My Rainbow, Chapter 7

Clark/Chloe, full cast
Season 5, "Reckoning"
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
Read Chapter 1 here.
Read the previous chapter here.

"You're asking me to betray Clark."

Chloe felt her heart pounding against her ribs, but she stared back at Lana unflinchingly. "You want me to spy on him for you and Lex. I'm not going to do that, Lana."

Lana stared back, her green eyes huge in the darkness. "You have to, Chloe," she said, her voice very soft. White vapor drifted into the cold air with each word. "It's not just about us and our feelings. Trust me, I know how you feel. Clark and I have been best friends since we were little. But this is much, much bigger than you and me. Didn't you hear a word I said? Those things are strong enough to throw cars around, and they can kill people with just a look."

Chloe's voice rose in defensive anger. "Clark is not a thing!"

"Yes, he is," Lana snapped. "He's no more human than the creatures that came out of that spaceship. And he can do just as much damage, Chloe. He can kill just as easily as they could. Can't you understand that?"

Chloe lifted her left hand and looked at her engagement ring, remembering Clark welding it together just by staring at it. She pushed back the shiver that threatened to rack her, and lifted her head, meeting Lana's eyes.

"Just because he can hurt people," she answered steadily, "doesn't mean he will. I've never seen him hurt anyone, Lana. But I've seen him save plenty of people. He's a good man. I believe that with all my heart, or I wouldn't have agreed to marry him."

Lana shook her head. "I tried to tell myself that," she said softly. "I tried to believe he was a good man, despite what he can do. But now he's in communication with this other alien..."

"Did you see that for yourself?" Chloe snapped out, her investigative reporter instincts rising to the surface again. "Or are you just taking Lex's word for it?"

Lana looked briefly confused, then shrugged. "I don't have any reason to doubt Lex, Chloe."

"I do. Earlier this year he hired three meteor freaks to attack me and the Kents."

"He told me about that. He was just trying to find out the extent of Clark's capabilities."

"He almost got us killed!"

"I'm sure he had the situation under control." Lana's voice was soft and reassuring, and her mouth curled in a slight smile. "Lex always has things under control."

Chloe noticed the timber of her voice had changed. When Lana talked about Lex, she sounded admiring, almost dreamy. Lana, she realized, was attracted to Lex.

"Lana," she said, deciding to press for more information. A girl couldn't have too much information. "How long have you and Lex been working together? Since the meteor shower?"

Lana nodded.

"So he approached you?"

"Not exactly." Lana paused. "The truth is... I went to him last year, when I found out Clark was an alien."

"You told him Clark's secret then?"

Lana hesitated again, then nodded.

"But you and Clark have been friends forever." Chloe stared at her, shocked. "He trusted you, Lana."

"He killed my parents." Lana's eyes narrowed, and Chloe could hear the rage seething in her voice. "When he told me his ship arrived in the first meteor shower, I realized it was his fault my parents were dead. He killed them, Chloe."

Chloe stared at her, appalled by Lana's irrational fury and hatred. She shoved her hands deeper into her pockets, because despite the big houndstooth coat, she was suddenly very, very cold. "He was only three when the meteor shower happened. It wasn't his fault."

"It was his fault." Her voice was vibrant with rage, and for the first time Chloe fully grasped the depths of Lana's anger and hatred. "I knew I couldn't trust him, the minute he told me. And when the other things arrived, I trusted him even less."

Chloe remembered something Lana had told her earlier: He said he wanted me to be the first to know. Because he trusted me, and because we've always been friends.

All this time Clark had put his trust in Lana, had let her know the extent of his abilities, had confided his deepest secret in her-- and all this time, she'd been telling Lex everything. Everything. He'd believed she was his best friend, when the truth was that she loathed him.

Oh, God, she thought. This is going to hurt Clark so much.

She shoved the thought away impatiently. They had problems here that went far beyond hurt feelings. Big problems. Because it appeared that a dangerous man knew far too much about Clark and his strange powers.

Strange powers or not, she loved Clark. And no matter what Lana told her, she didn't believe Clark was the enemy here. It was obvious to her now that Lana couldn't be trusted. And she already knew Lex Luthor couldn't be trusted. God only knew what he might do to Clark. She had to warn him of the danger. She had to keep him safe.

Somehow, she had to figure out a way to protect Clark.

*****

When the photographer let Clark go, he found that the Talon was still packed. He felt very alone without Chloe on his arm, and he wondered where she'd gone off to. Because after all, she'd promised to be right here waiting for him. He looked around, but didn't see her.

"Hey," a voice said at his elbow. "You damn well better take good care of her."

He turned around, smiling a little, and saw Lois glaring at him. "Don't worry," he said. "I will. I promise."

She narrowed her eyes dangerously, staring at him as if she could read his soul, then a slight smile curved her mouth. Lois was kind of pretty when she smiled, he thought. Too bad she went around looking like she'd been sucking on a lemon most of the time.

"Okay," she said, and awkwardly punched him on the shoulder. "In that case... congratulations, Smallville. She's more than you deserve, of course, but you already knew that."

He grinned at her backhanded congratulations. "Thank you. Sort of."

"But listen... if you break her heart, I'll find you and break your legs."

Lois had always been protective of her younger cousin, and she'd made similar threats before. As it happened, being run over by an eighteen-wheeler and then flung off a thousand-foot cliff wouldn't break his legs, so there wasn't much one human female could do to him. Even so, Lois intimidated him. But he didn't let it show, just looked back at her without flinching.

"I won't break her heart, Lois," he said, gently. "I love her. And I'll take good care of her, honest."

"You better."

"I will," he promised. "I'll never let anything hurt her. Never."

*****

Jonathan's heart pounded more violently than before, and he began to find it difficult to draw a breath. Steady, he reminded himself. If Lex knew anything for sure, it would have hit the papers before now. He's trying to get information out of you.

"My son is adopted," he said, fighting to keep his voice level. "Are you suggesting he was born in another country?"

Lex's narrow lips curved. "I'm not talking about that sort of alien, and you know it," he said, his tenor voice still soft and dangerous. "I'm talking about the sort of alien that walks out of a spaceship in the middle of a meteor shower."

Oh, God, he does know. Jonathan could barely stop himself from staggering in shock. Summoning ever bit of self-control he possessed, he lifted an eyebrow and smiled a little.

"Sounds like you've been reading the Inquisitor a little too much lately, Lex."

"Don't toy with me, damn it." Lex put the brandy glass down on the desk with a clink and stood up suddenly, glaring into Jonathan's eyes. "I know all about your son, Mr. Kent. I know he can set fires with his eyes. I know he can run at the speed of sound. I know he's invulnerable to injury. And most importantly..."

He reached down to his desk drawer, opened it, and pulled out a greenish gray rock. He held it out to Jonathan, his eyes filled with such horrible triumph that Jonathan's heart squeezed in his chest with very real fear.

"I know how to kill him."

Read Chapter 8 here.