Never Let Me Go, 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 "Here Without You," which followed two other stories and "Void"
28,000 words
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the WB and DC Comics, not to me

Trust Me, Book 4

I love you
I have loved you all along
And I forgive you
For being away for far too long
So keep breathing
'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore
Believe it
Hold on to me and never let me go
-"Far Away," Nickelback

Clark:
When I woke up, everything was normal.

I never appreciated how great "normal" was until I woke up one day and found out everything had gone crazy. That morning I'd awakened to find that my girlfriend and soulmate Chloe Sullivan had been erased from existence. It hadn't been a great way to start the day, and from there things had only gotten worse.

But after traveling through time, surviving two meteor showers, and killing myself, I'd finally managed to make things right again. Chloe was safe and the world had been restored to normal.

Oh, yeah, and as it turned out I wasn't permanently dead, either, which was a definite plus.

I lifted my head, blinking sleepily. Chloe was curled up next to me, but her eyes were open. Not surprising, because I'd come to her dorm room at six a.m. I wasn't sure what time it was now, but the light sifting in through the blinds looked dim. I had a feeling I'd slept the day away.

Well, I'd been tired. Dying can do that to a guy.

"Hey there," I said softly.

"Hey," she answered. "I thought you were going to sleep forever."

I lifted my arms over my head and stretched. She winced and moved away from my armpit, a subtle reminder that I hadn't showered in three days. Ordinarily I don't perspire, but I'd been exposed to kryptonite more than once, which made me sweat, so I probably reeked. Plus I'd dived headfirst into the dirt more than once, not to mention puking my guts out quite a few times.

Yeah, I know, TMI. Suffice it to say I seriously needed a shower. Unfortunately, I was in a girls' dorm, and the showers were not co-ed.

Besides, as far as I was concerned, sex was a much higher priority than a shower.

See, from Chloe's perspective, she'd seen me just last night. But I'd spent several days without her, because I'd gone back in time. And I have this weird Kryptonian thing going on where I have to have sex with Chloe every couple of days, or I really start to suffer. It had been three days, and I was absolutely desperate to make love to her.

I reached over and wrapped an arm around her, but she immediately pulled back and batted at me.

"Forget it, bub."

"Chloeeeee."

She didn't seem impressed by my pathetic whine. "I told you," she said firmly, narrowing her eyes in a don't-argue-with-me kind of way. "Sleep, food, and then sex. Besides, we need to talk. You said something really weird when you were dropping off to sleep. We need to talk about it."

"I'd rather have sex than talk."

"Yeah. I got that. But don't think I'm going to make love to you before you get a shower, either, because you still stink."

"I'm going to have to go all the way back to Smallville to get a shower," I groused.

"Yeah, and that'll take you, what, three seconds? Big deal."

I grumbled some more, then sat up, discovering I was still dressed. I'd been too tired to even take off my workboots. I checked the clock and saw that it was five in the afternoon.

"Hell," I said. "My mom'll be worried. I guess I better run home for a couple of minutes."

"Okay. Come back when you've checked in with her and had a shower." I looked at her hopefully, and she shook her head. "And then we'll eat, Clark. I told you. Food first. Sex later."

"Fine," I said irritably. I knew she had no way of understanding how truly desperate I was to make love to her, but that didn't stop me from being a bit grumpy about it. "Before I go, do you have any more chocolate?"

"You've already eaten most of my stash," she complained. But she got up and handed me a couple of Hershey's bars. I ripped the wrappers off eagerly and devoured the candy.

"You have got to get a decent meal," she said, watching me. "Maybe you should just get Martha to feed you."

"No," I said. After everything that had happened, I didn't want to let her out of my sight. Some of it was my biological problem. My body had decided we were soulmates, and I'd gotten sort of attached to her in an alien kind of way that was hard to explain. When I needed her this badly, being out of her presence actually hurt me physically.

But I was also worried about Milton Fine, the Kryptonian AI who'd altered time. As far as we could tell, the purple crystal he'd used to change things last time had disappeared into a rift in time, so hopefully he wouldn't be able to try the same trick again. But that only made me more nervous about what he might try next. The idea of leaving Chloe for more than a few seconds scared the hell out of me.

"Look," I said, "I'll be back in just a few minutes, okay? Don't go anywhere."

She smiled softly. "I'm not going anywhere, Clark. Relax."

Easy for her to say, but when you wake up and find out your girlfriend's utterly disappeared, you tend to get a little paranoid. I wasn't sure I'd ever get over the shock of discovering she'd been completely erased.

And I was pretty sure I'd never get over the joy of finding out I'd managed to get her back.

I was a mass of conflicting emotions-- I was worried for her, racked with lust, and totally ecstatic at being with her again-- and the last thing I wanted to do was leave her. But I needed that shower, and I needed to talk to my mom.

"I'll see you in a few minutes," I said, and bent down to kiss her. The light brush of her lips over mine sent a firestorm of electricity through me, and I moaned and instinctively put my arms around her waist.

"Clark. Knock it off."

I growled and let go of her. "Fine," I said sulkily. "If I die between here and Smallville, you'll know what happened to me."

She laughed at me. "I really think you can survive the next five minutes without sex."

"I guess I'll have to find out," I answered, and headed out the door at top speed.

Read Chapter 2 here.