When The Fever Breaks

Title: When The Fever Breaks
Season: Season 2 (Tag to Fever)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the CW and the Creators of Smallville, but what I wouldn’t do if I owned Clark, Lex or Oliver ;-)
Couples: Chloe/Clark Friendship/Romance
Edited By: dh1031
Category: One-shot, angst



Clark Kent lay in his bed, sleeping with a frown upon his face. His head twisted from side to side as his body moved around restlessly as he dreamed…

Chloe sat slowly in the rocking chair next to Clark.

“Hi, Clark…Well, this is gonna make quite a story.”Clark Kent ends record-breaking perfect attendance streak."

She laughed slightly, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“Sorry. I'm doing it again. I just…I've never seen you sick before, and it just got me thinking, you know? What if something did happen to you? And I-I never got to...”

Her voice paused and she swallowed hard.

“So in yet another classic maneuver to avoid emotional intimacy, I wrote my feelings down so that I could read them to you, thereby eliminating embarrassing eye contact.”

She pulled out a folded piece of pink paper, took a deep breath, and opened it.

“I want to let you in on a secret. I'm not who you think I am. In fact, my disguise is so thin; I'm surprised you haven't seen right through me. I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend. Sometimes I want to rip off this facade like I did at the Spring Formal, but I can't because you'll get scared and you'll run away again. So I decided that it's better to live with a lie than expose my true feelings.”

Her voice broke and she stopped reading for a minute while she gathered herself together. Her hand reached up and brushed a few stray tears from her eyes before looking back down at the letter with a small smile.

“This is so much easier when you’re unconscious.”

She swallowed hard and continued reading.

“My dad told me there are two types of girls. The ones you grow out of and the ones you grow into. I really hope I'm the latter. I may not be the one you love today, but I'll let you go for now, hoping one day you'll fly back to me because I think you're worth the wait."

Chloe placed the paper on her lap, looked up at Clark, and ran a hand through his hair. He stirred on the couch and her face lit up. When she spoke her voice was hopeful.

“Clark?”

He groaned quietly and with his eyes still closed spoke.

“Lana?”

Her face fell and she leaned away from him like she’d been slapped. Water pooled in her eyes and a heavy weight fell on her chest. She crumpled up the paper, threw it in her bag, and stood up quickly. In her eyes were pain…and longing…

(Clark POV)

I shot up in bed, breathing heavy with sweat pouring down my body. I frowned. Oh god…that can’t be true can it? I mean Chloe did come to visit me…and she did seem upset at the benefit earlier tonight…I glanced at the clock. The red numbers glared back at me 12:30

A little past midnight…I wonder if she’s still awake…I reached over for my cell phone, took a deep breath, and dialed her number. About three rings later she answered the phone. Her voice on the other end seemed startled, not groggy.

“Clark?”

“Yeah, hey Chloe…sorry to call you so late.”

“Its fine…is everything okay? What’s going on?”

I opened my mouth and froze. I really didn’t think this through. What am I going to say to her? Oh yeah Chloe by the way I had this dream that you poured your heart out to me in a letter and I called out Lana’s name…I was wondering…did that really happen?

Her voice brought me out of my thoughts.

“Clark, are you still there?”

“Yeah, sorry…I’m here. I just…well I mean…I wanted to say thanks again for checking on me while I was sick…that was great…I mean great of you to do that not great that I was sick…”

I trailed off at her laugh. I could hear the tension in her voice.

“No worries Clark…that’s what friends are for…”

“Yeah…and I want you to know that umm…if it was you I would have done the same thing. I would have been there to make sure you were okay…”

The line was quiet and I was worried that I said something wrong.

“Chloe…you still there?”

I heard her sigh.

“Yeah, listen I don’t mean to be rude Clark, but it’s late…is there a reason you called?”

I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend.

I swallowed hard as the thought ran through my head.

“Yeah…I just…I want to tell you that I remembered…”

My heart sped up and my voice trailed off. I can’t do it…I can’t take that risk. Chloe is my best friend…and I can’t take the chance…telling her I heard what she said…I’d rather never know what we could be then loose her at some point down the line because I can’t be honest about who I really am or because things just don’t work out.

I could hear the frustration in her voice when she spoke.

“You remembered what Clark?”

I cleared my throat and tried to play the seriousness in my voice off as sheepishness.

“Sorry Chlo, I zoned off there. I guess I’m more tired then I thought. I was just going to say that I remembered to find that book you were asking me about last week. I’ll bring it to school in the morning.”

She was quiet for a minute, but I knew she was still there because I could hear her breathing. I waited for her to say something and when she spoke her voice had an odd tone to it that I couldn’t interpret.

“You called me about the book I asked you for a little over two weeks ago?”

“Yeah.”

“What made you think of it now? It seems a bit out of the blue.”

“Uhhh…”

“Are you sure that’s what you wanted to say?”

I gave her a nervous chuckled.

“Of course…listen Chloe, I should go. I didn’t mean to call so late and I’m getting really tired. I’ll see you tomorrow okay?”

I heard her sigh again.

“Yeah, okay Clark. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I heard a click and then the line went dead. I took the phone away from my ear, looked at it, and then sighed. I placed it back on my nightstand and laid back down. I tossed around a bit before getting comfortable. I pulled the cover up half-way and stared at the ceiling.

Should I have said something? Should I have told her that I heard what she said? That she means a lot to me too? I don’t know…I don’t know if I did the right thing, but I do know that Chloe is important to me and I feel like…I feel like she’s going to be a big part of my life.

Which is something I don’t want to jeopardize...who knows maybe some day I’ll be able to tell her who I really am and maybe she’ll be okay with it…and then when I can be honest with her maybe I can pursue something more than friendship…

I just hope at that point she’s still around…