"Somewhere, Up There, Forever"

Rating: G
Season: Preseason 1
Summary: A moment between Chlark, caught somewhere in time.


*



“Isn’t this dangerous?”

“How is this dangerous, Clark? There’s like zero air traffic over Kansas right now. Every airport in Kansas is shut down --the entire state is snowed in.”

“Yeah, but my dad said—“

“Oh, fooey!” Chloe slid one arm into her coat sleeve, then juggled the phone to her free hand to do the same with other. “Do you always do what your dad tells you? Live a little Clark and quit worrying as if having fun might kill you.”

There was a long pause over the phone.

“Clark?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you flaking out?”

“No,” his voice wobbled over the phone hinting Clark’s voice recent octave drop, “No, I’m not flaking out it’s just--”

“Okay then! Let’s do this.” She set her phone on her dresser, pulling on ear muffs and bright red knit cap over the yellow tangles of hair that wildly sprung out about her chin.

Through the mirror of her dresser was thirteen year old Chloe, wrapping herself with more and more layers for her mission ahead. She finally put on that last layer of clothing and turned for her door. She was a mismatched sort, in every color except that dreaded color pink. Chloe simply wasn’t a pink type of girl.

Miles away, an equally young Clark Kent, dressed in a baby blue flannel shirt and jeans, paced inside the barn’s loft with the Kent’s wireless kitchen phone cradled against his cheek. He looked kind of skinny dressed in his father’s old boots and hand me down flannel shirt. But since his unprecedented growth spurt hit him, all of his own clothes were now six inches too short.

Whatever trouble they were about to get in, it was his fault. Today after school he’d invited Chloe over to show her a few things with his telescope. You know, constellations and star clusters.

He’d only known her for a few months, but they’d clicked instantly from the very first day. Normally he had trouble talking to girls, but with Chloe, it was different. In fact, Clark could hardly stop her from talking.

Gosh, Chloe did talk a lot.

But that didn’t really didn’t bother Clark, he enjoyed her company. Hanging out with Chloe was always fun, and interesting. And she wasn’t totally opposed to learning about astrology or spending time up in his loft, reading after school. Sometimes Chloe didn’t even talk all that much. The two of them could sit quietly together and read up in the loft on lazy days, not minding the time passing without one of them speaking a single syllable to the other. It was nice.

But every now and then Chloe had a way of finding trouble, and she also had this way of dragging Clark along with her.

Chloe shouldn’t have this power over him. Not with his abilities.

But he just couldn’t say no.

He could never say no to Chloe. He liked her too much.

So today when Clark was fiddling around with his telescope, he made the mistake of showing Chloe the special laser sights his dad had bought him. They were meant for star gazing, since it’s power was strong enough to carry for miles in the sky. They were also illegal to use inside of air traffic controlled skies like Smallville, because of it’s proximity to Metropolis.

Jonathan Kent said very sternly that there were to be no horse play with the lasers.

But after Chloe got the idea, well, Clark lost control of the situation from there. Her pure curiosity took over.

Right now Clark was pacing in his loft, one hand clutching a hand held to his ear, the other, a lone half to a pair of laser sighters he’d gotten for Christmas a couple of months ago.

Clark dithered silently as he listened to Chloe’s movements over the phone. She was way over at her dad’s house, five miles down the road to be exact.

Chloe always seemed to have an eye out for mischievousness. She wasn’t happy if she wasn’t moving about, getting herself into trouble. He knew that part of the reason was that she really hated being at home for too long.

It wasn’t too long ago that she’d confessed a big secret to him. She told Clark that her mom had left a year ago and never came back. It was a strange thing to do, and Clark didn’t understand it completely. Telling from Chloe’s anxious behavior and bright, concealing smiles, she didn’t either.

Clark wondered if she half the things she did because she missed her mom.

Clark knew that if his mom had left him, he’d feel lonely too. There was no telling what he’d do if one of his parents have abandoned him. The thought of it disturbed him.

So he held onto Chloe, trying to keep up with her antics, knowing that deep down she must have felt sad. Even if her plucky attitude hid it. He knew. That’s why he couldn’t say no.

Clark glanced out the barn’s window towards the yellow house with snow covered gables where his mother and father slept. Their bedroom light was still off, but Clark knew that didn’t mean anything. His mom had these super intuitive senses of her own, and it never failed that she woke up just in time to bust him in whatever boyish caper he was in.

But he was doing this for Chloe. So, he better do it fast before his parent’s woke up.

“Okay, fine. I’m ready, let’s go!”

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute, Clark! Not everyone has super speed like you do.”

He gulped, gripping the wireless phone a little harder, not noticing the subtle crunching noise of it’s plastic body.

“Wha—what do you mean?” He asked timidly, his voice croaking again.

“Meaning, I’m still creeping down stairs,” he heard Chloe’s voice, even though it was lower than a whisper, “My dad would freak if he found me awake, sneaking out of the house at one a.m.”

Clark let out the breath he’d been holding. Sometimes certain things Chloe said made Clark wonder if she knew his secret. It was weird but he’d been developing these really good reflexes lately. He could always run pretty fast, but lately, he could fun FAST. He was strong too.

A little too strong, Clark noted, studying the crushed phone. He didn’t know why he was different than other boys. Other boys couldn’t balance their father’s tractor five feet in the air while their dad replaced an axle.

Clark was just different. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing, but all he knew was that he had to keep his abilities a secret. It sucked.

Clark waited nervously, listening as he heard what he figured was Chloe’s front door opening and closing very slowly.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready now.”

Clark moved to the loft window, and leaned out. It was snowing again.

It had been snowing all week in fact, causing the entire school district to shut down. Hence, Chloe’s antsy mood. She’d been shut in all week, poor thing.

“Okay,” Clark whispered into his phone, “You ready?”

“Yes, I’m ready! Hurry up, I’m f-f-f-fffrrreezing!” Her teeth chattering.

Clark furrowed his brows. “Chloe, if it’s that cold, go back inside!”

“No!” She shivered, bundled in her heavy coat and boots, “ I want t-to do this.”

“Chloe, please. I don’t want you getting frozen, frost bite or worse.” Clark’s voice dropping a tad deeper when he voiced concern.

Chloe smiled against the phone’s receiver, secretly taking pleasure in every syllable.

“Don’t be silly, Clark. I’d have t-to be standing out here longer than t-twenty seconds for even my pinky toe to get bit.”

Her dad had been very distant since her mom left, and even after Chloe tried desperately to garner his attention, Gabe Sullivan spent all of his time at the plant. Not at home.

She knew her dad loved her, but she wished sometimes he would pay more attention to her.

Like Clark.

He was the very first friend she made in Smallville.

And Clark was well, this boy. A boy who was smart and honest. Someone who kept up with her internal literary quips, and read almost as much as she did. He was pretty, in a total boyish, adorable, mysterious way. Every time he looked at her she felt her little heart flip and blushed immediately afterwards. They’d been spending a lot of time together lately, become good friends. That’s all she needed right now. A friend.

And Clark was that. He was her friend. She liked that the most about him.

“Ok, fine. We’re doing this for one minute then you’re going back inside.”

“Fine, fine.”

Clark held up his laser and flashed towards the north, creating a thin string of vivid blue light up to the dark blue void.

“Hah! This is so cool!” He heard her giddy excitement over the phone. He could just picture her bright grin he was sure she was wearing. “I can t-totally see it, it’s perfect.”

“Well, you can see these things for miles, Chloe.”

“I know, but I c-can’t see you, though. There’s something amazing t-to be said for a light that can reach the stars.”

Clark pondered that. Would the light really reach the stars? He looked up at the clusters of tiny white specks resting in the dark blue field.

He watched as a second beam of light joined his.

“Can you see it?”

“Yeah,” Clark smiled, “I see it.”

Chloe’s smile grew wider. They were miles away, but somehow, just the sign of his light in the presence of hers was enough of a beacon for their budding friendship. She smiled again. “Cool.”

**

They sky danced between the two strings of intense light, each orchestrating giggling from either end of the phone.

“This is fun.” He heard Chloe say before he smiled.
Clark was having fun, for once.

“Yeah, it is kinda cool.” He pulsed his beam a few times before looking deeper into the sky. “Do you really think these lights go as far as the stars?”

“Well, the light has to go somewhere, doesn’t it?”

Clark nodded, thinking to himself.

“And besides. We’ll never really know unless little green men start signaling us back.”

Aliens. Chloe always loved to bring up aliens. Clark didn’t believe in them, himself, but he liked to humor the idea every once and a while. For her sake.

“Hmm, that gives me an idea. Do you know Morse code, Clark?”

“Me? No. Why, do you?” He cradled the phone between cheek and shoulder.

“Psssh. My Uncle is like this army general. When I spend the night over at my cousin’s, we’ll s-stay up with flashlights and communicate through code. It’s really fun.”
Clark smiled wanly. He wished he had cousins, siblings, anything like that. He had Pete, but Pete had his own brothers that he spent time with. Clark had himself to keep amused. But lately he had Chloe to hang out with. She was pretty cool.

“And now that we have these cool laser things, everything we tap out will reach the stars. It’ll be there forever, Clark.”

He had to admit, the whole idea sounded really cool. Chloe was going to send a message that would live forever. It was an amazing idea, really.

“Well, I don’t know Morse code.” Clark said sadly.

“It’s ok. I’ll signal it out, you can just learn, ok?”

He smiled. “Okay.”

Clark watched from his loft as her blue thread of vivid light flashed four times very quickly, paused, then flashed twice more.

“What did that mean?”

He heard Chloe giggle before answering, “I said, ‘Hi.’”

Clark smiled, and imitated her signals, flashing four times and then twice more. “Hi back.”

Chloe grinned from her front yard, every breath escaping her lips creating a puffy white cloud. “Hey, you’re learning pretty fast.”

Clark smiled.

He saw her light reappear again, this time in two short flashes, a long beam with more flashes. She paused, and then flashed again, abbreviating long spans with brief short ones dancing throughout the sequence. It seemed like a very complicated message.

Clark frowned. “Ok, what did that one say?”

She giggled through the phone. “Nothing, Clark. Let’s start with some easy ones, okay?”

“No, Chloe. I want to know what that last one said first!” Clark pressed, knowing good well how mischievous his little friend could be.

“Later, Clark.” He heard her giggle again.
Clark sighed, not liking secrets. Then again, he had some of his own. Clark straightened up and repeated his last message.


H I.


He watched as his message was repeated again by Chloe.

Several more flashes broke into the dark sky racing towards the glittering of stars.

“Okay…” Clark leaned onto the wooden window sill, “Are you going to tell me what that one said?”

“I said, ‘This is Chloe.”

“Oh.” Clark narrowed his eyes, memorizing her last message, and assigning each letter with a pattern in his head. He studied the sky for a few moments, and then straightened up excitedly. He flashed his blue light energetically, smiling.


H I

C H L O E

T H I S

I S

C L A R K.


Chloe blinked, surprised at how fast Clark was catching on. Of course, Clark always did have a way of surprising her. That was one of the great things about Clark. He didn’t have any trouble keeping up with anything she did. Clark always had a way of understanding her. That’s why she liked him.

It’s not like the two of them had a tremendous amount of things in common. Clark hadn’t expressed a great interest in journalism or computers, and she didn’t take to football or astrology very much. But they seemed paired together. Each other complimenting the other.

She and Clark connected so well, she really had a hard time keeping anything from him. She’d only known Clark for this short year before high school. Before, even thinking about high school made knots grow in her belly. But then again, if Clark was there, she knew it wouldn’t be that bad. She looked forward to it, actually. Because Clark would be there too.

“Well?” She heard Clark over her phone, “Did I do it right?”

“Yeah. I caught it.” She smiled uneasily. If he could pick up Morse code that fast, she hoped he wouldn’t bother decoding that one message she sent before. She‘d die before she‘d even turn fourteen. Die of embarrassment. “Um, you haven’t done this before have you?”

“No. But, I just figured…” Clark stopped, realizing he was about to fall into a trap. He couldn’t tell her he’d memorized the two messages she‘d taught him, connected them with corresponding patterns and figured out the rest of the code mathematically in his head. She’d think he was a super freak if not worse, a major nerd. He couldn’t go into high school being tagged a nerd.

“Did you just figure it out by yourself?” He heard her voice rise with amusement.

“Well, uh… yeah? Is that weird?”
He heard her giggle, making his stomach flip uneasily. Maybe she already did think he was weird.

“Clark, that’s not weird it’s…” He swallowed, expecting the worst.

“It’s really cool of you. It’s amazing actually.”

He smiled, not feeling as self conscious of before. He reminded himself he didn’t have to worry around Chloe. She was cool like that. He lifted his head as Chloe made another round of blue light burn patterns in the sky.

This time, he read it easily.


A M A Z I N G.


Clark smiled. “So, are you going to tell me what you said before?”

“Later, Clark.”

“Chloe! It is later!”

“No, no it’s not!” She said tauntingly, and exasperated.

“Chloe. Come on, that’s not fair.”

“Later.” She was blushing, but it wasn’t because of the cold and snow. “I’ll…tell you later, I swear.”

Clark sighed, giving up.

He looked up at the stars for a moment, realizing that if he could just remember the pattern and sequence of light she sent before, he could figure it out. He strained every inch of photographic memory muscle he had, coming up with only a few broken words. He blinked, trying to piece them together… and then it clicked.

“Huh?” He said out loud, not sure what to make of the puzzle completed.

“What?” Chloe said nervously on the other end.
Clark stood there in his loft, trying to figure out her message, but he knew he was reading it wrong.

“Uh, nothing.” Clark scratched his chin, still unsure by that one message’s meaning.

“Let’s say something else.”

“Okay!” Chloe agreed, a little too enthusiastically.
Clark thought a moment before he tapped his laser on and off several times, knowing that five miles away Chloe had on the hugest smile.

“’We come in peace?’ Clark, you can’t be serious!” She smiled, cuddling up in her coat while small flurries of Kansas snow drifted around her. A few of them rested onto her lashes where her hazel eyes brightened in gaiety.

“Hey, you were the one that said there were little aliens out there. I’m just saying it to be safe.” Clark said, a quirked smile amusing his boyish looks.

He could practically see Chloe’s infamous eye roll whenever she thought he was acting too dorky. But he knew she enjoyed his dork. She always smiled at him when he did. Part of him wanted her to smile at him forever.

He realized that somehow he was being cheated. Chloe was out there somewhere, smiling, and without him to enjoy it. He wondered if she would be weirded out if he sped to her house and said “Hi,” before saying good night.

Clark ruminated the idea, the warm, soft glow of his desk lamp contrasting to the blue, hazy light from outside. It was a waning moon tonight, allowing for a few more stars to pop out than usual. Clark watched as snow flurries continued to drift down as lazy streamers. He pictured Chloe at her house, outside in the snow. He pictured himself with her.

It just seemed natural, for the two of them to be friends. Clark didn’t have a lot of friends. He really just had Chloe and Pete. But Chloe was different than Pete. She was a girl. But more than that, she was a cool, girl. He didn’t know a lot of other girls that could do half the stuff Chloe did. Like this whole code, deal. It was neat, like everything else Chloe did.

He used to think Pete was his best friend, but the more he spent time with Chloe, the more he discovered how interesting she was. How awesome she was. Except he would never tell her that. Not unless he wanted to watch her laugh and eye roll him to no end for being such a dork.

But maybe she wouldn’t.

He looked up again, this time towards the distant direction of her house.

“Chloe?”

“Clark?”

“I think,” I think you’re the coolest girl ever. “I think my dad’s going to wake up soon. He usually does around this time.” He said, chickening out.

“Okay, yeah. I don’t want my dad waking up either.” She smiled wanly, secretly wanting to stay up a little longer with Clark’s whispering voice in her ear.

“Okay. So this’ll be the last one.“ He paced around the red couch, and aimed his light towards the window. “At least,“ he added, “for tonight.”

She smiled, the subtle hint from Clark not escaping her. She vaguely remembered that she was supposed to be freezing out in the Kansas snow. But she wasn’t. She felt very warm.

She stood in the snow, watching as slow flurries danced by.

The sky was dark, yes, but Chloe could see past the great void where other eyes would stray. There were clusters of stars revealing themselves the longer her eyes patiently rested. She focused on one, eyes brightening once she saw it’s light flicker ever so slightly. Maybe they, whoever they were, had been watching.

Her eyes darted back north where Clark’s blue light burned bright again. She almost missed the first few letters, but once he’d finished she was able to piece it together.


C H L O E

A N D

C L A R K

B E S T

F R I E N D S

F O R E V E R .


“Forever.” Chloe whispered absently, eyes smiling.

“Yeah.” Clark smiled against his receiver. “Now it’s up there, Chlo. We’re up there, somewhere, forever.”

Not long after those last moments, Clark and Chloe reluctantly wished the other good night, each promising that they’d meet each other in the morning after breakfast.

Maybe years would pass by and the earth would turn without them knowing. Perhaps the world would change, and even end. Perhaps one day, their friendship would fade.

Someday, perhaps they might even forget. But even if that day came, they’d always be together.

Somewhere, up there, forever.