Title: Assignment: Paradise
Author: Superag
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: Own nothing remotely related to Smallville, its characters, or any songs that inspire anything that I write. This is all my useless entertainment.
Synopsis: As far as I have come up with, Chloe’s life changes direction after high school. This is to be light and refreshing hopefully.
A/N – Was needing to get some romanticism out of my system and was inspired by a couple of songs by Kenny Chesney. Call me a beach bum too close to summer. Anyhoo, obviously we are in season 4 here, but there are no stones, no Jason, and no meteor shower. The rest will come as it does. Thanks for reading the fluff.
Goodbye – Chapter 1
Chloe sat and reread the small note on her desk in the Torch office before picking up her last box and turning off the lights. She smiled and walked out of the high school and sat in her car staring at the façade of the school longingly. It had been a pretty good four years. She had cracked some of the strangest stories known to man, been given a column for one of the best papers in the country, and had earned the respect of several job offers that she turned down. It was all behind her now. Graduation was the next day, and next year another editor would reach for the stars. The small note left behind was her swan song.
The next afternoon, Clark, his parents, and Lana waited impatiently as the time to line up for graduation crept closer. Clark ‘looked’ around, including the school building but found nothing out of place and no Chloe. “I’ll be right back,” he said to his parents as he guided Lana back into the school with him. He walked into the Torch office and saw everything still neatly in its place and laid out for the next person to take over.
“Clark,” Lana said as she scanned the note and handed it to him. Clark sat down in the chair and read.
Dear Clark,
I’m pretty sure you are the one reading this, so here goes. Don’t
wait up for me at graduation. A long time ago I had said that I wanted
something special for my life. And I have done some great things in
the last four years. But after dad died, I realized there really was no
where to go by remaining in Smallville. I love you and Lana both very
dearly and will miss you terribly, but I’m ready to move on to
something different. Life takes unusual turns now and then – this is
my turn. Please pick up my diploma and save it for my return, if and
when I do. Don’t worry about me. I’m happy – I’m at peace and
looking forward to my next chapter to my life. Say hi to your parents
and Lana for me. Tell Lex I’ll miss pushing his buttons and call Lois
and tell her I love her. Chloe
Clark and Lana stared at the small smiley face by her name and glanced at each other. Chloe had always had her own agenda. And she had a tough last couple of years. Assisting Lex in Lionel’s incarceration and her subsequent kidnapping and terrorizing. Her father hadn’t taken it as well. He suffered a heart attack around Christmas and passed away. Chloe had been beside herself not understanding where to go for help in straightening out his affairs. Lex felt obligated to pay back the favor of Chloe ridding him of his father. He reorganized her life and paid for the funeral. Clark knew Chloe always wondered if Lex had felt guilty since after her father’s funeral, they never were as close as before.
“We should be going Clark,” Lana stated as she touched his hand and they walked back out in to the sunlight of the May graduation. Staring back behind their seats, they sadly noted the empty seat with ‘Sullivan’ taped to it.
************
Chloe sat in the large leather seat and smiled up at the flight attendant, “Thank you.” She sipped on her latte that costs her twice as much as it should, but she decided to take a risk and book first class. This was her new life. She looked out of the window at the tarmac of the Metropolis airport. She wondered if she would ever see the lights of the exciting and yet dangerous city again. She already seemed to miss the smells of the ink at the Daily Planet but needed something more. Leaning back in the chair, she slid the shade down and closed her eyes. Grasping her hands around the cup, she took a deep breath as she felt the wheels of the plane leave the ground.
Chloe had learned a lot from Lex after the death of her father. He had quietly and discretely met with her and his accountant and changed over all her father’s assets and quickly covered what small debts he had. She had been grateful. He had been a different person since his father had been denied an appeal. After the funeral, though, things were different. She had noticed his change in disposition even before the funeral.
She remembered that when she had found her father in his chair, she panicked. Calling 911, the ambulance showed up and Clark and his parents met her at the hospital. It was three days before Christmas. She sat with her dad for three days with him on life support before pulling the plug on Christmas night. She had cried so hard that her tears had soaked through to the cheap mattress.
Opening her eyes, Chloe flinched in her seat remembering Lex’s hand on her shoulder as Gabe left the earth. That night she finally knew that Lex was more than the man on the front of Fortune Magazine. He was a hurt young man who never got to heal.
She turned around and sobbed into his stomach, causing the light blue color in his shirt to darken. Lex handed her a tissue and took her arm gently, pulling her gently from the seat that she had held for 72 hours. “Give them some room,” he whispered.
“But, he’s my dad,” she sobbed in between words as he continued to pull her into an empty corner of the hospital room. She halfway watched as Lex rubbed his hand down her back and let her continue to ruin his shirt.
“He was a great man, hard worker, honest,” Lex calmly stated as Chloe’s sobs started to slow to a general flow of tears without the hitches in her breath.
Chloe took a deep breath and stared up the man that she never quite trusted. “Why are you here on Christmas?”
“It’s just another day – and you needed someone. And Gabe was a friend.” Chloe looked up before taking another sob, burying herself into Lex’s chest. Wrapping his arm around her, he carefully watched without emotion the nurses prep Gabe for the mortuary pick up.
He had driven her home that night and sat in the kitchen with her. Most of the night they never said a word to each other, just asking each other for refills on coffee. She had finally succumbed to sleep after three days and he watched her sleep until the next morning. Chloe remembered she woke to a note saying the coffee pot was on a timer and to call him for anything.
Falling asleep in the large plane seat, Chloe’s thoughts faded into a deep sleep.
************
“Thank you,” Clark hung up the phone and looked at his parents and Lana. “That was a car dealership downtown that said we could go pick up Lana’s things they found in the trunk. Chloe sold her car.”
Lana stared at Clark and then at his parents. “Why?”
“They didn’t say. They said she went in right before they closed last night and sold it for cash, called a cab, and left. It’s some dealership in Metropolis.” Clark parents nodded their heads and smiled.
“Clark, I trust Chloe knows what she is doing and it’s not your place to go looking for her. She asked for you two to give her some space. I would respect that,” Jonathon stated as he squeezed Clark’s shoulder. Gazing over in Martha’s direction, he smiled and pulled her gently from her seat, leaving the two graduates to ponder their friend’s decision.
“We should really talk to Lex – he would probably know what’s going on,” Lana suggested.
“Why? They haven’t spoken two words since Chloe’s dad’s funeral.”
“Clark, I’m just grasping at straws as much as you are. But I’m worried about her – Chloe’s not one to just pack it in and disappear.” Clark agreed and the two left for the mansion.
The two arrived at the mansion a little while later and knocked on the door. Lex leaned over and looked at the camera angle and proceeded to call for his man servant to let the two in. Clark and Lana walked into Lex’s office and watched as his gaze on his computer didn’t change. “Should you two be somewhere participating in underage drinking?”
“Lex, Chloe’s missing.” Lana stepped up to the desk and laid the note from the Trch down for him to examine.
The two stood and waited as Lex read over the letter and kind of smiled to himself behind the light blue paper. Nodding, he put the letter down and slid it back across his desk to Lana. “Interesting,” Lex dropped as he went back to his computer.
“That’s it? Come on Lex. She doesn’t do this.” Lana pleaded as Clark moved forward.
“This isn’t Chloe. She had talked about her scholarship to Met U. She wouldn’t just up and leave. And she sold her car to some dealership in Metropolis.” Clark paced in the middle of the man’s office.
“Evidently Clark, she is serious,” Lex paused as he got up from his chair. “Look, Chloe is 18, a high school graduate, and for the record on her own now. She can do what she wants without consulting you two. Go to a graduation party and then worry about what you two will do with your lives. If Chloe wants to be found, she’ll leave the trail.”
Lex walked the two back to the front door, and reassured them again of her safety. “I’m sure she’s fine.” Lana and Clark stared at him as he shut the door and turned off the hallway light.
Standing in front of the mansion, Clark and Lana realized that Lex might be right. Calling his folks, Clark and Lana left for the nearest party as Lex and his parents both suggested.
Lex watched from the upstairs window and pulled up a bank on the computer. Typing in a couple of codes, he watched as several accounts that he had helped Chloe open with Gabe’s old investments had been cleaned out and closed for cash. “So Chloe Sullivan, where are you?” Lex said to himself as all her accounts were now inactive.
***********
“May I help you,” the woman with a thick accent asked the young blonde that was gliding her hand over the cases of pearls and other precious stones.
“Actually, I was hoping that I could fill this,” she answered as she handed the woman the Help Wanted sign from the window.
TBC....
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