Heaven Knows
by Nymph Du Pave
Chapter One:
Now
Nothing seemed right for her all day long. There was just something amiss. She wasn't able to concentrate, her editorial was going absolutely nowhere and Pete… Pete had been distant for weeks now. Ever since he'd hit on her and threatened her life in Hamilton's labs.
Not that he remembered any of it.
The flashlight fell on his smile. She knew that smile. That was partly his 'I'm gonna grab you' smile. She'd seen him use it on a million different girls, only… Only this one held something else to it.
"You looking for me?" he asked slyly.
"Oh, no."
Please, not Pete, too. Not now.
His hand came up to play with her hair, fingers grazing her face. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?"
That was also a popular line, but… But Pete really meant it. Right now, with her. She knew him and knew him well. He wasn't just trying to pick up some girl. He was saying it to her and he meant it.
What the- It's got to be the Nicodemus.
"Okay, Pete." She pushed his hand away and turned to leave. "You've been infected." She broke into a trot. "We've got to get you to the hospital."
He intercepted her. "That's right," he said, tears already beginning to shine in the low light of Hamilton's barn. "Ignore Pete. He's just the funny guy. Don't have to sweat his feelings 'cause you've only got eyes for Clark." On the word 'eyes' he brushed her face roughly.
She was beginning to get scared and what did any girl do if at all possible when they felt threatened? Call their very big, very strong male best friend and hope to God the hero got there soon enough.
Doesn't he always?
"Calm down, Pete. I'm gonna call, Clark."
That was before he threw the phone, grabbed the gun and pointed it at me.
She kept walking.
Lately she'd try to catch him in conversation, but… He'd just smile and nod and mutter and then excuse himself. To someone who hadn’t known him for what felt like her whole real life, it would have looked as if he was giving her a very polite brush-off.
Shoo, Perky Blonde, You're botherin' moi.
But he wasn't. He was giving himself the brush off. He couldn't look at her, could talk to her knowing what he had done, reacted the way he had and, if he hadn't been so pissed as Luthor…
What he might have stayed to do.
Not to mention what would have happened had I not given him my keys?
Would he have really shot her? Possibly killed her? Just for revenge? Is that why he was staying away? Or was it because she gave him the keys in the first place?
None of the infected people could remember a thing, so he had to rely on what Clark had told him. And Chloe guessed from Pete's reaction that Clark had told him the entire story, down to every last detail that Chloe had given him about what Pete had done in the barn.
Except the part about her only having eyes for him.
Could Pete be mad at me because I feared him? I honestly feared for my life at his hands?
You were supposed to be able to trust your best friends with your life. Maybe he was hurt.
Or was he just ashamed?
I'm so glad he was pissed at Lex.
She shook her head, feeling guilty at how thankful she felt that Pete's disgust and rage at Luthor took him away, sent him away.
Why should I feel guilty, though? Clark saved Lex. Clar-
Her brain stopped functioning properly. It used to be fine when thinking of them, used to work just as well when she thought about her own name and Martha's in a sentence, or Lana's and Kwan's but-
"But this isn't about what's new in my life or the Torch."
It was about Lex and Clark and how every time she thought of them together she got chills. It didn't used to be that way. Really. As smart as she was and as perceptive as she prided herself on being, she hadn't picked up on it. Hadn't even begun to. There was something there that she'd never even scraped the surface of until last night. Until her sweet, innocent crush with his farmer-boy jeans and his farmer-man body became a new color. Something her eyes had never even seen before.
She was still trying to figure out whether it was a hue that would have gone better unseen.