

Clark was breathing through his nostrils like an old winded dog, and Chloe could swear his eyes were starting to glow. She also knew that she was going to have one hell of a bruise on her arm where he gripped her—at least for a few minutes, before her meteor power healed her. She pulled her arm and he let her go. Lana looked as though Chloe had kicked her in the gut, and that brought Chloe some small measure of satisfaction. She'd had the persistent feeling that Lana wasn't quite as over Lex as she claimed to be.

“You’re screwing Lex?" Clark said. "He’s our worst enemy and you’re—How could you do this!”

“It's none of your business.”

"Look, Chloe, Clark and I are because we're concerned about you," Lana started. Chloe let out a short, ugly laugh.

"I'll just bet you are, Lana. Do me a favor, and at least stop pretending like you give a damn about me."

Clark spoke over Lana's reply, saying, “I don't know how you managed to forget, but Lex is no good, Chloe, and I’m not going to stand by and let him hurt you the same way he did Lana.”

"Where was all this concern when I needed it?” Chloe asked.

“Look, I know I haven’t been a good friend this past month but having sex with—”

“Month?” she said, feeling tears sting her eyes. “This has been going on a lot longer than a month, Clark. As soon as Lana came back you were gone. Where were you when I need to talk about breaking up with Jimmy? I told you about it and you turned your back on me! What about being my personal bomb squad?” Chloe realized she was about to divulge her biggest secret to Lana, but she didn’t care. “I’ve been dealing with this meteor power all on my own and you haven’t done a goddamn thing to help me understand it. I never see you unless you need something, and since she’s been back you haven’t even come to me for that! I’m not blind, Clark, I can see what’s happening. You have Lana now, to be your lover, and now she’s your best friend. She’s everything to you, and I’m nothing.”

Clark looked duly abashed, and Chloe rounded on Lana, who was looking at Chloe as though she expected her to turn green, or grow an extra pair of eyes in the center of her forehead.

“You always had his heart, but that wasn’t enough for you, was it, Lana? You had to take his friendship too, so that I’m left with nothing.”

"All right, that's enough!" Lana shouted. "Chloe, I've never wanted to take Clark's friendship from you!"

"You keep saying that, Lana," Chloe sneered, "and I'm sure it won't be too hard to convince Clark of it. After all, he's always believed everything you say without question, hasn't he?"

To Clark, Chloe looked so small and wounded, standing there with her clothes held to her chest like a flimsy shield, tears streaming down her face. Looking at her broke Clark's heart, and he wanted to reach out to her, but he knew Chloe wouldn't allow it. Somehow, reaching out to her now seemed pitifully inadequate, like he was a day late, or a dollar short. She turned her attention back to him.

“I know you, Clark, and I know you don't forget things. I know you didn’t forget our dinner date that night. You just chose to be with her instead of me, and you didn’t even care enough about my feelings to call.”

“Chloe, I’m sorry—”

“Get out!” she shouted. Anger was replacing self-pity and hurt. She dropped the clothes on the floor and pointed to the open doorway behind Clark and Lana. “Get out of this apartment, get out of my life! I never want to see either of you again. We're not friends anymore, so stop coming around and pretending like we are!”

“Clark, come on," Lana said, pulling on Clark's arm. She looked as though she had better things to do and just wanted to leave.

He looked numb, pale, and moved as though he was blind and needed someone to guide him, taking short and uncertain steps out of the apartment. Chloe slammed the door behind them, and he heard her bitter weeping on the other side of the door.

In the back of the limo, Lex Luthor watched it all on the flatscreen directly opposite him. He saw Clark walking numbly down the steps, and Lana’s pale, pinched face, and felt a moment of smug satisfaction. He’d destroyed Clark’s most precious friendship, and it was only a matter of time before the reality of the situation drove a wedge between Clark and Lana. Despite Clark’s talk of how much in love he was with Lana, Lex understood one simple fact: no one had ever meant more to Clark than Chloe Sullivan, and now he’d lost her for good.

Chapter 5

Coda Part 3

3.

Lois found out. Two weeks into it.

It sparked one helluva fight. It had started with the age old question, “Are you crazy!”

Chloe stood in the bathroom of the Daily Planet’s basement, watching her cousin pace the floor. Chloe remained calm, and listened to all the reasons why she should be hating Lex, not bedding him.

“This is kind of rich, coming from you,” Chloe shot back, “the woman who slept with Lex’s brother, who was also her boss. I’m not doing anything you haven’t done, so you can’t stand there and judge me, Lois.”

“This isn’t about Lex being our boss, Chloe. This is about Lex being an evil bastard who tortured you and aunt Moira! Or have you forgotten what he did to your own mother?”

“I have to go. Lex is waiting.”

“You’re not serious!”

Chloe rounded on Lois. “So…what. You tell me Lex is bad and I’m supposed to stop seeing him?”

“You know him, Chloe. You know he’s not capable of loving you!”

“I’m not after Lex Luthor’s love, Lois. This is about sex, plain and simple.”

Lois put her hands over her face, as though she were trying to reign in her patience after having been given the task of trying to teach the average kindergartner algebra.

“When I told you to forget about Clark, and told you that there are men out there who’d appreciate you, Chloe, Lex wasn’t at the top of the list. Fuck, he wasn’t even on the list! I’m telling Clark about this. He’ll talk some—”

“You do that, Lois, and I’ll never speak to you again. I’m not some unruly teenager who needs uncle Clark to give her a good talkin’ to. I’m a grown woman, I know what I want, and I’m going for it. Now stay out of this! I can handle myself, and I can handle Lex.”

“How can you stand having his hands on you. How can you make love to that evil son of a bitch?”

“It’s very easy, actually. He’s evil. He’s dangerous. He’s conniving, calculating, and rotten to his core, and that makes me crazy for him.”

She turned away, left the bathroom, and headed for her desk to shut down her computer. Lex said he had something for her. She shut down the computer and Clark arrived on a breeze. He had a dozen roses in his hands.

“Get those with the money Lana stole from Lex?” she asked, eying the roses coolly. Clark looked hurt.

She loved it. She took feral pleasure from it, even as she accepted the flowers.

“I bought them with my own money, actually,” he said. “I thought we could grab dinner.”

“You’re over a month late for that dinner date.”

Clark’s eyes widened. “Oh, God, Chloe! I completely forgot!”

“I know.”

“That’s why you’re so upset with me.”

“Because you totally forgot our dinner plans? Hell no. You’re just going to have accept that I’m not your doormat anymore, Clark. I’m not your walking, talking search engine. You want something to eat, go get something to eat. I’m sure Lana will be happy to prepare a nice dinner for you. I certainly don’t need to be there to watch you suck it down.”

She dropped his roses into the trash bin and walked around Clark, who stood speechless.

“Chloe—”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have a date.”

He forcefully took hold of her arms and turned her to face him. He looked deep into her eyes, as though x-raying them. “What’s wrong with you?”

Chloe burst into mirthful laughter, tickled for the first time in ages. Even though the laughter was real, it sounded so ugly it cut at Clark, and she took some measure of satisfaction from that. She wanted to hurt him the way he'd hurt her so many times since she'd known him. She wanted to turn the tables for awhile, and let him be the one left hurting, and crying, while she walked away uncaring about it.

“I’m over you. I don’t see that as wrong, but you might, if you can’t use me anymore to solve your problems. Not that you’ve used me lately. You've had Lana for that, haven't you? Let go of me. Now.”

Clark released her. “I’ve never used—”

“Bye, Clark.”

She turned, and walked away.

****

The sex was better than it had been all month. Her confrontation with Clark had left her feeling hurt, angry, guilty, and liberated all at once. Now Lex, Clark’s sworn enemy, was pounding her into the bed of an apartment he’d gotten for her. After all, they needed a place for their trysts, and it would save her the expense of driving back and forth between Smallville and Metropolis.

She rolled him over and rode him hard and fast until she screamed her release, feeling Lex push up into her. She looked down at him and he rolled her over again, thrusting into her as though he wanted to hurt her. She loved every move. It was angry, feral, animalistic, and beautiful.

She hated him.

She desired him.

Lex's body stiffened as he came, spilling his release into her. Once he relaxed, he rolled off of her. They lay there, staring at the vaulted glass ceiling of the penthouse bedroom. The phone rang, and Chloe picked it up. Perry White was on the other end of the line.

“Sullivan, I just read this article you wrote about child labor using illegal immigrant children in sweatshops all over Metropolis. Do you know what this will do to several business owners when they’re exposed?”

“I have a pretty good idea,” Chloe said, feeling Lex run a hand up her thigh and into her sticky folds. She moaned, and his lips found her neck.

“You okay, Sullivan?”

“Fine, sir,” she said, while Lex ran his fingers, dripping with her juices, up her stomach and gripped one of her breasts. She wondered if Lana missed having sex this good, or if Clark could hold his own in the bedroom against. Maybe he was a world class lover. She wouldn’t know. Clark had never given her the chance to find out. She felt a moment of bitterness. “My back is hurting.”

Lex snorted.

“You’ve been turning in some fantastic work lately, Sullivan,” Perry said. “I mean really great stuff. This is cutting edge writing. I don’t know what sparked the change in you, but I notice it.”

I no longer spend all my time kissing Clark’s ass, that’s what’s come over me, Chloe thought.

“I’m promoting you.”

Chloe almost dropped the phone.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Perry said, laughing. “You’re moving to the fifteenth floor, the bullpen, first thing Monday morning.”

He said his goodbye’s, and Chloe hung up, turned to Lex, and slapped the hell out of him.

“What the fuck!” Lex shouted, grabbing her hand before she could hit him a second time.

“A penthouse apartment, and now a job promotion!” Chloe shouted. Her hand throbbed from the force he put on her wrist, cutting off the blood.

“What job promotion?”

“Don’t play stupid, Lex. I know what you’ve done.”

“I haven’t done anything.”

“You didn’t tell Perry to promote me?”

“No.”

“Liar. I’m not your whore!”

He stared into her eyes. “You have zero self-esteem, don’t you, Chloe? I’ve read your work. It’s great stuff. Perry thinks so too, because he gave you a promotion that I knew nothing about. I don’t have to lie to you about this…but you are my whore.”

She let out a growl of rage and took a swing with her other hand. He was hard again, and he thrust into her savagely, hurting her at first, but making her wetter with each thrust, until she whimpered with the contractions deep in her pussy from each deep thrust.

“You’re my whore. My filthy, filthy little whore.”

She bit him hard on the neck.

****

Clark Kent stood on the back porch, looking out over the back forty. The moon was high, looking crisp and clear whenever his breath didn’t fog up and blur it in the cool night air. He could hear Kara and Lana laughing about something in the kitchen as the cleared away the dinner dishes. Kara could have done it superspeed, but she and Lana usually used the time to talk, since he took up most of Lana’s time at night.

The ring with the small chunk of blue kryptonite he kept by the bed had opened up so many new possibilities between him and Lana, allowing them to be together, and be happy, for the first time in their lives. He’d spent the past month mostly on the farm, enjoying the kind of life he’d seen his parents have. He’d work, and then come home to family. He’d make love to his woman at night, and wake up to her in the morning. It had been so perfect.

Then he ran into Chloe at the Talon, and he realized that there’d been something missing in all the domestic bliss—and he hadn’t noticed that what he'd been missing was Chloe, until he’d almost plowed her over. He couldn’t wipe the image of Chloe’s eyes from his mind. He realized now that he was supposed to have taken her out for dinner, and hung out with the woman who’d been his best friend and confidante for years.

And he’d half-forgotten.

He tried to lie to himself and say he’d totally forgotten, but that wasn’t true. He never forgot anything, not really. He’d remembered, but Lana had wanted to stay in bed since Kara was out with Jimmy, and Clark hadn’t been able to resist. So while Chloe had been waiting at the Daily Planet for him to pick her up, he’d been home, in bed with Lana. Then they’d gone for coffee, and he’d meant to call Chloe, but again, he’d put it off to be with Lana.

After that, he’d gotten too busy, meaning to call Chloe, meaning to connect with her, but Oliver had needed help, and Lana had the resources to assist him, and he’d thought it would be a good idea to work with Lana for a change. It would bring them closer, and close was what he wanted to be with Lana. He wanted to be as close to someone as his father had been with his mother. Days went by, and he’d seen Chloe, and he realized he’d been a lousy friend lately. He'd tried stopping by to see her, to get her to talk to him, and thought that eventually she'd cool off and talk to him, but it wasn’t until his run-in with her at the Planet earlier that evening that he realized just how bad the situation really was.

The back door opened, and Lana came out, holding two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She gave one to Clark, who took it without drinking. They sat down on the porch steps together, Lana looping her arm through his.

“You were quiet all through dinner,” Lana said. “Let me guess—you’re thinking about Chloe. Why won’t you tell me what she said at the paper?”

Clark repeated the encounter. She stayed quiet when he finished.

“Chloe and I…we’re in real danger,” Clark said. “I didn’t see it until it was too late.”

“It’s not too late, Clark. This is Chloe we’re talking about.”

He laughed, short, and bitter. “Good ole Chloe, always there ready to forgive me. Not this time, Lana. You didn’t see what I did. She hates me.”

“That’s not true, Clark.”

“I know loathing when I see it. She’s more than angry, she’s fed up, she’s through. She’s closing the door on our friendship, and I don’t think there’s anything I’m going to be able to say that will change that.”

“I’ll talk to her—”

But Clark was shaking his head. “Do you really think you can get through to her when I couldn’t? Lana, Chloe was only ever your friend because of me, and we both know that. You’re the last person who’ll be able to bring her around. I’m going to give her some space, and hope to God that when she’s had time to cool off, she’ll be ready to talk. Maybe then we can be friends again.”

Lana's reaction was perfect. Maybe a little too perfect. She looked hurt, and a little angry, and said, "Chloe and I would have been friends whether we knew you or not."

Clark studied her intently, and for a moment he was convinced Lana was putting on. Did she really care about Chloe? He knew she didn't in the same way he did, but did she truly care? Something in the back of his mind doubted it.

"I'll be up later," he said, and turned to stare at the moon.

Lana nodded, and headed upstairs to bed. Clark remained on the porch, feeling the chocolate grow cold in the cup, and wondering who this mystery man of Chloe’s was. Was she with him now? What was she doing? How much had she turned on him? Would they ever be friends again?

Clark knew he had to do something soon, get Chloe to open up, or they were finished—forever—and that thought scared the hell out of him.

Chapter 4

Coda Part 2

2.

Chloe resolutely decided not to be the first to call Clark Kent. She would wait for him to call her, or drop by to see her. The next four days passed without sight or sound of him. Her evenings were spent waiting for the phone to ring, so that she could see what he had to say to her, if he was sorry for standing her up. She rehearsed how she’d tell him to go to hell.

It had become habit for Lex Luthor’s limo to be parked out front of the Planet, waiting for her to emerge in the evening, for a largely silent ride back to Smallville. Lois knew nothing of it, because Chloe wasn’t about to tell her. She didn’t need or want another lecture. Champagne was their drink of choice, and silence was comfortable. But then he began to ask her questions about her day, showed genuine interest in her life; none of which Chloe bought as real concern. It was a game—a dangerous game that she was starting to enjoy, and knew she should stop playing at once.

“Heard from Clark?”

“Why do you care?” she snapped. Lex cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Just wondering.”

“No,” she said, in a softer tone. She looked out of the tinted window at the empty fields of grass that had taken over the city landscape. His hand rested on her right leg, his fingers on the inside of her thighs, and slid up her leg, hiking her skirt up.

“What are you doing, Lex?”

“You’re not a virgin, Chloe, you know a come on when it happens.”

“Is this the price of the cushy ride and the dry champagne?”

He grinned, taking the flute from her hand. He turned back to her, putting his left hand from her leg to behind her back, and then running a hand up her thigh.

“I haven’t had that much champagne,” Chloe said, though truthfully, she wasn't as repulsed as she probably should be, and felt reckless enough to let his hand stay. “Not enough to forget what you are, what you’ve done to me and my mo—”

He cut her off with a hard kiss. She tried to recoil, but Lex had a tight grip on her. She shoved ineffectually at his muscled chest, keenly aware of who he was, what he was, and turned on by it as much as she was repulsed. She was surprised by the skill in which he kissed her, and touched her.

“I hate you,” she said weakly.

“And that makes you want me even more.”

He ruthlessly ripped open her shirt, sending her buttons popping.

“Lex!”

He pushed her onto her back, spreading her legs and situating himself between her thights. His erection pressed against her clit.

“I’m not stopping,” he said.

“You’d rape me? Even you’re not that low.”

“I’m not going to rape you, Chloe. You want this as much as you hate it.”

Chloe’s panties tore under his hands, and her fingers found Lex’s zipper. Who was the last woman he’d fucked? Had it been Lana? She doubted it. Lex wasn’t the type to deny himself sex simply because he wasn’t in a meaningful relationship. If he was waiting for meaning, she thought, he’d never get laid.

“Tell me to do it,” he said, his lips against hers as he spoke. “Tell me.”

“Do it.”

“Say it, Sullivan. Say it.”

Slightly embarrassed, deeply aroused, Chloe felt the head of his cock at her wet entrance.

“Fuck me, Lex.”

He smiled, claimed her lips with his, and then thrust hard into her.

****

When they arrived outside of the Talon, Chloe’s clothes were tattered. Her blouse had to be held shut, her underwear were left on the floor of the limo, and her hair looked as though she’d just crawled out of bed after a particularly vivid nightmare. Anyone who saw her getting out of the back of Lex’s limo would know what she’d been doing with him. She smoothed her hair down, and accepted the leather jacket he’d been wearing.

Her body felt satisfied as she stepped onto the curb, but guilt and regret burned her stomach. She slid her purse over her shoulder and closed up the coat, ignoring the sneer from a teenaged boy on the curb who saw her climbing out. Lex rolled down the window.

“Tomorrow’s Sunday. Why don’t you come over to the mansion for dinner tomorrow night?”

“I have work to catch up on.”

He nodded, not believing her, but not pushing her either. “See you on Monday.”

Chloe nodded, turned, and strode into the talon. Clark stood at the bar, waiting on coffee, and Lana spotted her as she came in. She smiled and waved.

“Chloe! Sit with us.”

Loathing replaced the burning guilt in Chloe’s stomach and it must have passed through her eyes because Lana’s bright smile faltered.

“I’m busy. Some other time.”

“Chloe.”

She’d almost ran face first into Clark, who had two coffees in hand. Concern creased his brow.

“You okay?” he asked. “You look like you’ve been in a fight.”

“Do I? I’m surprised you’d notice.”

“What?”

“Never mind, Clark.”

She started around him, but he stepped in her way, blocking her path.

“Chloe, what’s the matter? You’re angry.”

“I’m not angry. I’m fine,” she said, offering him a fairly convincing smile. “I’ve had a long day, I’m tired. ‘Night.”

She moved around him, and felt his eyes boring into her as she walked away. She heard him knock on the door forty-five minutes later, but she didn’t answer.

****

The next day, the phone rang. Chloe picked it up, hearing Lana’s voice on the other end of the line.

“Chloe, do you feel better? Clark and I are worried. You looked so upset last night.”

“I’m fine,” she said, but she didn’t sound fine, even she could hear it. Lana was silent for awhile on the other end, as though contemplating her words.

“Why don’t you come by for dinner? I’m making lasagna. Clark, Kara and I would love to have you. Now that I think about it, we’ve hardly seen you this past month.”

Chloe felt herself choked with anger, and disgust. She wished one of her abilities was heat vision. She would have seared Lana from the face of the earth. She didn’t understand her reaction, though. Lana hadn’t actually done anything to her, or broken any promises, but the last thing she wanted to do was spend the evening watching Clark and Lana make goo-goo eyes at one another, or try to pretend she liked Kara.

“I’ve got dinner plans.”

“Well, maybe tomorrow—”

“Goodbye.”

She’d barely clicked the phone shut when Clark’s familiar knock sounded on the door. Lois looked up from the magazine she was reading.

“Go away.” Chloe whispered so quietly Lois hadn't heard her, but Clark had.

“I’m not going anywhere until you open this door,” Clark said in response from the other side. Lois got up to answer, and pulled the door open.

“Smallville, come on in. I was just heading downstairs for a cuppa.” She turned in the doorway and gave Chloe a ‘talk to him’ look, before leaving. Chloe promptly got up and started for the bathroom, but Clark put a hand on the door to keep her from shutting it in his face.

“We’ve got to talk. What’s wrong?”

“I want a bath. I have dinner plans and I need to get ready.”

“Who are you going out with?”

“None of your goddamned business, Clark.”

“Chloe!” he looked comically shocked by the venom in her voice.

“Shut the door and get out. I don’t have anything I want to say to you.”

“Obviously you do.”

She pulled her shirt off, kicked off her shoes, and unhooked her bra. Clark turned away, looking uncomfortable, and listened to her get undressed.

“Last night, I could smell aftershave on you. You’ve got a new boyfriend?”

“What do you care?”

“I care.”

“If you care, then you’ll respect my wishes, and get out. I need to get ready.”

“You’re not going to talk to me?”

“No, I’m not.”

“At least tell me what I’ve done.”

“You’ve done nothing,” she said softly. “Absolutely nothing.”

Despite her nudity, Clark turned and looked her in the eye, his own eyes filled with confusion. He opened his mouth, but Chloe put a cool hand on his chest and pushed him out of the door. He hadn’t understood what she was trying to say, and in that moment, she remembered Lois's words.

Honestly, Chloe, I don’t know what you see in him. Ever since he and Lana started shacking up he’s been an absentee friend to you, just showing up when he needs you to do something for him…

Chloe turned away, knowing that Clark was probably on the other side of the door, looking through it and right at her. She didn’t want him to see the tears that spilled from her eyes. She didn’t want him trying to be a friend. She didn’t want that old love she’d felt for him (but was now dying) to make her forgive him. What hurt worst was that he didn’t even know what was hurting her. What kind of friend was that?

Have some self respect and forget about Clark Kent.

She was determined to do exactly that. As far as Chloe Sullivan was concerned, Clark Kent was just another guy. She grabbed her phone when she heard the door of the apartment close.

“Lex? Is that invitation for dinner tonight still good?”

Chapter 3