Title: Suitable Specimen
Author: westwingwolf aka Mindy
Rating: PG-13
Spoiler: Mentions of things through Season 6, but I've changed a lot which you'll notice.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the characters that you don't recognize. I don't even own the title.
Summary: While investigating, Chloe comes in contact with a strange substance that has surprising effects. (Real original, I know .)
AN: Thanks to nonky for the title and for telling me that this wasn't crap. Thanks to skauble and somethingeasy for their encouragement as well.
Chapter 1
Chloe was incredibly pissed. Normally, she would love the idea of a stake out. The thrill that comes with the possibility of getting caught. The anticipation of everything finally coming to the surface. The notion that this could possibly be her biggest story yet.
None of this did any thing to help her mood. The truth was stake outs sucked unless you had someone with you. Jimmy had pictures to develop, so much for trying to prove his manhood. Clark actually had chores. She was starting to think Clark didn’t care until it was time to clean up the mess. Truthfully, she wasn’t in the mood to listen as Clark moped the entire time anyway. And despite Lois’ sudden urge to join the forces of investigative reporting, the dream didn’t matter if it interfered with a date with Metropolis’ newest billionaire. Not that she really wanted to share a byline. Lana was … well okay Lana had an excuse. A legitimate one for once. She missed Pete. He wouldn’t have deserted her. Great, now she was starting to think like Lana. No way was she going to allow herself to go down that tormented path. She had to concentrate on the story.
She had discovered that a recently divorced woman had bought controlling interest in a small chemical plant outside of Metropolis. None of this was particularly news worthy, but Chloe thought it was strange that a woman with no background in chemistry or business would suddenly make a huge investment without reason. In fact, Kim Carens was a successful couples’ therapist until she closed her practice after the divorce.
Chloe was willing to admit that people go through drastic changes after traumatic events. Some even went from one boyfriend to the next without giving proper time to heal. But to switch from one career to an entirely different one without any knowledge of how that world worked was too much of a mystery for Chloe to avoid.
She needed to investigate something that was entirely of her own accord. Something that wasn’t based on helping Clark or saving Lois from a disaster brought on by themselves.
Now was her chance. The last of the workers had left for the evening and all that was left was a lone security guard. She slipped passed him so easily that she had to resist the urge to ask if he was ever employed by Lex.
She easily found the lab thanks to the blueprints that she had ‘acquired’ beforehand. She never did anything without a good plan. She was smart after all.
The room was typical, very much like the LuthorCorp labs that she had broken into in the past. However, she had done a thorough investigation and neither Lex nor Lionel had anything to do with this woman. Strike one for the usual theory.
And she saw no sign of any green substance anywhere. So there was strike two.
After a few minutes of finding nothing incriminating or remotely interesting, she was about to chalk this up to just a random venture. Until she noticed the medical vials filled with a red liquid. She remembered Clark telling her about red kryptonite and the effects it had on him. She knew while green kryptonite had caused multiple problems to humans. Red kryptonite did nothing to humans or else everyone who bought a class ring would have gone crazy. If this really was red kryptonite, then what would anybody need with it?
As she reached for a sample, she heard the guard approach just outside the lab. Making a sudden move to duck, she ended up spilling the chemical onto her hand. She noticed that the contents seeped into her hand before she had a chance to wipe it off. She’d worry about that later. Not getting caught came first.
Luckily the guard didn’t notice her and moved on with his rounds. Chloe picked up some more samples and rushed out of the lab with as little noise as possible.
When she was safely back in her car, she knew her best bet was to rush to the hospital. Screw having to explain her actions, she didn’t want to risk what exposure to the chemical could mean.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As far as she could tell nothing about the chemical made her feel any different. The doctors had bought her excuse that she was walking along when she slipped on a strange substance and wanted to be cautious about what it could have been. She had to stay overnight for observation and a battery of tests since they had to do a thorough investigation of Chloe’s pilfered sample.
Amazingly they also bought that she was a biochemical major that kept extra vials around for emergencies like this. The things that people went along with when they either weren’t smart enough to question or didn’t care to know. The thought that these were the people on her case was enough to keep her awake for the entire night.
Dr. Lambert had advised that someone else drive her home after her release. Lois had no problem agreeing when she heard that she could until after her date was over. Unfortunately when she learned where she would need to pick Chloe up, she immediately freaked and called Gabe. Even after Chloe had explained that there was nothing to worry about, he still insisted on coming back to Metropolis after Lois had mentioned something about meteor rock. This would be the last time she ever gave Lois any information.
“Thank God! I knew I should have gone with you, but Oliver wouldn’t leave me alone, and he can be really sneaky about getting his way, so I figured I might as …”
“It’s okay Lois. You don’t have to explain or blame yourself.” Chloe felt the need to cut her cousin off before this whole ordeal became completely about her.
“I wasn’t blaming me, I was blaming you.”
“Me?!”
“Yes, why didn’t you wait for me?”
“It was my story. And I thought it couldn’t wait until after you got yourself into Oliver’s …”
“Hey Sweetie!” Gabe had heard his daughter and niece arguing from outside and he felt it was best to interrupt before Lois ended up in the bed next to Chloe.
Chloe stopped at the sound of her dad’s voice, but she shot Lois a look that clearly said they weren’t finished.
“Dad, you didn’t need to come all this way. I’m fine and I’m sure your needed back in Gotham.”
“As a matter of fact, Mr. Wayne said that while he found me to be invaluable to the business, he knew I would not be up to my usual excellent standards if I was busy worrying about you. He even offered me his private jet in order to see you as soon as possible.”
Chloe smiled brightly at her father and turned a more a devious smile onto her cousin. “Isn’t it interesting how one billionaire is willing to do anything to keep family together, while another one has no qualms about keeping people from family obligations?”
“Hey, you said that you were perfectly fine here and didn’t need me until this morning…and,” Lois was about to go on when she caught her uncle’s questioning look and turned sheepish. “Yeah that is somewhat mildly interesting, if you cared about making comparisons like that. Fine. I’m sorry. I should have ignored you when you said it was okay and just come here anyways.”
Chloe broke into a smaller real smile. “No, it’s okay. I was just teasing and there was nothing you could have done here except annoy me until I gave in and told you what I was investigating.”
“Speaking of which…”
“No.”
“Just a little…”
“No.”
“I’m family!”
“You’re right, I forgot about that until just this moment. Well, this changes things.”
“Really?!”
“No.”
Chloe ended up giving them the bare bones of her trip. Typical investigation, something went wrong, she even mentioned the meteor rock influence. Though she made sure to call it that and not Kryptonite. She didn’t tell them that it was red as she thought the new angle would spark Lois’ interest enough to barge in where she wasn’t wanted. After a stern lecture about being more careful from her father and his acknowledgement that no matter what he said, she’d still do as she did; they talked about his work and the new things in both of their lives. Lois joined in from time to time. Chloe had missed this. Even though they spoke on the phone and e-mailed several times throughout the day, it didn’t compare to actually having him around. She was so busy catching up with her father that she didn’t notice she had another visitor until she heard Lois speak.
“Hey Smallville, I figured you would have gotten here sooner.”
Chloe looked up to see Clark standing in the doorway and in an instant she had a sudden urge that she couldn’t deny.
So she grabbed the bedpan and proceeded to vomit.
MODERATOR'S NOTE: This fic is missing chapters due to hacking these forums were viction of some time ago. If you want to read the whole version, here it is in PDF format: Suitable Specimen
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methodical Chloe!
Yeah, it's tough realizing that your care is in the hands of complete and utter morons.
I love Chloe& Lois bickering!
Originally Posted by westwingwolf
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