Before Sunset (Part 29)

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Just a note:


I've been ruminating on how things have gone back in Smallville if the end of Arrival had been changed as I did at the beginning of this fic. What things changed and what stayed the same. Lana and Clark were in relationship limbo and, rather than getting back together, stayed this way with him not coming right back (and of course, the Chlark happening). I think, without him to deflect her from space-shippy thoughts and with Lex thinking she "owed him," she'd have gone a bit PTSD nutty and she and Lex might have formed a wary, uneven alliance against the possible alien threats. As for Lex, he's even more tenacious with his Chloe in the Yukon lead turning up no Chloe and Clark also nowhere to be found. Lionel was still put in Belle Reve by Lex as I think that would be the same. I don't think Lois would have gone to Geneva with Chloe missing, so I'll delay her departure just a bit (also, I rather like writing them actually having a relationship and not behaving like virtual strangers as the show did through the years). Martha and Jonathon's house still needs rebuilding. Clark, having spent more time, post-powers, with his fellow town-saver Chloe, is more likely to regret not having his powers than just smiling about losing them like he did when dreaming of Lana. And Chloe is still trying to protect herself from her feelings for this former alien who now knows her all too well.

I'm basically rewriting the episodes that follow, keeping some events that I think would have happened either way and changing things I think would have been changed. So we'll see how things are dealt with through a more Chlarky lens. I'll also be adding some scenes that I thought might have reasonably happened with their homecoming.

In short, some spoilers for Mortal and Hidden. But this is mostly before those episodes.


Part 29

Clark shuffled around his loft, unable to sleep. He wasn't sure if it was the strangeness of being home safe or the fact that he wasn't used to sleeping alone anymore. Even the long way home, he'd had her there beside him in the backseat as he took fitful naps when his parents took their turns at the wheel. Even with her insistence that they were just friends now... again, she'd sometimes burrow into him, throw an arm over him, even a leg. And he wanted to wake her and throw her precious month in her face, but it seemed easier to sleep with her there.

There was no possibility of her being there tonight. She'd been dropped home hours ago, bundled into her house by her father and Lois, both of whom seemed mystified that she had so many scrapes. She'd made some tired complaints of panic and trampling when being taken out of Smallville, for which Lois seemed to blame him. He was used to her pulling that kind of thing. 

And he supposed he'd have to get used to sleeping on his own again. It's not like it was the biggest change, with his powers gone. If anything should give him restless nights, it was that.

That and the state of his house. The upper part of the house, both bedrooms and the bath were still badly damaged. There was no plumbing. But the downstairs bathroom was okay. His parents tended to fill a bucket from the barn's pump when they needed to flush the toilet. And they were washing up at Ben Hubbards until they could get the upstairs bath fixed. He could get used to that, too. And he could easily do without his bedroom. He spent most of his time here and it was largely untouched. It made him feel rather guilty, that he could still be surrounded by the things he treasured while his parents had lost so many of theirs. Even without his powers, he managed to come through things largely unscathed and it didn't seem fair.

He heard footsteps on the packed dirt below and looked over the railing. His father looked up and smiled, holding up an armful of blankets. "Thought you might need these."

"You didn't have to..."

Jonathon waved him away and moved up the stairs. "It's only early summer. It still gets cold here late at night."

Clark took the blankets as Jonathon cleared the landing. "Thanks." He tossed the blankets on his ratty, red couch. "I didn't think of that."

His father chuckled. "Well, you didn't have to before now." He moved to the desk, toyed with some books. "Your mother's finally asleep in the living room. I couldn't. Something was bothering me and I guess it was that." He leaned on the desk and turned to Clark. "I never had to worry about it before." He smiled. "I guess I was lucky, never worrying if you got too cold or too hot or even sick."

Clark sat hard on the couch, frowning at the floor. "Well, you had other things to worry about. With my secret..." He looked up suddenly. "Is this better?" He'd been so worried about not being able to help out, but maybe this was easier on his parents.

Jonathon shrugged and moved to him. "I don't know if it's better or worse. Every parent worries." He sat down next to Clark. "It doesn't seem to matter if it's the smallest thing. It always seems big. And it doesn't matter what the worry is. As long you're around to worry about."

Clark swallowed hard, but it didn't ease the ache in his throat. "Well, don't worry too much about me being cold. Nothing will seem cold after these last weeks. I can camp out here just fine."

"Well, make sure you come in if it gets chilly. The house is still more insulated than this barn... the lower part, at least." Jonathon chuckled and nudged at his side. "We've got lots of work to do."

"But now I can't..." Clark stopped, thinking of what Chloe said before, how mentioning his diminished ability to help might hurt them. But it was a reality and they needed to deal with it. "The thing is," he bagan carefully, trying to think of a good way to say it. "I just... I wish I could help as much as I did before. And I'm not trying to say you expect it or..."

"Clark..." His father laid a hand on his shoulder and turned him to face him. "That doesn't matter. As long as you're here." He drew him in, holding him tight.

And Clark realized, truly realized, that his parents loved him. He knew it all along, in that offhand way most teenagers know they're loved. But he was an adult now, though only freshly. And he knew. They worried about him and they sacrificed for him and he knew they'd do it all again a million times over because they loved him that much. He gripped his father back hard. "Well, I'm with you." He drew away. "And I'm going to give everything, Dad, everything to keep this farm going. A & M has all kinds of classes on farm and ranch management. I can find better ways to run this farm so my powers aren't even..."

"Clark, we have an entire summer to plan that. For now, just sleep." Jonathon stood and smiled. "We've got a house to rebuild. I think we can do it just fine, powers or not."

"We can." Clark nodded and stood. "And the town, too."

His father smiled widely. "That's the spirit."

He may not be able to offer his town and his family what he could before, but he'd still give them whatever he had.

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

"You think you could tell a person when you're getting up?"

Chloe turned from her back porch stoop and saw Lois, rubbing her eyes in the doorway. "I didn't want to wake you." Lois had insisted on staying in Chloe's room and having an old school sleep-over to celebrate them surviving the meteor shower, then promptly fell asleep, just like always. Chloe was always the last one to bed and the first one up.

"Well, I thought you coming back was some kind of hallucination." She yawned loudly and moved to sit on the stoop next to Chloe. "But here you are."

"Oh, here you are!" They both turned as her father bustled out the back door. "Alright. I'm trying to decide between pancakes and waffles. Lois, I know you usually go for a smiley-face pancake, but Chloe's always been more of a waffle girl, so..."

Lois shrugged. "Chloe's the guest of honor. We can have whatever she..."

"You know what? I'll do both," he said in a rush, leaning over and squeezing Chloe within an inch of her life. "I pull out all the stops when my baby girl's home."

Chloe groaned. "Daddy..."

"Does that mean barbecue, Uncle Gabe?" Lois cut in. "Like ribs barbecue?"

"Lois!"

"What? We'll have to eat lunch at some point."

"No. She's right." Gabe moved to Lois, squeezing her rather hard as well, from her grunt. "I'll get some ribs and steaks after breakfast. We'll invite the Kents. They brought my baby girl home, after all."

"Dad!" She tried to shrug him off, but he still planted a loud smacking kiss on her cheek before moving away.

"Get potato salad!" Lois yelled after him as he disappeared into the house.

Chloe huffed out a laugh and buried her face in her hands. "He's so embarrassing."

Lois giggled and pushed at her. "Stop pretending you don't love it."

"He hasn't left me alone for two minutes together since I woke up."

"Well, that's Uncle Gabe. And he makes up for it with his superior barbecue skill. Anyway, I wouldn't mind it. Try growing up with The General. He hardly remembers your name... unless it's Lucy."

"Hey, he's not so bad." Granted, Uncle Sam was kind of stand-offish, but Lois had to know he loved her. "I heard he wants you in Geneva yesterday."

"Ah, the grand summit. Well, I've been putting it off till you got home."

Chloe turned to her. "And now?"

Lois shrugged. "Well, It's only polite to put it off to celebrate your homecoming. Especially if Uncle Gabe's barbecuing every night. But enough about me..." She leaned against the porch railing. "You weaseled out of telling me what you were up to."

"Yes. I so cleverly put you to sleep."

"Don't change the subject," Lois said, sitting up. "I know something happened."

Chloe chuckled. "You sound so serious."

"Well, this is a serious thing. You spent all that time as a stranger in a strange land..."

"I told you. We were still in Kansas," Chloe cut in, getting more used to, and less guilty about, the lie with each telling.

"With none other than Clark Kent," Lois finished, unhindered. "And don't tell me nothing happened because you could cut the awkward with a machete."

"Interesting metaphor," Chloe tried.

"Chloe, what are you thinking?"

She turned away and studied the concrete slab. "Okay. I'm not saying anything happened..."

"Because it did."

"But... I can handle myself."

"Chloe," Lois sighed. "I'm not saying you can't. I'm just... I mean, I like Clark well enough, but... It's just hard to watch. You're always looking at him and he's always looking at her and all I ever see is pain for you and, considering you're my blood, then you're the one I'm concerned about. I guess that's why... I mean, at your prom, I kept thinking this needed to just stop. I'm not saying he's a horrible guy or anything, but... His attentions are somewhere else. God knows why because you're awesome. But that's just the point." She scooted forward and gripped Chloe's hands. "You are too awesome to be wasting your time on a guy that doesn't see that."

She smiled and gripped Lois' hands back. She was saying was a lot of the same things she'd been telling herself. Yet she felt the strange need to defend this possibility between her and Clark. But she didn't. She would sort this out. "Lois," she began. "Bottom line? Right now, me and Clark are friends. And that's all. No matter what he says. I am not jumping into any..."

"Whoa, whoa, wait..." Lois peered closely at her. "Jumping? What exactly is he saying?" 

"Nothing!" Chloe burst out, pulling away. 

She suddenly pulled at Chloe's collar. "That's a hickey!"

"I just... I mean...people romanticize things when your surviving together..."

"What's romantic about sleeping on a gym floor?" Lois scoffed. "Or survivalish?"

Chloe opened her mouth to correct her, then realized that was part of their story. "I... I don't know." She forced a laugh. "Bottom line. We're friends and nothing more."

"Yeah, yeah. You said that. What's interesting is what you're not saying. I was spitballing before, but something definitely happened." Lois gasped. "You're knocked up!"

"What?"

"That's why you have these bottom lines. You want to have it alone because you live in this century and Clark wants to marry you because he's a farmer and has all these antiquated..."

"I am not pregnant," she hissed, glancing back at the screen door, hoping her dad hadn't heard any of that. But she could hear him whistling so likely not.

"Okay, then what? What's being romanticized here?" 

"Fine," Chloe growled, knowing Lois was not about to give up. "Something happened, but it was just for then. It stops now."

Lois' eyes narrowed. "Did that little hayseed pull..."

Chloe covered her eyes. "Oh, my God, Lois. Please do not go lighting into Clark." But, damn it, she would if Chloe didn't clear things up at least a little. She took a deep breath. "If you want the truth, then here's all I'm going to give you -- Clark thinks I'm his girlfriend and I don't agree."

Lois was uncharacteristically silent for what seemed like several minutes. "So... you've been crushing on this guy since you were thirteen and... you're over it now?" Lois leaned in with a deeply sympathetic look. "Bad sex?"

Chloe ducked her head. "No. It... it... It's just more complicated than that. Okay? I need some time to decide."

"If you're over him?"

"Not..."

"Oooh. Or is he a bad kisser, on top of the bad sex?"

"I never said..."

"I'll tell you right now, some guys cannot be trained. They get very insulted about instruction when really it's as much for them as..."

"I'm not over him," she snapped. "I'm nowhere near over him! But I'm not just going to... be with him," she finished a little more quietly, dragging a foot through the grass below.

"Well... Why the hell not?"

Chloe turned and gaped at her. "You just said..."

"Well, yeah, but now it's different."

"Well, also at the prom, you..." 

"Well, yes. That's when I thought he was a stupid, blind flannel-head. But if he's had the good sense to finally see you, then..."

"Ugh! Stop!" And now she wanted to defend her decision to hold off on him! She had no idea what she wanted, really. But there was one thing she was absolutely sure of. "I really don't want to talk about Clark right now."

Lois rolled her eyes. "Fine, then. It's too damned hot for arguing."

Chloe didn't agree with that, but she nodded and closed her eyes, tried to enjoy the sun on her face now that Lois was finally dropping it.

"But I will say this." Or not. "If Flannel-head's finally coming around after all this time, you're going to kick yourself for not giving it a shot." 

Or she'd be kicking herself for getting sucked in again. "That's... your opinion," Chloe said evenly, enjoying the warmth too much to argue anymore.

Lois squeezed her knee. "I've got plenty of 'em. Now, let's go inside."

"Never," Chloe said, damned sure of that, at least. "I want to get sweaty and sunburned." She sighed, the feel of sweat beading on her forehead almost heavenly. "I've really missed heat."

"Is it that much cooler in Kansas City? Because I'll evacuate there, too."

"Hmm?" Even the grass under her bare feet was warm. 

"That's where you were, right? Or did you say some other place? These mid-states always mix me the hell up."

"No. It was Kansas City."

Her eyes snapped open. She'd been about to say the same thing. But she hadn't. It came from behind her. And the words were too much of a smug drawl to be her father's. She stiffened and turned, saw Lex leaning against the side of her house, a tight smile on his face.

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PART THIRTY

I'm going to work on finishing my Chlollie (which is going faster as I get to the end), then I have to start a special promised fic, then I should be back here to finish this