the mayhem of misguided romance

Reccing Notes: I journeyed to the pit again, and I found this. Shining Friendship writes some multi-character fic and in this the character voices are quite spot on. I like it when Lois's relationship with Chloe isn't ignored. In Committed she was quite opinionated about Chloe's relationship with Jimmy and wants to make sure she's with the right guy... hence, the grilling.

Chloe and Davis's relationship is dealt with through dialogue between Lois and Davis right at the time of Hex. Why was Davis staying away from Chloe anyway?

by shining friendship at fanfiction.net

2362 words, pg, hex

"I gotta admit you never struck me as the kind of guy who would resort to soap opera theatrics to win a girl's heart..."

Lois Lane was walking through the crowded halls of Metropolis General Hospital, doing her best not to bump into the busy nurses and sick patients, and get back to her car before the vein in her forehead popped. Today had not been not her day. After arriving to the Daily Planet late, getting chewed out by her editor for her third tardy that month, and forgetting about her lunch plans with Jimmy, the day would, of course, only get worse when she cut her hand open after falling down on the sidewalk, losing her lunch in the process.

Thankfully, her editor let her have the rest of the day off when he heard about her spill and told her "to get it together" before she came back to work on Monday. She had almost reached the automatic entrance/exit door of the hospital when she spotted Davis going the same direction. The broodingly handsome and charming paramedic was dressed in his usual dark-and-light blue uniform, a red-orange bag full of medical equipment and supplies slung over his shoulder. Lois wasn't all that surprised to find her cousin's friend—or whatever the guy was to Chloe nowadays—working, but she was, however, surprised that he didn't come to Chloe's birthday party at the Ace of Clubs the week before.

"Hey, Dimples!" Lois called out to him, hoping he'd hear her over all the hospital busyness going on.

Davis, as well as several other people, looked around and stared at the Daily Planet reporter, making Lois feel slightly self-conscious and stupid for yelling at the paramedic to get his attention, instead of chasing him down. Once the small crowd staring at her figured out the brunette was talking to Davis, they continued on with what they were doing before and he walked up to her, confused and quite surprised to see her at Met General.

"Hey, Lois. What are you doing here?"

"I'm working on a story that should shut this crackpot hospital down for good."

"What?" Davis gaped at her. "Why would you—?"

Lois laughed. "Relax. It was a joke. I just came to get my hand sutured after I slipped and fell on the sidewalk earlier."

She showed her left hand to the paramedic, who quickly examined it and then he looked back up at her again.

"Looks like the doc who fixed you up did a good job. Did he tell you to keep them clean and dry and to go see your doctor to have them removed in about one week?"

"Don't worry, Dimples, I got the whole ER information download. Plus, one of the nurses gave me this lame instruction guide to follow in case something happens to it."

"Read it anyway," he instructed her, knowing she'd probably throw it in the trash as soon as she gets home.

"Missed you at Chloe's birthday party last week."

Like he had been put on ice, Lois immediately noticed Davis' body stiffen up and face grow pale—paler than usual—at the mention of Chloe's name. As the "other man" in her cousin's life, the brunette was a little surprised to see the EMT react that way, especially when Chloe and Jimmy, who were currently not on speaking terms, had been broken up for a couple of weeks now. Lois thought that with Jimmy removing himself from the equation, she figured Davis would be tossing his ring into the mix the second he heard her cousin was technically a free agent again.

"I wanted to give her some space," he finally opened up, barely looking at her as he said the words. "I didn't think it would be a good idea to show up after everything Chloe's been through with Jimmy these past few weeks."

"Look, I don't know what the current deal is between you and Chloe, but I do know that she can use all the support she can get from her friends right now."

"I couldn't go, Lois," Davis put his foot down, then quickly realized his answer sounded a tad bit rude and forceful, so he quickly calmed back down. "I didn't think it was right for me to go after Jimmy blew up at Chloe for taking my side over his when he accused me of being a serial killer and left her. They clearly have a lot of things they need to work out, and me standing there in the corner isn't going to make things any easier on them."

"Is that because you still have feelings for her?"

The paramedic was thrown into utter shock upon hearing Lois say she knew about his feelings for Chloe, but he maintained his cool on the surface and tried to act nonchalant. "Where did you get the idea that I—?"

"Chloe told me about your little run-in the week before her wedding," she smiled smugly at him. "I gotta admit you never struck me as the kind of guy who would resort to soap opera theatrics to win a girl's heart, but I guess that just means there's more to Davis Bloome than meets the eye, huh?"

"She told you about the kiss?"

"We're cousins, Davis. We do talk to each other from time to time."

"What—What else did she say about me?"

Lois couldn't help but smirk at the handsome paramedic. She would never admit it to him, but she immensely enjoyed seeing this vulnerable, shy side of him. "Why don't we continue this charade over a cup of coffee? When does your shift end?"

"I'm actually on my lunch break right now, but don't you have to get back to work?"

She rolled her eyes at him before replying, "I got the rest of the day off after my editor heard about my runway incident."

"All right, then let's go to the cafeteria and get some coffee."

"Lead the way."

"I'm a little disappointed in myself for not picking up on your strategy sooner," Lois said to Davis while stirring the cream and three packets of sugar into her coffee.

"What strategy?" he eyed her, having no idea what she was talking about.

"To win Chloe over, of course. By staying away and keeping distance between you, what you're really doing is hoping she'll eventually come seeking your open arms and forget all about Jimmy. It's a subtle but very effective strategy, if you ask me."

"Lois, I don't know where you come up with this stuff, but that's not what I'm doing. I'm not doing anything."

"So even though Jimmy's dead set against getting back together with Chloe and they'll probably end up getting divorced, you're just gonna throw in the towel and forget all about her?"

"Hey, that's not what I—"

"Then it's true," she smiled at him in triumph. "You do love her."

"Of course I do," he sighed, being straight with the bossy Daily Planet reporter. "You've obviously known that for weeks."

"Yes, I have," she replied before taking a sip of her weak coffee.

"So why aren't you more upset with me? I thought since Jimmy is your cousin's husband, you'd be using your combative skills to convince him to work things out with Chloe."

"I probably would've been the go-between and played matchmaker if this sort of thing had happened a year ago, but I can't do that now."

"Why not?" Davis eyed her suspiciously.

"Because Jimmy wasn't the man my cousin kept thinking about on her wedding day."

Mouth partially open, he looked over at Lois and waited for her to say more and clarify what she was trying to tell him.

"You were."

"What do you mean, I was the guy she kept thinking about that day? Are you talking about all the phone calls I made to her before the wedding?"

"I think the statement speaks for itself, don't you?"

Davis looked away from the noisy reporter with an eye roll in annoyance, leaned back into his chair and said nothing.

"Hey, before you go and tune me out, maybe you should listen to what I have to say, Dimples."

"And what would that be?" he asked, looking at her from across the small, circular table again.

"Just try and remember that it doesn't matter what our blushing bride told me, it's how she was acting that's important."

--
"My God," Lois sighed happily, as she finished climbing up the stairs to Clark's loft and saw Chloe staring at herself in her beautiful white wedding gown. The bride turned around and grinned at her cousin while they walked towards one another. "I have too much to do to start crying, but you look breathtaking."

"If it wasn't for you," the blonde said, taking her hand, "I'd look more like the bride of Frankenstein than Cinderella. What you did to this barn is absolutely amazing, Lois."

The brunette wrapped her arms around her and the sisterly cousins hugged, until the sound of a ringing bell went off from Chloe's cell phone and they pulled away from each other. She frowned as her phone continued to ring and didn't move an inch from where she was standing.

"Gonna answer that?"

Brushing past her, Chloe walked over to where her cell was at, which was on top of a pile of Clark's old schoolbooks, picked up the phone and pressed the 'Ignore' button as soon as she saw that she was getting another call from Davis.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she lied without putting on her poker face and Lois stared at her harder, waiting for her to tell the truth. "It's Davis Bloome. He has been calling all day. You know, deep down I know he's a really great guy. I just think he's a little confused."

The brunette couldn't help but give her cousin a perplexed, what-do-you-mean look by her serious lack of details over what Davis was so "confused" about.

"Last week he kissed me, and he told me he wasn't going to let me marry the wrong guy."

Slightly surprised to hear this, Lois finally understood why Chloe had been on pins and needles ever since she got to the Kent Farm; it made perfect sense. "Are you starting to have feelings for tall, dark and scary?"

The blonde gave her older cousin a weak smile, exhaling through her nose and said softly, "All I want is to walk down that aisle and marry the man I love."

--

"The look on her face was evidence enough she was scared out of her mind that you were going to show up right in the middle of the 'I Dos' and ruin the whole wedding."

"I wanted to," Davis admitted for the first time out loud in a bitter tone, gripping onto his white Styrofoam cup of coffee tighter. "I told Chloe I wasn't ready to let her go after we kissed, and I wanted to stop the wedding because I knew it was a mistake for her to marry Jimmy, but... I couldn't. I knew if I had done that, she would've hated me for it."

"Well, not to point out the obvious here, but whatever closed door there was between you two before, it doesn't have to be closed anymore. Jimmy walked out on their holy state of matrimony, so you're free as a bird to tell Chloe how you really feel about her now."

"That doesn't mean their marriage is over, Lois. We both know they could still work things out and get back together."

"You're actually going to use every lame excuse in the book not to tell Chloe you love her, aren't you?" she shot at him, fuming over the fact that he was keeping a secret this big away from her cousin.

"First of all, I still don't understand why you're pressing me to tell her when Jimmy's your friend and you've known him a lot longer than you've known me. And second of all, do you really think now would be the best time for me to say something like that when Chloe's in so much pain over losing him?"

"I see your point," she settled down. "But that doesn't mean you can't spend time with Chloe and be her friend while she's trying to get over Jimmy."

"I don't know if I can do just yet," he spoke quietly, his eyes averting from hers.

"Why not? Why can't you be a shoulder for her to lean on?"

"Because I don't want to be just her friend," Davis almost yelled out, staring into her eyes. "Because every time I'm around Chloe now, I feel like I'm lying to her."

"That's because you are lying to her," she said without flinching.

"So what do I do? Just keep avoiding her? Pretend like nothing ever happened between us, hope she'll eventually feel the same way about me, and then maybe we'll live happily ever after together someday?"

"Only you can answer those questions, Davis," Lois said, as she was preparing to leave by getting up from their table with her large, brown leather purse slung over her right shoulder. "Besides, you already know how I feel about the situation. But as someone who's gotten their heart broken from the mayhem of misguided romance more than once, can I give you a few words of wisdom?"

Saying nothing in return, he wordlessly told her with his eyes to give him the advice.

"Don't wait too long to tell Chloe how you feel about her. She may need you to be just her friend right now, but sooner or later this whole 'Divorce Court' drama with Jimmy will settle down and you'll have to tell her how you feel, or you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life."

"Thanks, Lois," Davis said in appreciation with a half-smile. "You're a good friend."

"Yeah, well, what can I say? It's a curse."

"Right," he scoffed.

"I'll see you around," she nodded and turn her heels to leave the hospital cafeteria.

The paramedic watched her go, his brown eyes pinned on her until she made her way to the door. Then they traveled up to the square-shaped clock hanging above the entrance and saw that he had fifteen more minutes before he had to punch back in. Davis opened up the front right pocket of his EMT jacket and pulled out his silver cell phone. He pressed one of the numbers on his speed dial, pressed the green 'Talk' button, and held the phone to his ear. He waited for a couple seconds, listening to the call go through and almost smiled when he heard the word "Hello" from the person he was trying to get ahold of.

"Hey, Chloe, it's me."

claustrophobic altercations

Reccing Notes: nonky here keeps challenging me to write smut in all manner of places. She's also a beyond phenomenal at worming in the smut everywhere and making it believable in the context of the episode, gorgeous and hotly emotional-so I can't help it.

Take Abyss, the elevator scene and spazz faces while Chloe's struggling to hold onto herself. It fits with Davis to do his woobie eyes and then blow out a slow breath. But then one second and catching one elevator door can change everything.

by nonky at her livejournal

1560 words, nc-17, abyss

“I-I don't know who I am,” she mumbled.
“I do.”

Chloe flashed a bright smile at Davis as the elevator doors started closing, sure it wasn't convincing. She was too full of swirling thoughts to talk to him, and she feared thinking about him too much would make him the next target of her amnesia.

He rolled his eyes and huffed out his exasperation, but Davis only allowed himself a few seconds of defeat. His arm went out and caught the doors only inches from sealing. He shoved at them until he could push in to stand next to a very flustered blond.

“I've resigned myself to going to Hell,” he told her seriously. “I'm doing my best to be a good man, but it doesn't feel like I'm anywhere near salvation unless you're looking at me. I want you to be there, to look at me, and to touch, and kiss. I think you'll be all the difference for me.”

Chloe felt herself reel back, an actual physical force of shock pushing her into the wall. Davis followed, his jaw relaxing as he pressed his closed mouth to her slightly open one. His tongue flicked along, lingered in the corner, and her hips bumped into his hands.

“I-I don't know who I am,” she mumbled.

“I do.” Davis lifted her up and she was perched on the handrail around the elevator. Her legs needed somewhere to go, and linked behind his ass. She could swear he was melting their clothes off. His hands kneaded at her hips and he pushed harder against her. The outline of his cock was as distinct as the slick feel of his tongue teasing at hers.

She couldn't help it. Her arms came off their outraged spread along the walls and grabbed his face violently. Her thumbs dug into his dimples like she was trying to cut them out. She felt a few short, dark hairs rip out between her fingers as Davis tilted his head. There was a din inside her head, a mechanical screaming she ignored. They were both dragging air in and out like they'd run miles. She felt her chest rise to his, breasts flattening on his broad weight.

“Chloe,” he gasped, and she nodded wildly. Her feet touched down and she reached for his belt at the same time Davis went for her buttons. Chloe was less successful, but she didn't care when she was bared waist to knees. He leaned his face on her shoulder and watched her take two fingers in with little bumps up to his hand.

She was his pretty, small love and this was heaven, heaven in his hand and with her hands on him.

She had the belt open, hands down the front of his jeans and yanking. When he was clear-headed, he wanted Chloe for a long courtship of meals and movies. He wanted time to talk to her about everything. Her green eyes told him they knew it all and liked it - maybe even could love him in spite of it.

Davis had put a condom in his wallet like a dumb, horny kid, and he reached for it with one hand not occupying Chloe's silky damp pussy. He had pulled the emergency stop a few minutes ago. In a hospital, they couldn't leave a stopped elevator stuck for more than ten minutes. The alarm accused him of short-changing her of this discovery. She should have a soft bed and comfort, not a metal wall to her back. He could feel her reactions now were full speed ahead, but he couldn't predict her later.

Then she had him out of his pants, cupped in her hands with brisk strokes that managed to last forever in his nerve endings. Davis tore the foil packet and realized he'd never in his life been so desperately screwed. He couldn't pull his fingers away from the gyrating pulse of her hips. He couldn't put the condom on one-handed and make sure it was done properly.

Chloe's stomach flipped and she felt herself nodding, bouncing with the motion to show she was ready. She took the condom from him and positioned it. She shook as she rolled it down, smoothing out wrinkles and making it comfortable. She could have him in her. She felt like a femme fatale in a movie, seducing on the way to steal a diamond. There was no time to savor anything or make a connection. She and Davis were lucky there was a connection already.

She threw a smile at his deep, nearly-hurting expression, as she turned around. Her hands spread on the wall and smeared the shiny surface. Davis touched her back, up her arms, unsure where to hold on to her. Chloe bent her knees and he put his face in her hair. Whispering what seemed like a prayer, he pushed in gently. They each took a moment to breathe again, then Chloe spoke.

“Hard.”

“I can't,” Davis protested, his voice pinched by the tightness of her body. She didn't understand. He'd felt responsible for her from their first meeting, and now she was letting him inside.

“Please, Davis.”

He couldn't blame the bob of her ass or the tone of voice as much as his own need. His hands suddenly knew where to be and gripped her strongly. They jammed her into the wall and Davis followed with the rest of himself. He worked his cock out and shoved in hotly, trying to work in the tiny orbit he'd created. Everything was too small and crushing him; her pussy tugging on his withdrawals and throbbing as he came back, the few minutes left alone before someone got the elevator open.

He liked that she had to stay where he put her, while he made the choice to go away and come back. It satisfied all those moments Chloe had given him a cheerful goodbye and left him aching. Davis was a schism to himself, a monster occupying his gentle love.

God, he was big. Davis' strength overwhelmed her and she let it happen again and again. She flexed to take this thrusts and couldn't do anything more to help either of them.

“Harder,” she whined.

He didn't hesitate, the energy flowing between them without any checks. Chloe shuddered as he filled her, too far gone to brace for it and hold still. She shook and moaned, shivered in those rare moments when there was nothing filling her. She crossed her arms in front of her and leaned on the protective gesture.

Davis was nearly gone. He could barely control his muscles enough to pull out a little bit before he ground his groin on her slick skin. He sifted through her hair and pulled her chin back, kissing imprecisely on her top lip and dragging his mouth down her neck. His teeth itched and he let himself bite. Chloe's entire frame quaked. She let out a scream that went on for hours to his ears.

She closed down on him so hard Davis thought he'd break, never be able to do this again. He didn't even try to save himself. He moved with her frantically jerking hips and poured like fire out into the condom. His knees wobbled and he leaned heavily on the short blond he'd just fucked and bitten.

The car jostled and started moving again. Davis pulled out gently and felt Chloe's flinch. He pulled up his pants and got himself decent before turning to help her. She was trying to get her own pants fastened. There were claw marks in her palms, her knuckles white.

“Okay, just let me do the talking,” he told her,

Chloe had seemed a little dazed even before he turned into a sex fiend on her, and Davis knew he'd have to ask her about it properly. He reached down for his bag and threw it over his shoulder. Chloe let him take one of her hands and pull her into his side. She was messy and flushed. Their clothing looked like they had wrestled.

And it had only been about twelve minutes since he'd chased after her. Davis felt like he was in an alternate reality, one where things aligned to give him Chloe's love. All he had to do was not get fired for elevator sex and make sure she didn't regret this.

Davis had time to smooth her hair with his palm before the doors opened to a nonplussed maintenance man and one of the hospital security guards. He squeezed Chloe tighter and helped her walk out into the hallway.

“Thank you, guys, so much. We were doing some behavioural therapy on claustrophobia, and she freaked out,” he said quietly, as if sparing Chloe's privacy. “I couldn't get to the button to get things moving again.”

The last part was certainly true, and he was relieved when Chloe nodded. Fucked beyond snarkiness looked a lot like shellshock on her, Davis thought to himself.

It helped that the guard knew him, and within a few minutes they were waved on with a rueful suggestion that they take the stairs on their way out. Chloe managed a weak smile at that, but it dropped once they were walking away.

“Davis, I need help.”

He'd do anything for her, and Davis nodded encouragingly. “Tell me.”

“You're pretty much the only person I remember anymore.”

caveman

Reccing Notes: I pestered paraxdisepink to do another follow-up to Leap and Penance, with another time smut happened.

What she came up with is plot driven and nothing short of a masterpiece. Chloe gets kidnapped by Lex Luthor in the aftermath of a not-argument about the many things she wants to do with Davis. Davis and Clark go to save her in an uneasy truce. Clark gets called on the mind rape; Davis finds Chloe first and it seems that even while the building is destroyed above them... You have read Leap right?

I will harry you into reading this, I will. It is deep and revelatory and deliciously hot.

by paraxdisepink at her lj.
6680 words, from pg-13 to nc-17, post-leap.

He pulled her against him and tried to rub some warmth into her while Clark looked on with a chewing rocks face that made it clear he didn't approve. Chloe's outfit – or lack thereof – probably didn't help. Davis wondered what Clark would do if he had his job, run away and blush every time he had get to someone up off their shower floor?

Chloe I was stupid. That was the first thing he planned on saying when he found her. He'd been meaning to say it since he lost her, when she left his apartment in her nightgown and robe of all things.

“I guess this is one of those times you just need to be alone,” she told him in a voice that had more than a little ice around the edges. Being alone had sounded like a good idea until he heard her car door slam. He was tired and trying to fight off the nagging arousal. He was . . .

It all started when he came home from work and found her waiting for him in his bed, literally laying in wait in bright pink lingerie. He got out of the shower and crawled under the covers and she climbed – no slinked was a better word – on top of him, warm and smelling like Bath and Body something or other.

His response was instantaneous and pretty predictable, a rush of excitement, a throb in his groin, and that helpless drowning feeling when she kissed the tender spot behind his ear and started down the line of his jaw. The hunger was there, in him and in her, but he wrestled against it. He'd been worrying about stuff like this all day in the ambulance. He'd even come home ready to talk about it, as soon as he got some sleep. But now that she caught him off guard it all seemed to come out in a different language. Maybe if he wrote it in Kryptonian she'd get it. She was good at that stuff.

“You know, we don't have to do this so much,” he said as he took her by the shoulders and pulled her away from him. “There's plenty of other things I like doing with you.”

Chloe looked confused in the darkness above him, but decided to laugh it off. “Sleeping with you isn't a chore, Davis.” She ran her hand over his arm where the muscles bulged. “Let's be realistic here.”

Davis turned his head away. Chloe had told him pretty plainly that sex with him was better than sex with Jimmy. Once, she had told him pretty plainly she felt a certain way with him that she didn't feel with Jimmy. He should have been flattered, but deep down he felt more like the monster using some kind of mystical allure to keep the good girl in his clutches than a step up in significant others. Feeling like the monster dulled the hunger somewhat and made it easier when he said, “I'm serious, Chloe. I don't think it hurts to take a step back and let you know this isn't all I'm here for.”

She climbed off him and for the first time after all they'd been through she really did look at him in the moonlight like he was from another planet. “Oh my god, are we having too much hot sex for you, Davis? I didn't realize you were that inhibited.”

“I'm not.” She should know that. There wasn't a place in her apartment or his where they hadn't . . . he didn't want to say 'fucked' but he couldn't call it making love either. That was tender, slow, not always her style. “I'm just trying to do the right thing here.”

That was evidentially the wrong thing to say, not surprising since there wasn't a whole lot right about him. He'd been created to hide a sentient weapon of mass destruction. Chloe pulled the covers over her lap, her shoulders stiffening in the dim light. “Sleeping with me goes against your morals now? What, should we be married? I didn't realize I was sleeping with the religious right.” That was a cheap shot. She told him his being Catholic didn't bother her, but she wasn't done. “Or is this some attempt at romance? 'You're more to me than a vagina.' Thanks, Davis. I'm flattered.”

Davis sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Come on, Chloe, give me a break here. You know I'd never think that.”

She climbed out of bed and pulled a matching silky pink robe over her shoulders, and if that wasn't a bad enough omen she grabbed her purse and nothing else and he realized she'd driven over here dressed like that. God, what if she got pulled over . . . ? He hoped she had a coat in the car.

“Maybe you'd rather be alone,” she said as she headed for the door. “I think I've done enough damage to your celibacy vow.”

Davis got out of bed after her. He didn't say he didn't want to . . .

“Chloe . . .”

It was too late. She went out the door and started heading down the stairs for the parking lot. Davis let out a long breath and slumped against the hall doorway. Part of him panicked that she wouldn't come back and he wanted to run after her. The rest of him wanted the confusion and frustration to last as long as possible. He'd gotten into a fight with his girlfriend that he couldn't make sense of. He hadn't had this normal of a problem in a long time.

Ten minutes later after he heard her car door slam and saw the flash of headlights he went to the phone and dialed her number. The best thing was to apologize, say he was just tried, and try and explain himself some other time. Her cell phone rang, but the call went to voice mail. That wasn't a good sign. She was pretty annoyed with him, but not pissed off enough not to answer.

The gnawing arousal faded and he went to the front window. He could see the parking lot from his living room and her car was still there. Maybe she was waiting for him to come out. He got his shoes on and hurried down the stairs, and froze at what the poor lighting and a big tree had kept him from seeing.

Her car door was open and Chloe wasn't inside. Davis scanned the scene inside and out. Her purse was there, but her phone was gone. He remembered the headlights he'd seen earlier and the car door he'd heard. This wasn't a mugging. Someone had taken her. How could he be so stupid? He should have watched her get into her car.

The keys were there in the ignition, dangling with keychains in bright mismatched colors like everything else Chloe owned. Davis glanced around. There was no one in the parking lot, no witnesses. Everyone was inside with the blinds pulled shut.

There was no point in going through her purse. Chloe the queen of the digital era wouldn't keep one of those address planners you wrote in. She had a photo of Lois in her wallet though and Davis thanked God aloud when he remembered that she used to date Oliver Queen. Queen could help. He owed him a favor and Chloe's cell phone was on. Queen could have someone locate the signal.

It wasn't until Davis got Clark on the phone instead that he realized why he'd made Chloe so angry. For someone Chloe had never actually been with, Clark had done more than his fair share of damage. Unforgiveable damage. She hadn't said it, but after the way Clark had violated her she was over sensitive to people she cared about deciding what was best for her. If he didn't hurry up and find her he might not get the chance to tell her that wasn't his intention.

Unfortunately Lois wasn't home and Davis had to explain why he needed Oliver Queen's number.

“You lost Chloe?” Clark had that accusatory note in his voice, as though it was his fault. As though it proved something. Clark had known he wasn't good enough and he was going to take the chance to say 'I told you so' without having the balls to actually say it. Davis felt like throwing the phone. Great guy. What did Chloe see in him again?

“I didn't lose her. She's been kidnapped.”

“Outside your apartment. Why didn't you stop them?”

Davis was losing his patience. He wanted to find Chloe, not sit around and play the blame game. “Same reason you didn't stop Chloe from getting infected with that Brainiac Construct. I can't be everywhere at once.”

“You were right there. I don't see how this could have happened.”

He didn't have time for this. Chloe's abductors could be doing God knows what to her by now. His stomach turned. He didn't want to go there. “Look, can you just have Oliver find out where she is? I have to get her back.”

Clark let out a long breath, but to his credit he didn't deliberate. “I'll be right there.”

**

Davis forgot Clark had what Chloe called 'superspeed.' He wasn't exactly mentally present when he had fought – no, killed – Clark in the Fortress. Up until then he'd thought of Clark as a well-meaning bumpkin who had yet to grasp that big city concept of staying out of the other guy's way. Now, he expected an eternity of pacing around his living room and feeling inadequate because he had to call on another guy for help. But all he'd meant to ask for was Oliver's number and a little assistance pinpointing a cell phone signal. Clark was the one who had decided to come over. Given the powers Clark had, Davis would be stupid to say “I don't need you.” This wasn't a time for his ego and after having the Ultimate Destroyer inside him what did he care about being macho? This wasn't a contest to see who tore the most stuff apart between here and wherever Chloe was and deserved her more. Clark didn't want her and even if he suddenly changed his mind Chloe couldn't forgive him for what he had done to her.

Someone pounded on the door in about two heartbeats. Davis opened it and Clark was there in a newer version of his famous red jacket and blue t-shirt. Doomsday had bloodied the old one beating the life out of him.

“You get ahold of Oliver?' Davis asked as he let him in.

Clark nodded and didn't go further than inside the doorway. This wasn't a sit down on the couch and have a beer type of visit.

“Lex took her.”

“Luthor?”

Clark nodded. Davis didn't know much about Lex Luthor, but he knew from what Chloe had told him that the guy was bad news. But on one hand, being abducted by him was better than some thugs off the street. On the other he had the power to cover up his messes and Davis had to keep Chloe from becoming one of those messes.

“He must be trying to get to me.” Clark lowered his head and started to pace. “Back when we were friends I never thought he'd stoop this low and go after the people I love.”

Because everything was about Clark. “What about Chloe's meteor power? What if he wants to study her? Chloe said he's tried that before.” She had blackouts just like him at the time. Her mother compelled her with her own power to kill Lex Luthor one night. She knew what it was not to remember what she'd done, to be terrified of what she could become. The funny thing was, she hadn't told him that until a few weeks ago.

“You think something she wrote in one of her articles pissed him off?”

“I don't know.” Clark looked lost. Was he really destined to save the world? He pulled himself together and said in a stronger voice. “It's not important right now. We have to find out where Lex has taken her. Do you have speed?”

“Some.” Davis was getting faster every day, but he didn't know whether he could match Clark. He could try though. For Chloe he could try. He opened the door. “After you.”

**

They flew through Star City in the darkness, through the streets Davis walked sometimes when the memories got the better of him. Finding Chloe wasn't as simple as locating her cell phone. They found her cell phone. Lex's people had dropped it off at one of his labs, and after wasting an hour sneaking past guards and finding a stealthy way in all they found was a voice mail message.

“If you want Chloe you'll have to follow the breadcrumbs.”

It made Davis sick to admit it, but if he had the monster inside him . . . No. Chloe wouldn't want a monster coming for her; she'd want a man. But as things stood she'd have to settle for two super-powered aliens.

“This is going to turn into a wild goose chase,” Davis turned to Clark in the moonlight. “Clark, she could be hurt.”

Clark's features tightened. The thought had crossed his mind. “We'll get Oliver on it. We'll find all Lex's hideouts and search them one at a time if we have to.”

That wasn't good enough. That could take all night. Days even. “We'll split up. Give me some places and I'll take half. I'm not going to waste time here.”

Clark made the call and Oliver, who admitted to owing him a favor, came back with some locals. Davis put them in his phone and took off running. Code three was for saving lives, no unnecessary passengers. He didn't know what to call this, but as he watched Clark take off in the opposite direction he felt like they were on some sick Easter egg hunt. Whoever found Chloe first proved they were better for her, and the top contenders were the guy sent to Earth to kill everyone and the guy who had as good as raped her.

It was always darkest before dawn, the saying went, and in the pitch blackness of early, early morning Davis did find her first. It was the blackout hour when he would wake up bloody, the nightmare hour when he got the hell out of the ER before the weeping relatives made it in with their questions. If something hellish was going to happen tonight now was the time.

This building was smaller, just a huge brick rectangle in the open ground between Metropolis and Smallville. He thought about going in alone, but he called Clark at the last minute. Maybe they'd never watch the Superbowl together, but when it came to breaking into a Luthorcorp facility two were better than one.

Clark blurred in and scanned the building, and Davis had to admit he'd changed a lot since he'd last seen him at Chloe's dinner party. Some of the farm boy had worn off and more focus and confidence came through. Maybe it was Lois. Maybe she'd done her best to take the 'boy' out of the farmboy. Or maybe it was coming back from the dead. Davis could relate to that.

“Back entrance is unguarded,” Clark said.

Davis looked at him. He used to think of himself as a straight forward guy. The patients wanted to know their chances, he told him. He liked a girl, he told her. But after a few weeks of whirlwind self-discoveries about his origins and his purpose he wasn't willing to take anything at surface value.

“Does that mean it's a trap?”

“It doesn't matter. Lex can't stop me. He's not . . .”

“Me.” Davis finished for him. Clark may as well say it. It was sickly flattering, in a way. No one's ever hurt me as good as you did. Way to get all nostalgic.

Clark nodded, slowly, like he was ashamed. He shouldn't be. Davis was the one who had beaten the life out of him before Chloe's eyes. “When this is over I want you to meet my father.”

Davis blinked. What? Was Clark planning on proposing to him? Bringing him home to meet the family? Or was he planning on taking him up north for a little mind wipe so he would forget Chloe altogether?

“You're Kryptonian,” Clark hurried on. “I need to know your powers won't put anyone in danger.”

Or maybe it was that. Clark still didn't trust him. The feeling was mutual. Never trust a guy who violated the lady in your life. “Right,” Davis shrugged. “But if you don't stop talking and let me go in that building they will be.”

He stalked off and left Clark to follow. It turned out the back door had guards after all, Luthorcorp guys in bullet proof vests and helmets, paramilitary types. It didn't take much to take them out, just a good hit with his above average strength. They'd wake up with a headache, but other than that he didn't worry about them. Davis heard a whoosh of air and realized Clark was behind him. He grabbed another guard further down one of the near black corridors, lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the wall.

“Where's my friend?” his voice was rough.

The guy gulped and his eyes went wide. Clark's innocent baby face might have fooled him at first glance, but one look up into his hard blue eyes told him this guy might just choke the life out of him. Davis believed it, but as much as he didn't want anyone to get hurt he didn't tell Clark to stop. The guy knew something.

“Why should I tell you?” The guy's voice was thin. Not a lot of air got between him and Clark's hand around his throat.

Clark's eyes flashed and for a moment Davis expected them to glow murder-red. He'd never known this side of Clark existed, the real violence, the Kryptonian imposing his will on a primitive human inferior. Chloe always treated him like a naïve child who only did wrong by accident. Maybe she'd never seen this side or maybe there was a monster inside every man when someone he cared about was in danger.

Beams of molten heat shot from Clark's eyes, setting fire to the tapestry above the guard's head. Material like that was easily flammable, a few more seconds and the guy's hair would catch fire. He knew it and his eyes went wider with stark terror. He licked his lips, dry where they hung open.

“Turn right. Go up to the third floor and keep going. Double doors. You'll see it.”

Clark let him go and he slumped to the ground, rubbing his neck and catching his breath. Davis glanced at the burning tapestry above him. “Please tell me you spray water out of eyes too. Chloe's human, if the building itself catches fire –“

Davis didn't finish. He yanked the tapestry off the wall, rolled it up and smothered the flames. The guard was watching him, wild-eyed, and the expression on his face said 'Thank God.' Davis shook his head. Who knew he'd be the good cop.

They turned right and went up a rickety flight of stairs in the dark. They found a set of double doors just like the guard had said. Clark was the one destined to save the world and he'd been sent to this planet to save the day, but there wasn't a power in Heaven or Hell or Krypton itself that could have stopped Davis from crashing through those doors first. They should have taken the time to engineer a plan, some kind of stealthy infiltration like you saw in the movies, but sometimes brute force and desperation was all you needed. Caveman vs. Astronauts, the old conundrum. It was ironic, if you thought about it, but either way Lex wasn't hurting Chloe tonight.

Davis saw her at once, before he saw that the lab was empty. Lex had locked her in some kind of glass cage. There were wires, jars of glowing green liquid, but none of it touched her. She was on the floor with her knees folded under her, hugging that hot pink robe across her chest with her arms. That and the slip beneath was all she wore and it wasn't exactly tropical in here. Davis ran to her. Maybe he was the one who should have brought a coat, but all he had one was pajama pants and a t-shirt.

Her eyes went wide when she saw the two of them and Davis didn't know who she was happier to see at the moment, the guy she said she loved or the guy who had the power to burn this place down with his eyes. It didn't matter. There was a key on the ground. Lex had either left it here to taunt her with it or took off running when he heard them.

“Davis . . .” she crawled to him when he opened the cage door. She wasn't terrified, but she was cold. He pulled her against him and tried to rub some warmth into her while Clark looked on with a chewing rocks face that made it clear he didn't approve. Chloe's outfit – or lack thereof – probably didn't help. Davis wondered what Clark would do if he had his job, run away and blush every time he had get to someone up off their shower floor?

Chloe pulled back and for the first time Davis noticed she was a little unsteady. They've given her something. Davis was about to demand what when a door at the other end of the lab swung open.

He should have known getting Chloe back wasn't going to be this easy.

A slender figure strode through the doorway, bald head glowing in the halogen lights. He wore a suit and walked like it was plate armor. Davis stared him down over Chloe's head. He'd kidnapped her. It wasn't Doomsday inside him urging him toward violence this time.

Lex didn't seem to see him. His attention was all for Clark. “So you found her. Did you think I just happened to leave that key lying around? Petty oversights haven't gotten me this far.”

Clark took a step toward him. “What are you talking about?”

“I have you right where I want you, Clark.”

Clark stiffened, almost a good half foot taller than Lex Luthor. “I won't let you study me. I know that's what you've always wanted.”

Lex grabbed Clark by the front of his red coat and tossed him into a wall full of glass shelves like a human bowling ball. “You don't know anything about what I want, Clark, and how could you? You're not even human.”

Clark went stock still in the middle of dragging himself up from the broken glass. Lex somehow had gained the power to hurt him, but that wasn't what shocked him, not the pain of flying halfway across the room or the blood running from a cut on his cheek. Lex knew. Clark's eyes went straight to Chloe and her face crumpled. Lex had learned the truth from her, or at least that's what she believed. Davis highly doubted it. Chloe was too loyal, even to someone who had betrayed her in the worst way.

“You don't know what you're talking about,” Clark faltered in a panic. “Aliens, spaceships. None of that makes sense, Lex.”

The words just bounced right off him. “I never said anything about aliens, Clark. But now that you mention it.” He bent down and picked Clark up by the throat, his long legs dangling like a ragdoll. “The shady adoption, my father's interest in you. It all makes sense now.” He gave Clark another toss into the wall beside Chloe's cage. Davis covered the back of Chloe's head on instinct as sheet rock and paint chips flew toward them. The impact of Clark's body made a dent.

Clark's eyes went big where he slid down to the floor with his legs in front of him. From the little Davis remembered of their fight in Fortress Clark hadn't looked this disbelieving. Being thrown around by a monster was one thing, looking up at the violence in the eyes of your human friend was something else. Clark actually looked halfway heartbroken. He never thought the two of them would come to this.

“What are you doing, Lex?” he rasped in a thin voice. He was breathing hard. Davis hadn't seen that from him before.

Lex hadn't broken a sweat. “Fulfilling my destiny. Our whole lives have been building toward this moment, Clark. The day we met, the meteor shower, that painting on the Kawachi cave wall . . .”

Clark swallowed hard. Apparently the painting meant something. “It doesn't have to be like this. Nothing's set in stone. Ask, Davis.”

Lex barely glanced at him. “I think I know all I need to about Davis Bloome.”

Davis glanced at Chloe kneeling next to him, but she was just as shocked by all this as he and Clark. “What's that supposed to mean?” he turned back to Lex.

Lex's eyes went to Clark, on his guard for when he regrouped or healed himself enough to get up again. “Atonement, redemption, all those good intentions. Your need to play the hero and do good in the world. You could have turned yourself in for what you've done, the bodies you buried, but why waste the power you have when you could save the world? I have to say, it does make a lot more sense. It's refreshing knowing I'm not the only one who sees the shades of grey.”

Where did he learn all this? Davis glanced at Chloe once more and she lowered her head. “What did you do to her?” he demanded.

Lex began to pace. “Chloe and I took a little walk down memory lane. You see, Milton Fine taught me a thing or two and he's left his mark on her. It was quite a slide slow, the normal life the two of you try to have after you literally stole away your bride. I guess a good blood bath is what does it for the modern woman these days.”

Davis opened his mouth. That wasn't who had ruined Chloe's wedding. That was some Kryptonian programming so he would take Chloe to the Arctic for the computer construct to possess so it could transform him for good in an ice cocoon. He'd been trying to work and keep his mind off her that night. He had no idea the connection between them came down to an alien plot to destroy the world. He just thought he loved her. He should have known. It wasn't like him to go kissing a girl who said she loved another man, even if he didn't believe her. Then again he couldn't have been thinking straight, manipulated on that level.

He tried not to think about what else he could have done. What if the computer construct wanted the Destroyer to have offspring, to start some kind of army in order to wipe out humankind. His stomach turned. He couldn't think about it.

Lex wasn't done talking anyway.

“But you're nothing more than a tool.” His eyes hadn't left Clark and Clark hadn't moved. “It's you that got my attention. Milton Fine had a lot to show me. I know now, it's so much worse than the lies you've told, over and over every time I looked at you. It's more than your little secret has stolen from me – my father, Lana, weeks of my life in Belle Reve. I've seen everything you've done. Days mysteriously reset, four years of Chloe's life wiped away on a whim . . . If you'd do that to someone you care about I shudder to think what you'd do to the rest of us.”

Davis felt like throwing up. He'd learned all this from Chloe's mind? And who the hell was Milton Fine? He put an arm around her and pulled her against his shoulder. He had to do something worthwhile with his hands if he couldn't get them around Lex's throat.

Clark pushed himself to his feet. “I did care about you, Lex. But you've gone too far.”

Lex casually backhanded him aside. “I'm done with your lies, Clark. It's time to end this. It's time to be the hero of the story.”

Davis stared at Clark sprawled on the ground. What had Lex done? What did that mean? Where had he gotten the power to hurt Clark? Davis got to his feet. It didn't matter. He had to do something.

Clark seemed to know. He saw him rise and shook his head from where he'd landed on his back. “Get Chloe and get out of here. This is between me and Lex.”

It wasn't anymore, not after Lex and this Milton Fine had hurt Chloe. But Davis had come to get Chloe out of here. She didn't have powers like him and Clark. She needed him. Chloe looked like she wanted to object, but maybe a little bit of what Lex had said was at work here. Maybe this was Clark's way of earning her forgiveness. Or maybe Davis was reading too much into it. At the moment Clark didn't have eyes for anyone but Lex.

Davis grabbed Chloe by the arm and hauled her toward the door they'd come through. They had to hurry. Lex might be telling the truth about luring them here to try and destroy Clark, but Davis wasn't willing to take chances. His people might come charging after them and Lex had dozens of people.

He pushed Chloe to go ahead of him and she ran, high-heeled marabou slippers and all. The facility was huge and they didn't have time to slow down. Davis ran after her. His leftover abilities let him see in the dark better than any human could and maybe he should have gone first to make sure she didn't fall, but if someone was coming after them he wanted a chance to fight them off so she could get away.

He heard Clark's voice in the distance, and then Lex's, and then another crash. Davis had a vain hope the farmboy could talk him down. There was something naggingly familiar about Lex and it told him he hadn't always been the bad guy. More glass shattered and Chloe turned to look back over her shoulder. Davis shook his head at her.

“Keep going.” She couldn't do a thing to help Clark unless she counted getting herself killed.

They ran through a labyrinth of hallways, turning sharply through the building and lit by very little light. This must be the top secret way. The places Lex hid whatever he did in this lab from the inspectors. Good thing it doubled as a suitable escape route.

Chloe's legs gave way after she'd gotten to the bottom of the third flight of stairs. This wasn't the way they'd come in. There was a door with the word 'tunnels' marked in red that evidently led under the city. Davis opened it and helped her stagger inside. She sank to the floor when he closed it behind her and he knelt down in front of her on the dirty unswept tile. A lot of foot traffic had come this way, but he didn't hear anything from either direction now.

It was dark here even for him. He couldn't see much but the outline of her and the brightness of her eyes, but he could hear her breathing. She leaned her head back and pulled her slippers off.

“Whoever invented these things should be hanged. Please don't tell me you find them sexy.”

Wasn't that the point of wearing them? He hadn't thought of them as sexy or not. He looked past all that with her. But even though he didn't care about the slippers right now, he was smart enough not to answer yes or no.

“What did they do to you?”

She pushed her hair out of her face. “I'd forgotten just how deeply Lex was in bed with Brainiac.”

“Brainiac? What does he have to do with this? I thought Clark got rid of him.”

Chloe shook her head. “It's not that easy, Davis.” He waited for her to say something more, but she didn't.

“Chloe . . .”

She didn't answer, just sat there grim-faced. She knew what was happening up there. She knew what Lex had done. Maybe she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. Davis swallowed. Getting her out alive was more important anyway and she needed to catch her breath.

He smoothed some of her hair down and she tilted her face up toward him. She still hadn't let herself relax and something about her seemed to wind up tighter when her eyes met his in the darkness. This was the part where he was supposed to say he was sorry for pissing her off and that everything would be all right, but he couldn't quite get the words out. He was too busy curling his fingers in her hair and slipping his other hand around her back. He wasn't thinking about kissing her a second ago. He was thinking about possible side effects from what Lex had done and whether he should take Chloe to a hospital and the fact that her pulse was racing. But he touched the warmth of her and something happened. His mouth found hers in the dark and the fingers that were just supposed to soothe the worry or the cold out of her couldn't help clutching.

He could have lost her. She left because of something stupid and he could have . . .

He could have killed people trying to find her. He'd left Clark to deal with Lex. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this hero thing. A hero would have stayed. Maybe he was selfish. Maybe that's what made heroes, they shook off those selfish instincts and served a greater good. Maybe that's why normal people couldn't relate to them.

Chloe wrapped her small hand around the back of his neck, but she pulled back a moment later just enough to look up at him. “You know,” she half whispered. “I think I like it better when I'm being violated willingly.”

Davis smiled, despite himself. Coming on to him had to be a good sign that she'd be okay long enough to get out of here. “All in good time,” he said quietly. He meant to ask her if she was ready to start moving again, but his hands hadn't left her and her fingers began tracing patterns on the back of his neck like she was anxious and needed something to do with them.

He understood. Desperation, relief, adrenaline. But this wasn't the time.

Another crash echoed in the distance, something slamming into the floor high above them. It shook the building, even where they were partly underground. Davis went still. Was that Clark or Lex being thrown around up there? Lex . . . What had happened to him?

In the dark, Davis saw Chloe bite hard into her lip. He swallowed. He should go back. Clark could use the help. Regardless of what he had done to Chloe, she didn't want him getting hurt and he had helped find her tonight.

Another sound. Something breaking. Wood. Chloe froze where she knelt on the dirty floor. Davis ran a hand through her hair and said gently, “You can't help him.”

She nodded, reluctantly, her face strained in the dark. “I know.”

His hand kept moving through her hair. “I could go back.”

It didn't feel right, running away while Clark was getting hurt up there, but she shook her head. “No.” Her hand tightened on his neck and she leaned her cheek against his as though that would keep him there, warm skin a welcome contrast to the cold air. Davis' hand moved from her hair to her back. That pink satiny material was so thin. His hand slid down to her lap and he only meant to rub some warmth into her thighs where the cloth didn't cover, but his palm must have felt like fire compared to the chill in her skin. She turned her head so that her mouth touched his and the pressure of her lips wasn't light, but desperate for something, and considering how he felt about her he wanted to give it to her.

His hand ended up moving along the inside of her thigh toward the warmth between her legs that was, aside from her mouth, the only warm part of her at the moment. That seemed to be the right idea. Her free hand curled into his bicep and she kissed him harder.

Something else splintered upstairs and she climbed into his lap. Davis let her, hard the instant her weight pressed on his groin. She let out a muffled sound and then stopped kissing him long enough to murmur, “Just . . . distract me.”

This isn't the time, he wanted to say, even as he twitched inside his sweatpants with the thought of being in her. The dark room and the dirty floor didn't matter. But there was something . . .

He lifted her off him for the second time tonight, but this time he got to his knees, crawling up behind and pulling her back against his chest with an arm around her waist. No sense laying her on the freezing floor. She ground her body against the bulge in his pajama bottoms and angled her head back so he could kiss her. He did. He couldn't help himself. He couldn't stop himself either, despite the part of him that said it would have been better just to hold her while they waited for Clark. His free hand pulled that ridiculous pink slip up and she braced herself on the floor on her hands and knees. He slapped a palm to the ground to hold himself up and got his stupid sweatpants out the way with his other hand. His mouth drifted to the back of her neck and she crouched down and offered herself, whimpering when he put himself inside in one quick motion. He had to grit his teeth to maintain control of himself. The heat of her was so familiar, but came as a shock every time. She sank down on her elbows and he held her to him with an arm against her hips, pushing deep until the heat of her sheathed him from tip to end.

The noise upstairs rang in the background, glass shattering and wood crashing to pieces, and he tried to block it out. Davis thrust and let the warmth of her squeeze at him, soaking up the sound she made as he hit the right spot inside. She wanted him to distract her and that was part of the thrill, wasn't it? This thing between him and Clark. It wasn't a competition, but he could make her forget all about Clark with his cock. It was selfish, crude, but at the moment if felt like magic. He was only human and his soul was far from clean. He couldn't help what that power did to him.

The hand gripping her hip moved down, sliding into the flimsy thong underwear he'd pushed aside. She cried out when his fingertips caressed the wetness between her legs and her hips ground back against him in encouragement when he started to rub. He got the idea. Harder. He rested his chin on her shoulder, watching her mouth fall open and her hair bounce and the dark edge of a nipple peek out through the lace at the top of her nightgown. He groaned in frustration. No hands free to touch it, and too far away from his tongue. All he could do was soak up her quiet sounds and the wetness on his fingers and rub and pump his hips into her until she cried out, “Davis,” all he wanted to hear.

She came like a tiny earthquake, in tremors and broken sounds, once and then again. He joined her the second time, clawing at the floor and almost losing his grip on her as he shuddered hard. Had he really thought they'd been doing this too much? He couldn't get enough.

Everything went quiet when the rush of euphoria calmed down. Davis didn't hear anyone flying around above them anymore. He let go of Chloe and sank back on his heels, fastening his pants and catching his breath. He looked over at her as she retied her robe.

They didn't have time to stare at each other. They had to make a decision. Either get the hell out of here, wait for Clark, or go back upstairs and see what had happened.

She got to her feet and Davis waited for her to choose.




And by all means, drop her feedback. And pester her to write prey porn. Woops did I say that out loud?

darkness covers, we find shelter

Reccing Notes: This fic covers the (longer) gap of time between beast and whatever happened afterwards. Chloe and Davis are away from Smallville and living together for a year and as Davis's spiraling control over Doomsday gets worse, somewhere there, he and Chloe are in love.

It's heartbreaking, but it's affirming and the ambiguity of the ending lets you fill in the gaps as you will.

by falsemurmur at wings_for_craft

3120 words, pg-13, beast

She kissed him in the darkness, but in the daylight it was too easy to see the goosebumps on her skin from his touch.


“Let’s leave Smallville.”



Chloe and Davis run away. Far away. They erase Smallville from their maps, not wanting to be found.


-¤-




Wherever they go, they’re just the blond and the dark haired but pale man.

Davis tells her, “I’m okay. You don’t have to sit around with me all day.” (It’s almost painstaking to tell her this. But it’s obligatory--the good guy in him tells him so.)

She shrugs, smiles. “I’m okay, too. I like it here.”

They sit in a dusty motel, the noise of traffic blowing through the cracks of the windows. A shopping mall down the block, a park across the street, a café down the north road. Just minutes from Chloe, from average civilization, but Chloe sits on the stained mattress just inches from Davis, talking about anything that doesn’t remind either of them of home (or in Davis’ case, the lack of any home).

It’s just the first week though, Davis reminds himself. The first week of anything is the toughest.



.


Chloe makes a phone call to Clark.

Davis knows it’s necessary. For her, anyway, it’s necessary. He also knows it’s necessary for her to have a life that isn’t just about him, but any slip away she takes, his heart involuntary sheds a fraction.

She smiles at him--not the most sincere smile, but she smiles. He feels intact. Okay, he remembers. He knows she’s there when he needs her.


This is what the first month is like for the most part.


.



The solitary life is infuriating. Chloe isn’t herself. So Davis gets mad. Davis blacks out. He blames her.

And then he’s sorry.

“It’s not your fault,” he says in puffs, shivering against the dark.

She only rubs his arms.

“I…I’m angry. I want you to be happy. And because you’re not, I yell. But I’m mad at myself. Know that.”

Chloe pulls her hands from his arms. She tilts her head at him and smirks.

“Hey, I made a decision. Yeah, it’s hard to get used to this. To being away from Smallville. From Clark, Lois, Jimmy too. But what’s life if not change? Just constant change.”

Chloe possesses a rare courage. The sort where she has the capacity to say what everyone is thinking, but no one dare speak. She hadn’t spoken one word of Jimmy to him since before she’d left Smallville, hadn’t said the word “missed”--but she said it now. And though the mention or thought of her husband tends to surge rage in him, in this context, it is necessary.

He kisses her then. And she kisses him back.

This is progress for him.

-¤-




Six months after crossing Smallville off their map, Chloe and Davis pretend a dingy apartment in New Jersey is perfect.

Davis sleeps on the sofa bed of the living room-slash-kitchen-area, and Chloe sleeps in the room with a curtain for a door.

It’s laughable, so Chloe laughs after the first night, and soon Davis is laughing too. Kansas was small, as were the houses on occasion, but the rooms were always home. This apartment was the exact opposite, but it was remote and quiet enough to not allow for disturbances. The neighbors were sparse, and mostly working people who couldn’t be around to ask questions. To inquire, or to refer to Davis and Chloe as a couple.

(The terminology was too complicated for Chloe. She kissed him in the darkness, but in the daylight it was too easy to see the goosebumps on her skin from his touch.)



.


Chloe was a trained reporter once upon a time, and a watchtower to superheroes, and now she serves hot plates to ordinary people.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a waitress,” she snaps at him when he slides her a brochure for a local magazine department.

“I’m just trying to help, Chloe.”

Chloe stares up at him, then down at her cereal bowl. She rounds her eyes, scanning the bare apartment and the old-fashioned tinted windows.

“This isn’t permanent, Davis. You know that we won’t stay here forever, that we can’t stand out anywhere we go. You know this better than me. And I get it--you worry that I feel stuck or trapped. But stop worrying. However I feel, or I don’t, that’s something I have to take care of. That’s my responsibility, not yours. So stop trying to make me, this normal. We’re not a normal couple, having breakfast before we head off to work. We’re two people, trying to stay alive, trying to keep people alive.”

“But I care about you, Chloe! I want to know how you feel and…and if you feel trapped.”

She sighs. She lowers her head, and a sound escapes her mouth. But she only stands up, grabs her purse, and says, “I’ll see you later.”


.



The phone in the apartment rings for the first time in the two months they’ve been there. Immediately, he knows something is wrong.

“Hello,” he says into the phone. There’s a strong pause, but he keeps the phone fastened to his hand, a lump strong in his throat.

“Davis, grab the money we’ve saved and get out. Take the 4:15 out to Connecticut.”

The phone clicks--his yells of “Chloe--Chlo!” were obsolete.

He grabs the money, and though she had told him to only get that, he grabs her emergency bag, throws in a couple of his shirts, and heads for the door when he hears steps feet from the door.

“Chloe, I know you’re in there!”

It’s none other than Lois Lane, and Davis feels a wave of fury.

He knows Clark could have found them long ago, but Chloe’s “I don’t want you to find us” must have subdued his search. But of course no such thing would pacify Chloe’s cousin.

He looks at the window. He slings the bag over his shoulder, pulls the window up, and doesn’t even take a breath when jumping down two levels.

His heels break, and a couple stares at him in awe when his bones crack back into place, and he stands up. He doesn’t look at them, despite their staring. He runs, runs impossibly fast.

At the train station, he pulls out a fake identification, buys a one way ticket to Connecticut, and he does something he’d only do for Chloe--he prays, prays she’s on the train, or at least that she’ll be in Connecticut.

On the train, he looks over every face twice. When he finds Chloe, he doesn’t have to do a double-take. He breathes “Thank God” and she hears it, but doesn’t acknowledge it.

He sits down beside her, asks “are you okay? Did she see you?”, but she only says in a murmur “I’m okay”.

She’s silent the rest of the way, and so is he.

-¤-




They reach their destination, Chloe picks out an inn, and they room together. She doesn’t ask for two beds, although she usually does.

When in the room, she tosses him a passport--a fake passport, that is.

“We’re going to Canada. First into Ontario, and east from there.”

“Alright.”

Chloe scrambles around the bag Davis brought, looking for nothing in particular. She stops suddenly, but still looks at the contents of the bag, her eyes stuck.

“I saw her. She went into the restaurant. I told the manager I felt sick and was going home. He said okay, it’s a slow day anyway. I went outside. And I just…stood there for a minute. I looked at her. I stared at her. Half of me hoped she saw me and would chase me. I saw her find the manager, and talk to him. Lois probably got the address from him. But she could have seen me right then and there. Still, I turned around, I ran off. I called you. I could have just as easily not called you. I could have stayed there, waiting until she came back outside, and see me. I could have let her yell at me. Then take me home. But I didn’t. I ran away. Again.”

Davis feels his heart pounding in his chest. Afraid. Scared. He is scared. Sure, she’s here now. But she could have another moment, any second, she could have a moment where wants to go home.

“If I’m trapped, it’s because I want to be trapped. You need me and…I’m not even sure if you want me because I can…save you, or because I‘m me. And I don’t need you, I don’t need this. And this definitely isn’t the life I want. But I want to be here.”

Davis looks over at her, to see her looking at him.

“I want you here,” he says.

Chloe walks over to him. She wraps her arms around his shoulders. And then he feels the burn of her tears.

“I’ve betrayed everyone I love, everyone who loves me. I turned my back on the girl who fell in love with and married Jimmy.”

He holds her firmly. “But you want to be here.”

He feels her nod.

(He feels empowered. He knows it’s wrong to feel this when she’s breaking, but she’s also building something--building a place where she accepts that the blacks and whites of life have no place in reality. )

They share the bed that night, but they only sleep.

He doesn’t black out this night.

-¤-




They don’t stay in Canada long. They remain in Russia for even a shorter period. It’s when they ride through Australia that they agree that it’s not a bad place at all.

They rent a flat in the middle of Albany, looking over a narrow street. It’s a two bedroom flat.

They’ve been sleeping together since Ontario (some weeks after that night they got to Canada--it was a normal night, and Davis knew she was frustrated more than anything, but she was hurting too hard for him to push her away then of all times) but she still wanted a two bedroom place.

Davis gets work at a bread shop and Chloe at a tech factory.



.



There are nights when Chloe can feel the walls shake. They’re only subtle vibrations, but they send her on alert.

“Davis, Davis, stay with me,” she whispers.

She clasps his head with her hands, tries to hold onto his eyes. He hasn’t blacked out in months, but he’s had close calls. He’ll always have close calls. This is something she’s accepted. But she won’t tell him, because he’ll then realize that in that aspect, she’s given up hope.

“Stay with me,” she says even more harshly.

His teeth clench, and his eyes blink rapidly.

Chloe kneels on his bed, and pulls his heavy frame to her. “Davis,” she says close to his ear.

He stops shaking gradually, and she finally feels him holding onto her.

She pulls back and smiles, relief spread over her eyes.

“Thank you,” he tells her.

His room is dark. She can’t even spot his shadow, but her own shadow lingers by the bedpost.

She kisses him, like she kissed him the night she got Clark’s phone call when in Quebec and he told her that Jimmy had filed for an uncontested divorce. She had hung up with a civil “thanks for telling me”, despite feeling like she had been given up on. But she didn’t really have a husband anymore--she hadn’t been a wife for too long now. So she kissed Davis, because she was just a girl alone with a boy who wanted her, needed her. She was alone with someone she chose not only to save her best friend, but also because he made her feel something she hadn’t known existed. (She doesn’t have a word for it, she only knew that Davis made her feel.)



.


She climbs into his bed on the nights when guilt isn’t weighing on her shoulders.

She used to kiss him hard when anger rose in her chest. But weeks passed, and he would make her laugh, he would make her forget they were living in a foreign land. He began kissing her softly on the cheek on his way out the door. He began buying her small insignificant treats and leaving them on the coffee table, or on the kitchen counters. She forgot this wasn’t normal, and when she remembered it wasn’t normal, she realized she was hurting him when she kissed him because someone from her past was pressing on her heart.

So she crashes on her bed when she’s spinning from madness and sadness, reeling from remorse. And when she’s done with tripping away from the world, she walks back into his world and falls into his pattern.

They do their best to keep the darkness outside his door.



.


“A picnic. At night. We’re not doing this with candles, right? There are a dozen trees around us,” Chloe says, a chuckle ringing through.

“Right, and girls are the romantic ones,” Davis muses.

“I’m just being practical,” Chloe shrugs, whilst jabbing his shoulder.

He sighs and shakes his head. “I brought a lamp,” he explains, taking out and lighting an encased lamp.

Chloe smiles widely at him, and sits back, looking at the stars overhead. The stars overhead never left her, and she never left them. It was the closest thing she had to home--in every corny sense of the connection.

“So, you want to start off with a sandwich, or pasta?”

Chloe cocks her head at him, squinting. “What kind of buffet is that?”

“I did what I could!” he yelps, laying out the simple sandwiches next to a Tupperware of pasta.

“Pasta first. We’ll save the best for last.”

“Sandwich rates over Italian pasta in your universe?”

“Oh, like it doesn’t in yours.”

Davis laughs, but nods. “You know me too well,” he murmurs. Chloe quiets, but keeps a tight smile on her face. She waits as he takes out the plates, and serves pasta on their respective plates, and places forks on them. He hands it to her, and she softly says “thank you”. She sits upright, and takes a bite.

“It’s good,” she says after one forkful.

“Thanks,” he says.

There’s a quiet tension, but Chloe doesn’t verbally acknowledge it. This is the epitome of a first date, but the thing is that they’ve been running from Smallville for close to 14 months now. The thing is that they have shared kisses, a bed for several months now. The thing is that they have sex now and then. The thing is that he treats her like his girlfriend, she lets him treat her so, and sometimes he is her boyfriend. The thing is, in all that time, with all their experiences, and with all the loud moments, with all the good quiet moments, they have never been on a date.

This isn’t a date either. She will not call it as such. For all the feelings she has for him, and as real as their situation is, the flat in Albany and the jobs are all pretend. And so too much of it is pretend to allow for something as real as a date.

The plates are empty and the sandwiches are gone soon enough. They lie on a blanket, inches between them, talking about nothing important. Minute facts that are interesting and vital to others, but irrelevant to them. Softened memories of their travels. Casual talk of work.

And then Davis seems to have fallen asleep.

Chloe blinks a slow blink. She breathes in a deep breath, exhales gradually. It’s peaceful and the numbing “You can’t do this forever” conscience dies. In another blink, Davis twitches beside her.

She can’t do this forever.


-¤-




The black outs come back. Stronger than before.

She had gotten used to the close calls, but there was a piece of hope that believed that the close calls were as bad as it was ever going to get again.

Davis told her he loved her one day. She was never able to say it back. She didn’t know why, she was just not able to say it. Maybe it was because love was a cursed word on her lips. Maybe it was because she wasn’t sure what she felt.




She never says she loved Davis for the simple fact that she may have been in love with him, but she didn’t love him. The inverse of loving a man but not being in love with him.






He fights her when she says they have to go back. It’s getting too dangerous for him. It’s too hard to control that foreign part of him. He refuses.



When he hurts her, that’s when he sees the foreign part of him is more Davis than that other thing. He says “let’s go back”.



.


They make a lot of stops, just the two of them. No public transportation.

Any time of day is dangerous. At any sign, Chloe stops for however long it may take. She tries to bring him back, no matter how dangerous he gets. Sometimes she succeeds. When she doesn’t, she still sticks around.

Some days, he wishes she wouldn’t. But he’s thankful.


.



They reach Mexico, but that’s as far as they get alone.

Clark gets to them, and everything is a blur afterward.

From Clark dashing them to his farm in Smallville, to the chains on Davis’ wrists. From Davis’ escape, to his capture and death.



Chloe Sullivan has a hand in it all. There’s blood on her hands in every metaphorical way possible. In a lot of literal ways too.


-¤-





She buries Davis. Clark joins her, but she tells him she can do it alone. It’s not his fault, it’s hers.

(Besides, Clark didn’t know Davis. Only Chloe knew Davis. And Davis was the only one who knew what Chloe was capable of, of what she had done in that year plus months away from home: things not Clark, not Lois, not Oliver could possibly imagine. What Jimmy wouldn’t have wanted of her.)