Almost Clark (Chapter Twenty-four)

Author's note: I wrote this fic after season six and before season seven. At this point, it veers away from canon and becomes its own alternate universe so it (and the sequels) will not match up to current SV. Though season seven revealed Chloe's healing power to be through touch, I kept it at tears as it was all I knew at the time. And my Bizarro is very different from the one we saw in season seven. I combined elements of different Bizarros in the DCU. At this point, we're in an AU, anyway. Just wanted give fair warning in case anyone was expecting things to line up with season seven or eight's facts (though i suspect, if you're reading this, you're like me and not too thrilled with those seasons, anyway).

Chapter Twenty-Four

I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all.
-T.S. Elliot

Clark sped through the hospital, not caring who saw him, not caring about the papers his wind scattered, the people who stared at the red and blue blur.

She wasn't dead. He'd thought she was dead once and she'd been alive then. This was no different.

Lana was gone and Lionel was gone and everything was gone to hell. But not Chloe... He could almost feel it.

Lois had sobbed, great heaving gasps and whimpers against his jacket. Last time Chloe had been "dead," Lois had refused to believe it, had searched with him. What was wrong with her? Chloe wasn't dead. He'd left her standing there, rocking back and forth in the waiting room. Chloe was alive and he'd prove it.

He stopped at a doorway. The bed was empty. An orderly was stripping it.

Why were they doing this? Chloe needed a room to get better in!

"Chloe Sullivan," he barked. The orderly jumped and pressed a hand to her chest. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"They moved her," she said, still startled. "I'm so sorry for your..."

"Where?"

She stared at him stupefied for a moment. "The morgue," she finally said. "I know this is..."

He didn't let her finish. He got moving. He heard something. It grew louder as he got to the stairwell and was ringing in his ears, the further down he sped.

****************************************

There was only darkness around her and the cries that echoed in that darkness, yet were muffled somehow. She dimly recognized the cries as her own. Feelings and sensations flooded her. She felt so cold. Her hands lay at her sides. There was something cold underneath her, like ice. And something wispy against her skin. She breathed deeper, but it wasn't coming in just right. She choked on the fabric that now felt wet against her tongue. She brought her hands up, still crying, and pulled the object away. It felt like a sheet.

Her cries bounced back to her as she felt down her body. The sheet was over her, but she had the horrible realization that she wasn't in bed. She smelled something sharp and crisp as she brought her hands to her face. It was like the smell of the nurse's office when she was a kid. She tried to move, but her head hit the ceiling. The cool, metal ceiling. She whimpered as she felt it, the same cold metal that was under her. And her hands groped to the side as her whimpers turned louder, turned to screams as she hit and kicked, but to no avail.

She could feel her breath leaving her. It was getting harder to scream. There was no air in here. Her screams became hoarse and died to whimpers again as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Suddenly, there was movement and air around her and her arms whipped out, hitting nothing. Her eyes opened wide and she gasped for air. It almost stung as it filled her lungs. And there were arms. Warm arms that crushed her raw flesh and held her up. Her eyes adjusted to the light and things came into focus. She saw colors. Brown and red. And there was breath against her, she felt it through the sheet. She knew that breath.

"Clark?" It came out a stale croak. She brought a weak hand to the head that was buried against her stomach. "Clark," she said again. He'd saved her. He always saved her.

He looked up, his cheeks wet. "I knew it," he said shakily.

"Knew what?" she croaked, her voice still so hoarse.

"You were alive. I knew you wouldn't die again." He kept one hand at her back and moved the other beneath her knees, picking her up so slowly- as if it was difficult for him. His gaze seemed so relieved yet so sad, too. She wanted to ask him why.

But there were voices, loud ones that came from outside.

"You can't arrest him," the loudest one pleaded. "He's in pain. Please just..."

"I tell you," a woman was saying, "he just ran away as soon as I said the Mor..."

"Would the both of you just be quiet?" A male voice.

Footsteps stopped just outside the door and she glanced at it. She was starting to realize where they were. How did she get here?

The voices were whispering, but loudly. "I tell you, he was crazed. He yelled at me and his eyes..."

Oh, God! She was realizing what had happened. Lois. Lois was dead. Her throat constricted.

"He's not crazy, you whining half-wit."

She could almost hear Lois now. A sob escaped her throat and Clark held her tighter.

"Did you hear that?" a shaky male voice asked.

"Oh, for God's sake!" The door suddenly flew open and three figures came into focus.

The first, the man, was pointing a gun at them. It trembled in his grasp. Clark gripped her tighter. The second, a pale and skinny woman took one look at them and fell to the floor. But the third...

"It's you?" she croaked.

Lois inched forward slowly. It looked like she was floating to Chloe. Please don't be a dream. She was dirty and blood-stained and the dirt on her face was streaked with pale tracks. "Chloe?"

She felt her tears spill over. "I thought you were..."

"I thought you were..."

They stared at each other. Lois' chest began heaving and she fell on Chloe. Luckily, Clark was strong enough to support them both as Lois clutched at her still-tender skin and covered her cheeks with kisses. "Chloe, don't you ever leave me again. I'll..." She trailed off and sobbed into her shoulder.

Chloe saw that the guard was still staring at them, slack-jawed and holding his gun. She didn't care. Lois was alive. She wanted to hug her, but her arms were so weak. The kicking and screaming inside the drawer may have been her allotment of movement for the week. "It's okay Lois. I'm just glad you..."

"Don't you ever..." Lois sobbed still. "Never... never..."

"I know, Lois. I'm okay and you're..."

"Chloeeeee," she wailed.

Chloe felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth and looked to Clark helplessly. He didn't smile back. There was something wrong with him. He looked... defeated. He lifted his head to the guard. "Put the gun down."

The guy nodded and dropped it, jumping a little as it hit the floor.

"Lois," Chloe began. She had to get her to calm down. They had to get out of here. "I'm happy to see you, too. But I'm a little naked. Plus my butt is totally numb from all that..."

Lois drew back angrily. "Jokes? You're making jokes? Chloe, I saw you dead."

"And I saw you dead." Chloe tilted her head to the side. "Are we even now?"

Lois stared at her in shock before suddenly bursting into laughter. Chloe joined her, still weak but needing the release. Clark didn't even crack a smile.

Lois wiped her eyes, then took the edge of the sheet to Chloe's. "Only you would make a joke at a time like this. I'd hate you if I didn't love you so much."

"I love you, too. But I really..."

"We need to get you home," Clark said grimly. She wanted to reach out and ask him what was wrong. But she could do that later.

"Yeah. Let's check out."

Lois still clutched her arm as they made their way to the door, passing the still-gaping guard and stepping over the fainted lady. "Check out," Lois snorted. "You're acting like you just stayed at a hotel."

"Well, the service was terrible and the bed was the worst I ever..."

"Okay! No more jokes. I mean it."

*************************************

It hit her later, after Clark left and Lois fell asleep beside her, seemingly unable to stop clutching her.

Lois had succumbed to sleep next to her on the bed as soon as they arrived at the apartment. But Clark was nowhere near tired. He seemed anxious and edgy. He only stayed for a few minutes, reciting hollowly the details of the day before, then rushing off into the night.

Lana was dead. A bomb. Lionel? Also dead. Clark had seen him felled. Lex? Probably dead. When the dam had burst, it took out every car and person on that bridge.

Death hung over even her survival. Was she truly alive? She was still weak, but otherwise seemed unharmed. No one had explained about that. So she wasn't dead. Was she un-dead? The thought made her shiver, then it made her weep.

She wept, even for Lionel, who had tried to help. She wept mostly for Lana, who she'd loved and hated and helped and betrayed all these years. And she wept for Clark, who seemed to have a challenge bigger than even Lex Luthor ahead of him. He hadn't explained. Would he come back to her?

**********************************

"Tears?"

"I know it sounds nuts, but it all happened when I..."

"Chloe, please!" Lois picked up the tray from Chloe's lap and slammed it on the dresser. Now that she'd had a shower, she seemed to have the old spark back. Chloe was jealous. She was still too weak to even contemplate the tub and she still had that awful clinical smell that clung to her skin.

"You weren't there, Lois."

"Um, excuse me, but yes I was."

"Yes, but you were d..."

"Don't say it," Lois warned, shuddering. "Chloe, I can't take one more freaky happening. If I was dead, then how could I..." She trailed off. Chloe suspected she remembered that another member of their shared gene pool had pulled a Lazarus just yesterday.

"You'd been stabbed, Lois. And the loss of blood was..." She groaned when Lois covered her ears. "You know, I don't want to deal with this any more than you do, but we have to figure this out! Now, stay with me."

Lois nodded and looked at Chloe expectantly. "Okay. I'm in. Put that scary brain of yours to work."

"I came upon you by following a trail of blood." Lois grimaced, but nodded for Chloe to continue. "You'd been stabbed in the side and you weren't breathing. I cried and... Lois, I swear, my tear hit you and you... You glowed. We glowed. And I went all warm, then cold and... the next thing I know, I wake up in a morgue drawer." Lois pursed her lips and Chloe was afraid it was another bout of sobbing. "Now you," she said gently.

"I woke up. I went to check the knife in my side, but it wasn't there," she said dully. "And neither was the wound, though I still had the blood on me. You were leaning against a pillar and you..." She broke off, breathing deep. "And your skin was gray. You weren't breathing and there was no heartbeat."

Chloe furrowed her brow. "It was scary. I felt so guilty."

Lois touched her hand. "Guilty? Why? You were the one that told me not to mess with things."

"But I know how stubborn you are. If I'd just got there sooner, even called to check... Lois, there was just so much blood..."

Lois turned white and got up again.

"Sorry," Chloe said quickly. "I guess you're squeamish about the blood. I shouldn't..."

"It's not that,"Lois snapped. "This whole thing, it just disturbs me. Chloe." She grasped her hand. "Do you know what they said at the hospital."

"You haven't told me, so no."

Lois sat again, a muscle twitching in her throat. "They said you died of blood loss." Chloe stared at her, letting it happen. Letting her mind click the pieces. "And they were pretty stumped, too," Lois went on grimly. "Because there was hardly a cut on you. Maybe some scrapes or..."

"I took them," Chloe breathed.

"What?"

"I took your wounds. Just before I lost consciousness, I remember, I thought that it should be me. And the tears..."

"Would you stop with the magic tears? I mean, I can accept that this was some deep, spiritual thing and you, in the stupidest moment of your life, mentally took on... It's... It's like placebos or faith healing, except..."

"It was the tear, Lois. You didn't see."

"That makes no sense. If you had..." She could hardly spit the words out, "magic tears, then why weren't you crying all over your old dog Sparky when he got run over and raising him up. And why couldn't..."

"Most meteor freaks are latent for years," Chloe said numbly.

"Meteor... No, Chloe." Chloe looked up at Lois, smiling sadly. "No!"

"I've known for a while now."

"I'm not hearing this." Lois paced toward the dresser.

"Your my family and I should have told you. I know that now. I would have told you, but there's been so much going on. I didn't even know what variety of meteor freak I was."

"Stop it!"

"And when Lex had me kidnapped..."

Lois whirled on her, her expression angry. "Lex? He... he..." Chloe nodded and Lois' expression softened. "Just... Fine. Tell me." Lois perched on the bed. "Tell me everything."

Chloe did. About about 33.1 and Tobias, the blind boy who could only see one thing: meteor freaks. She left out the part where Clark had burned a hole in her shoulder. "I was so scared it was something that would hurt someone. That I would go crazy and end up in Belle Reve."

"I wouldn't let that happen," Lois said softly. Clark had said that, too.

Chloe gave her a small smile. "I have to admit, though, I'm almost disappointed. I mean, I could have had anything. Walking through walls, shape-shifting, lie-detecting..." She shook her head. She'd had that once, though, and almost alienated everyone who was dear to her. "I could have been Super Reporter." She shrugged. "I guess this is the best way, though."

Lois tilted her head. "How so?"

"All of those very useful abilities made the people that had them greedy or just plain nuts. They hurt people. At least I know that what I do is nowhere close to hurting anyone."

"Except yourself."

Chloe laid her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. "Yeah. So I... cry. That's what I do." It was so fitting, somehow. "And then I - what? - take on someone else's death?"

Lois frowned. "I don't like it anymore than you do." She grasped Chloe's hand. "But you came back, Chloe."

"What if it happens again?" Chloe wondered. "What if, that time, I can't get back?"


Authors note (part two): I can pat myself on the back for one thing. My Lois/Chloe reunion was a whole hell of a lot more emotional than Bizarro's "You have some explaining, Missy" crap. Seriously, these people are cousins and roommates and the show hardly explores it at all. Argh!

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