Exchange Rate

Title: Exchange Rate
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Chlark friendship, maybe more
Spoilers/Timeline: Post-Blue
Disclaimer: I own very little, certainly not these characters. Please don’t sue!
Author’s Note: Okay. I admit it. I couldn’t resist playing a bit with Clueless!Clark. It’s surprisingly fun. I wholeheartedly recommend giving it a shot if you need to lighten up the mood around the house.

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Clark is stacking hay in the loft when he hears a tell-tale buzz behind him. He’s not sure why the Martian makes that sound, but it’s what disconcerted him most when they first met. Now, it’s just a convenient early warning system.

“Kal-El, we must speak.”

“Now's not really the best time, J’onn.” He has to finish up the animal-related chores at human speed, and he wants to cook Lana dinner to celebrate their new commitment to an honest relationship.

“I insist. Our topic is of considerable importance to you.”

“What is it? I know Kara was a threat, but her crystal’s been neutralized.”

“This does not relate to the daughter of Zor-El. I recently learned some concerning news. You defied your father’s artificial intelligence when you used the crystal to activate your mother’s construct, did you not?”

“Yes, and I would do it again for the chance to have met her.” He’s tossing bales a bit harder than he needs to, but it’s a sore subject, and no one but Lana seems to understand.

“I hope you say the same once you comprehend the consequences of your actions.”

That gives him pause. “What do you mean?”

“It took an enormous amount of life force to animate the constructs of Zor-El and your mother. The fortress is equipped with a transference system that provides such resources on demand, outside of time. However, it must take the same type of energy from another point.”

His mind flashes to Jonathan Kent’s kind smile. “Are you saying he’s going to take someone’s life?”

“Someone must forfeit for the exchange. It is not something the artificial intelligence does with malicious intent. There are simply fewer quantum anomalies the closer to linear time the exchange is performed in.”

“How can I stop it?”

“You cannot stop it. You can only choose, and I’m afraid someone is trying to take even that option away from you.”

That’s impossible. “What do you mean?”

“Someone close to you has already offered themselves up in trade, to protect you.”

“Oh, God. Lana…”

Clark is in Metropolis at the Isis Foundation in a heartbeat, but all he finds are support staff. He searches the nearby area, and focuses his hearing to see if he can find her.

Out of luck and ideas, he heads for the Daily Planet basement near panic. He tries to explain what J’onn just relayed to Chloe Sullivan. The confused, horrified look on his friend’s face tells him he probably got it only half right, but she agrees that they should look for Lana.

She places a concerned hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure she’s fine, Clark. Everything is going to be okay.”

The conviction in her eyes soothes him. Chloe is wise beyond her years, and she usually has a sense for situations like this. Clark has learned not to worry much until she does.

He’s reminded of the time she went missing last year. Not having her as a mooring, he and Jimmy were a mess. It’s nice to have her on the case this time.

“There are only so many places we can check from here, Clark. We need more info. Where is our Martian friend now?”

“At the farm.” He should have thought of asking J’onn, himself. Obviously, the other man would have some idea of where Lana might go if he could ferret out a secret of this magnitude.

“Any chance I could get a ride by Kent Express?”

“Sure thing.”

Chloe can tell how shaken he is by everything, and she pushes him into the kitchen to make coffee while she and J’onn discuss options in the barn.

It upsets him that Lana would keep this a secret from him when they’ve only just committed to working together to take Lex down, but like the others, he knows this lie was out of love. He and Lex have scarred her beyond recognition. It’s only natural that has warped her views on honesty.

He makes the coffee absentmindedly, and brings it into the living room. He squints through the walls to take a peek at the barn. It’s surprisingly quiet out there. They seem to be mulling over maps, deciding how to break up the search.

He sees J’onn stare hard and cover one of Chloe’s hands with his own in an odd gesture of affection. “You are certain?”

He sounds almost sad.

“I am.” There’s that unshakable confidence he loves about Chloe. Even in the face of a Martian with unknown powers, she’s the expert.

He notices some papers on the end table, and goes to clear them, when he pauses. One of the papers is a monogrammed linen note card, Lex’s favorite.

See you at 4. – LL

He checks the time. It’s nearly 5:00pm. God, she walked right into the lion’s den. He runs outside to tell Chloe and J’onn.

“I figured it out. She’s with Lex.”

They both gape for a moment and exchange a quick glance. That nanosecond pause is pregnant with some meaning he can’t place as Chloe reaches up and…hugs him.

It’s a full-on Chloe Hug, full of the warmth and vibrant energy she puts into everything. Her voice wobbles a little when she whispers “Good luck” in his ear.

Then she lets go and steps back. His sense of time is warped in super-speed, so he has a moment or two to boggle the odd reaction on the run to the Luthor Mansion. No wonder he couldn’t hear Lana from Metropolis. She was all the way back in Smallville.

He can certainly hear her heartbeat now, staccato from stress. He doesn’t bother playing nice when the woman he loves is about to sacrifice her life for him. Instead, he blasts through the doors to the study, frantically seeking her out.

He nearly chokes on the vision in front of him. Lana is naked as the day she was born, sitting astride Lex in his $1,800 office chair and riding him for all he’s worth.

She’s turned away, but the smirk on Lex’s face is enough to make him see red. All the pain pours out of him, as he desperately seeks understanding.

“How could you?!”

Lana’s head spins almost comically as she falls out of Lex’s lap. The billionaire is laughing openly now, and Clark can’t tell if his amusement is directed at him or her. Probably both of them.

She scrambles for her clothes, spouting apologies as Clark backs away in horror, shaking his head in denial. His eyes lock with Lex’s.

“You were right, Clark. I am rather fond of vengeance, aren’t I?” He tosses her shirt at her like so much trash.

Clark just can’t breathe.

He wanders outside, heedless of the security guards who try to rush him. How could she betray him this way? How could Lex?

He understands anger, and he knows his judgmental attitude had a lot to do with Lex’s current state of mind, but this? This is taking a fated couple and heartlessly tearing them apart.

Wait. That can’t be right, can it? If they were so fated, it wouldn’t have been so simple a thing for Lex to seduce her.

He ponders the bald man’s words of only a month ago. Obsession outlives everything.

Is that what he’s felt for her? What they’ve all felt for each other?

He is lost, and confused, and he suddenly knows where he needs to be. Who’s words of comfort and wisdom he needs to make things right. He takes the long way back, trying to process what he saw.

She’s his best friend, but there is something so humiliating about explaining the situation out loud to anyone - especially when she probably suspected exactly what he found. Her strange hug suddenly makes a world of sense. She was trying to prepare him the only way she knew how – by reminding him he was loved.

The thought suddenly fills him with a strange sense of loss. It wasn’t long ago that he’d hoped to build something with her, before he screwed it up by agreeing with her at the exact wrong moment for the second time in their relationship. Before he ever met that little pipsqueak Jimmy Olsen.

He knows her breakup with the photographer affected her a lot, but he was so frustrated to see her crying over someone not worth her attention that he’d blown it off.

Well, maybe fate is trying to tell him something.

She's available, and he's in a place where he can definitively say he will not be welcoming Lana back with open arms. Maybe this is their chance to explore what happened on Dark Thursday. That invisible barrier they have been terrified to cross for years becomes stifling now and again. Maybe the only way out is through.

He’s still pondering this as he climbs the porch steps. He’s surprised to find only Kara sitting in the living room, looking decidedly unhappy.

“Kara?”

She’s up like a shot and hugging him. “Kal-El. I am so sorry. I feel like this is all my fault.”

He squints at his cousin and wonders whether she suffered permanent brain damage in Motor City. “How could this be your fault, Kara? No one could have predicted that Lana would betray me.”

Now it’s her turn to look confused. “Lana? I don’t…”

He looks around again and listen for Chloe’s heartbeat. She’s bound to have a better handle on the woes of a teenage girl than he is. “Kara, where are Chloe and J’onn?”

Her eyes widen. “You mean you don’t…” She swallows thickly, tears pooling in her eyes. “You don’t know?”

His heart drops through his stomach. “Where are they, Kara. It’s important.”

“The fortress.”

Suddenly, it’s hard to breathe. How could he have been so stupid? Just because Lana would kill for him never meant she would die for him. He’s just seen what her brand of loyalty looks like.

Now he’s running for his life, and for hers, because he knows that even as friends alone, he’s never been anything productive without her by his side.

He stops before the main console, uncharacteristically winded. The sight that greets him is no kinder than the scene at the Luthor Mansion.

J’onn cradles a small body tenderly. Clark kneels beside him and takes her into his arms, frantically searching for any sign of life. Her expressive face bears an unnatural stillness, and the peaceful expression breaks his heart. She is a tiny rag doll in his fumbling hands, and he brushes back her wisps of gold, begging her to come back, begging anyone who will listen to take him instead.

At her lack of response, he pulls her against his chest and releases the keening wail that’s been building since he laid eyes on her body.

The Manhunter leans over his shoulder, both supporting him and cradling the crown of Chloe’s head. He recites gentle words in what must be is native tongue, and Clark is again struck by the emotion in his voice.

“Why?”

“She would have gone to the ends of the Earth for you, Kal-El. She wanted Lana to offer you that kind of love and loyalty, but she knew no one else would take this burden knowingly, so she shouldered it herself to spare you the pain of losing Lana or your mother.

“She is…was…truly a unique creature. Perhaps there is more hope for mankind than I once thought.”

Clark’s voice hardens. “You knew. Back at the farm.”

“I did. She gave me permission to read her when we went out to the barn. She wanted to know if there was an alternative she had not considered; an aspect of her motivation that concerned me. She was worried that I had already told you too much for her to go through with it.”

“You should have told her it was too late. You should have stopped her!”

“Do you know what I found when I looked into the heart of Chloe Sullivan, Kal-El? I found a love so pure, so intense, nothing could have stopped her from sacrificing herself for you. She would do it again and again if she had to. If her memories are to be trusted, she already has. This was just a physical manifestation.”

“No. Chloe loved me as a friend. She didn’t…”

“Lie to yourself, Kal-El, but I can read your heart, and she deserves truth now. It may give her the hope she needs to find a way back.”

Clark looks up sharply at that. “What?”

“When I looked into her mind, I saw that she returned from the dead once. She may not have held out much hope for a repeat performance, but I am a recovering optimist.”

He cradles her closer and rocks her like a child with a broken toy. Hope weaves tentative tendrils in his heart as he begins to speak.

He talks about all the adventures they had together over the years, about all the near-misses and close calls, both in life and their relationship. He weeps and tells her he wouldn’t be the man he is today without her and that he needs her to be the man he’s supposed to be.

When he runs out of stories, he resorts to begging, promising her the most extravagant night on the town she’s ever seen if she will just come back to him. He’s mid-way through promising he’ll apply to Met U’s Journalism program so they can make the news together when he feels her shudder.

He stops mid sentence and gapes at her. He can’t breathe with the hope and fear churning within him, gripping his chest like a vise.

Is he hallucinating, or do her cheeks seem to take on a warmer shade of pink? He listens, but her heart is silent.

“Come on, Chlo. I need you. How am I supposed to do this without my sidekick?”

J’onn crouches closer, and takes her hand. “She is fighting.”

“You can sense her? She’s still in there?” He had all but forgotten the presence of his protector.

“She is…present. Her strength of spirit is surprising.”

Clark lets the tears he’s been holding back fall at that. She’s the strongest person he ever met, and the one he took for granted most.

Thump…thump, thump…thump, thump. Her back suddenly arches and her mouth gapes in a silent scream.

Ohgodohgodohmygod.

“Chloe?”

Her eyes are wide as she looks around frantically. Her gaze finally lands on him. “You…you stopped me? Clark, you can’t…”

He looks down, ashamed. “I didn’t. I got here after…”

Her pupils dilate with fear. “Oh. Well, it looks like there’s one redeeming side effect to being infected.”

She pushes out of his lap and straightens her dress, looking at J’onn uncomfortably. “Thank you for staying to see. I guess you were right.”

“I am glad that is the case, Chloe Sullivan.”

Clark can’t take the casual way she’s treating her death. “Chloe, what are you doing?”

“Getting ready to go home.”

“Um, don’t you think we should talk about this?”

“In case you haven’t noticed? We’re in the arctic and I’m wearing my work clothes. Any discussion will need to take place back home.” She shoots him an annoyed glare and yells. “Jor-El!”

“Yes, Chloe Sullivan.”

“Is the exchange still valid?”

“It is. No energy was taken from this system when you awoke. Balance is achieved.”

“Good. That’s good.” Her features relax a bit, despite her shivering. “J’onn? Any chance I could get another ride? I swore on the way up that I’d do that again if I had the chance.”

“Chloe!”

“What, Clark?”

“Don’t you think I should take you home? It’s safer.”

“I just died and came back. I’m not terribly concerned with safety. Besides,” she smirk as she steps up to J’onn and he swoops her up in his arms, “you still have to work on the flying thing. This is just too cool.”

With that, the two disappear in a red streak. Clark sighs, and turns to run home.

“Kal-El, wait.”

“What do you want?” He’s still not thrilled with the AI. After all, he just killed his best friend.

“You should know that I did not agree to this exchange lightly. Your friend was very insistent, but I tried to send my paladin to warn you before the exchange took place.”

“I…thank you.”

“She is a noble creature. I can see why you are so determined to believe in humanity’s goodness.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Few display such purity of intent, my son. Do not let her goodness prevent you from seeing the evil in others.”

“Believe me, my eyes are wide open now.”

“Go now, my son. Be with your helpmate. It soothes me to know that she fights by your side.”

“Goodbye.”

As he runs, he thinks.

His helpmate. She fights with and for him, is his staunchest protector, and cared enough to die so he didn’t have to lose those he cares for more.

And why does he care so much more for everyone else? Does, he, really? Or is he so secure in her love that he never has to question whether she’ll be by his side?

If he’s learned anything today, it’s that she may not always be there. He could lose her more easily than anyone else because she is unafraid to do the right thing.

He pours on the speed. There’s a lot to talk about, and he has an ex to move out before she gets there.

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End