What the World Could Be, Chapter 1

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13

Clark/Chloe
Season 5, following my story "Saving Me," which followed "Void"
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
21,000 words
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me

From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be
-Nickelback, "If Everyone Cared"


Trust Me, Book 2

“Chloe.”

The sound of her name, whispered gently, pried Chloe Sullivan out of a deep sleep. Slowly, she rolled over and blinked into the darkness of her dorm room. Despite the exhaustion that fogged her brain, she remembered that she was alone because her roommate Lana Lang had gone to stay with her Aunt Nell for the weekend. Lana wouldn't be back till Sunday night, so she must have dreamed that someone had said her name.

Her eyelids fluttered closed again.

“Chloe.”

At the slightly more insistent whisper, her eyes snapped open. She sat up with a jerk, seeing a dark, shadowy figure bending ominously over her bed. She opened her mouth to scream, but the figure immediately clapped a big hand over her mouth.

“It’s all right,” he said softly. “It’s just me. Clark.”

Relieved, she glared at her best friend, batted his hand away from her mouth, and reached over to the lamp next to her bed. It clicked on, flooding the room with yellow light. Her heart was pounding, and she spoke sharply. “What the hell were you doing, creeping into my room like a burglar?”

Clark sat on the bed next to her, his considerable weight making the mattress springs creak. He dropped his gaze away from her angry eyes and looked at the floor. “You told me I could come anytime if I needed you,” he said, and there was no mistaking the desperation in his deep voice.

“And you couldn’t call first?” Chloe was suddenly aware she wasn’t wearing anything more than a lacy white nightgown. Thank God she didn't sleep nude. She yanked the sheet up to just under her chin and looked at him more closely. His green eyes were filled with misery, and she immediately regretted her sharp tone.

“Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “It’s okay.”

She and Clark had been imprisoned a week before by a crime boss, Moira Redburn, who’d injected Clark with red kryptonite—the only substance Chloe knew of that would act on him like a drug. Clark was Kryptonian rather than human, and alcohol and most drugs didn't affect his body or mind, but being injected with red K had very definitely made him high.

Based on the way he reacted to it, she’d been a little worried he might wind up craving it like an addict. But he’d dropped by to see her at the Daily Planet, the newspaper where she worked, every day this week, and he'd seemed perfectly okay. She thought he'd weathered the experience pretty well.

At least, she'd thought that until now.

She blinked the sleepiness from her eyes and looked him over more carefully, seeing the unnatural pallor of his skin and the dark circles under his eyes. His broad shoulders were slumped in a posture of defeat, the corners of his mouth turned downward, and his dark brown hair was rumpled like it hadn't been near a comb in days. Feeling a sharp pang of pity, she reached out and took his hand in hers.

“What’s going on, Clark? Is it a red K thing?”

“I guess,” he answered. His voice sounded tired, almost ragged. “I do okay in the daytime, but at night… I can’t sleep, Chlo. I haven’t slept for a week.”

“Poor thing,” she said softly, holding his hand between both of hers. “You look terrible.”

Clark was currently running the Kent family farm pretty much by himself, because his father had recently passed away and his mother was now a state senator. Taking care of a hundred acres of organic produce and forty head of cattle was a heavy responsibility and hard work, even for an alien with superhuman strength and speed, and he needed his sleep. No wonder he looked so exhausted.

“Well," she said, "Lana's at her aunt's all weekend. I think I told you that this afternoon, right? So if you want, we can sit up all night. Want to talk for a while?”

“Not really, Chlo. Actually…” He paused for a long moment, then lifted his gaze and looked straight into her eyes.

“Actually,” he said, “I was kind of hoping I could sleep with you.”

Read Chapter 2 here.