Open Your Eyes, Chapter 2

Clark/Chloe
Season 8, MHE for "Legion"
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 1 here.

Sleeping Beauty, she thought hazily.

In the old fairy tales, it was always a kiss that brought the princess back to life. She felt like she'd finally been brought back to life, after too long a time spent in some shadowy half-existence. So it felt right for Clark to be kissing her now, his mouth warm against hers, his kiss chaste but filled with an unmistakable affection.

But that would make Clark her Prince Charming. And that wasn't right, because she was... she was...

God. She was married.

Clark lifted his head away, and she struggled to a sitting position, seeing that her blurred memories were indeed correct. They were in the Kent barn, where a few wedding decorations were still visible, and she was wearing a wedding gown. It was stained with massive quantities of blood-- not her own, she was fairly certain, because she felt no pain-- but it was undeniably a wedding gown.

She sat there for a moment, struggling to recall the events of the past few months. She'd agreed... to marry... Jimmy.

She remembered that. She did. What she couldn't remember was why.

"Chlo." Clark was still kneeling next to her, but he was beginning to look worried by her long silence. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "I just can't quite... remember..."

"You're bound to have some gaps in your memories." A new voice, a feminine one. Chloe looked up, and jolted slightly as she realized there were three strangers standing there. A tall man with dark hair, holding a metal sphere in his hands. Flanking him were a shorter boy with red hair and an impish smile that reminded her of Bart Allen, and a beautiful blonde woman.

The three of them stepped forward.

The woman's voice, Chloe thought, sounded familiar. She remembered hearing it before, as if down a long tunnel: Kal, she's asking for you.

Whoever these people were, they knew Clark's true identity.

She rose to her feet, tossing back the disheveled mass of her own blonde hair as she did so, and suddenly the three of them came to an abrupt halt, their mouths dropping open.

"Holy crap," the redheaded boy said. "But she's--"

The dark-haired man hit him on the side of the head, amiably but firmly. "Shut up, Garth."

"But--"

"Shut up. You know the rules."

The kid subsided into silence, looking none too happy about it. Chloe guessed he wasn't much good at the silence thing. More and more, he reminded her of Bart Allen. She tilted her head, smiling quizzically.

"Did the three of you bring me back?"

"Well..." The dark-haired man looked embarrassed. "The truth is, we weren't exactly planning to..."

"They saved you." Clark rose to his feet and put his hand on her shoulder. "Without their powers, I couldn't have helped you, Chlo. They're the ones who saved you."

"It was Kal's idea," the blonde woman demurred. "If he hadn't insisted that we try..."

She trailed off, but Chloe had no difficulty grasping what might have happened otherwise. She understood, and couldn't blame them for intending to kill her, not really. She knew as well as anyone what Brainiac was capable of. But she was grateful they'd found another way.

"And what if Kal hadn't insisted?" the redheaded kid was saying in an undertone. "We could have totally altered everything, Rokk."

"Shut up, Garth."

Chloe suddenly realized she was shivering. Well, no surprise there. She was wearing a sleeveless wedding gown in November. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to get warm, and Clark looked down, seeming to realize how cold it was. He lifted her into his arms, cradling her like a child.

"Come on," he said. "Let's get you inside."

"I can walk," she protested, struggling-- but only very slightly.

"I don't mind carrying you." He headed down the stairs, the three strangers trailing behind them.

A moment later, he carried her, still clad in her wedding gown, over the threshold of the Kent farmhouse.

More to come...