Ever the Same, 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
Chapter 14

Clark/Chloe
Season 5, following my story "Never Let Me Go"
17,000 words
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.

Trust Me, Book 5

Just let me hold you while you're falling apart
Just let me hold you and we'll both fall down
Fall on me
Tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same
- Rob Thomas, "Ever the Same"

The future

He sat alone, in an empty apartment that could have been warm and welcoming, if he'd bothered to turn the lights on when the sun set. Chloe Sullivan stared through the encroaching shadows of twilight and studied him for a long moment, seeing the despairing way in which he bowed his head and pressed his hands to his eyes, seeing the grief in his defeated posture.

He looked like the boy she'd always known, but older. Not old, not yet, but well into middle age. There were lines on his forehead that hadn't been there when she'd known him, threads of silver shimmering in his dark hair. And there was no hint of the laughter that had always bubbled just beneath his moody surface.

It looked like the moodiness had swallowed him whole.

She stared at him a moment longer, thinking how much she loved this man. He was her soulmate, the man she would love as long as she lived, and perhaps longer. She'd traveled a very long distance to find him, sold her soul to the devil to reclaim him, and she wasn't leaving without him.

At last she stepped forward. He should have been able to hear her footsteps, should have heard her heartbeat, but apparently he was too wrapped up in his own misery to listen to his surroundings. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he jolted, then lifted his head. His pale green eyes instantly filled with a twirling kaleidoscope of emotions-- hope, love, and despair.

"Chloe," he whispered, his voice hoarse and low.

She nodded, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. She knew this had to be beyond shocking for him. "Yes," she said softly. "It's me."

"No." He shook his head, and she could see the despair begin to win out over the hope. His eyes dimmed. "You're dead. You died forty years ago, Chlo."

"No," she answered gently. "If I were dead, I wouldn't be here."

"But you..." He looked at her through the shadows, his eyes narrowed. "You haven't changed at all, Chlo. You're just a figment of my imagination. Or... a ghost."

"You're not hallucinating, Clark. I'm real."

She could sense his desperate hope, could see the adoration in his eyes as he stared at her, and her heart twisted in her chest. After forty years without her, he still loved her, every bit as much as he ever had. The knowledge made tears prickle at her eyelids.

"You can't be," he said at last. "You died, Chlo. I saw you die."

"No," she said softly, her fingers squeezing his shoulder. "You were the one that died, Clark. But I can't live without you, and I've come to fix everything. To set things right." She dropped to her knees beside him and gazed up into his face.

"I've come to take you back."

Read Chapter 2 here.