Time in a Bottle, Chapter 5

Clark/Chloe
Season 7, MHE for "Cure"
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
Read Chapter 4 here.
Read the story from the beginning here.

"It's been a few days."

Seated at her desk at the Daily Planet and typing rapidly, Chloe didn't look away from her monitor. "A few days since what?"

"Chloe." Clark planted his hip onto the corner of her desk and looked down at her. Her hair was pulled back in a neat, professional style, and he thought about loosing it and letting it fall everywhere, running his fingers through it, burying his nose in it...

Whoa. You're in the Planet basement, Kent. Get a hold of yourself.

"Come on, Chlo," he said, gently. "You said to give it a few days, and then we could talk. So let's talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." She sighed, and leaned back in her chair, looking up at him. "You've thought about it, and realized that we're better off as friends, and that you love Lana..."

The reminder that she hadn't really believed him the other night, that she fully expected things to return to the status quo, hurt a little. But he couldn't blame her for not having any faith in his change of heart. After all his years of chasing Lana and determinedly ignoring Chloe, at least from a romantic standpoint, he thought it was pretty much what he deserved.

"I asked Lana to leave the farm," he said evenly.

Her eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"You heard me. She moved out. We're not seeing each other any more." He bent a little and looked straight into her eyes. "I told you the other night I wasn't kidding, Chlo. I love you."

Her mouth fell open as if she was about to say something, but no words managed to make it out of her mouth. He went on, very seriously. "I know it took me a hell of a long time to figure it all out, Chlo, but I know how I really feel now. You're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. No matter how long the rest of our lives are."

Slowly, she closed her mouth. "So that's what this is all about," she said, sounding like Chloe Sullivan, investigative reporter, who always tried to find explanations for the inexplicable. "You're still thinking I'm immortal. Look, Clark, I have no way of knowing that..."

"No," he interrupted. "I don't know if you're immortal or not. If you were, that would be great. But if you're not... well, I'd rather have fifty or sixty years with you than eternity with anyone else, Chlo."

Suddenly he reemmbered her voice, saying, Believe it or not, it appears my heart has an unusually high concentration of green K particles.

He could definitely believe it. Because where Chloe's heart was concerned, he'd finally realized he was very, very weak.

At his words, she started to blink rapidly, and ducked her head, wiping at her eyes. "Lash in my eye," she muttered, her voice muffled.

Encouraged by her reaction, he put a hand onto her shoulder. "Chlo," he said softly. "Look, I understand if you want to think about this a while longer. I mean, I know you and Jimmy are dating, and..."

"Actually, we're not." Her head was still bowed, and her voice was still very soft, but he heard her clearly. "After what happened between you and me the other night... well, it wasn't fair to Jimmy. I broke up with him."

Happiness and hope swelled inside Clark like a big balloon. Apparently he wasn't the only one who'd made a choice in the past few days. "Okay," he said softly. "So we're both unattached. That's a start. Do you want to go get some lunch with me?"

She looked up. Her eyes looked slightly red-rimmed, but she gazed at him steadily. "Is this the usual friend thing? Or a date?"

"A date."

"Is lunch going to involve the actual ingestion of food, or just sex in a dark corner somewhere?"

"Your choice. Or, you know, we could do both. Both would be fine with me."

She stared at him for a moment longer, then a smile curved her mouth. "Okay," she said. "Both sounds great, actually."

She stood up, and they headed for the stairs. Clark didn't especially want to rub their change in status in Jimmy Olsen's face, but once they were on the staircase, he put his arm around her shoulders. She hesitated, just a moment, then slid her arm around his waist and leaned her head against him.

He was startled by how right it felt to walk next to her this way. They'd been walking side by side for a long time, but never with their arms around each other. But from now on, he intended to walk with his arm around her at every opportunity.

"So," he said as they ascended the stairs. "Do you really believe me now?"

"Well..." She shrugged. "I do think you've always loved me, in a way. Just not in that way."

"Chloe. I love you in every way. Really. You have to believe me."

They paused on the sidewalk outside the Planet, and she smiled up at him, a sweet, seductive smile that acted on him like an aphrodisiac. "Why don't you make me believe it, Clark?"

He didn't need to be asked twice. He swept her up in his arms, and seconds later they were in the field where they'd made out several nights ago.

"I'm happy to try," he said, grinning at her.

The air was a little chilly, but the sun was bright, and there was no one around for miles. And they were both free to do whatever they wanted together.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he lowered his head and kissed her, feeling the happy balloon expanding inside him until he thought it might just burst. He wanted to make love to her in the sunshine, to claim her as his own, with no impediments, and nothing standing between them. Because he loved Chloe Sullivan, and he was pretty sure she loved him, too.

And whether he had her for a year or an eternity, she was very definitely the one he wanted to go through time with.

-The End-