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Disclaimer: Smallville and all related elements, characters and indicia © Tollin-Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television, 2002. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations—save those created by the authors for use solely on this website—are copyright Tollin-Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television. Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster.

Author's note: Thanks to Cyb and Miss Windy who not only put up with my crying from this episode, but then also beta-ing this on the fly.

Rain
by Wookie

The rain was still falling. Falling like it wasn’t going to stop. Chloe was sure that she had, in her English class, read some poems that talked about rain. It was the metaphor for renewal, rebirth, or something like that.

Metaphors are rather stupid when you think about them.

Raindrops are just condensation, her biology teacher said politely in her head. As winds move water vapor around the globe, the vapors form water droplets around dust particles. These water droplets create clouds and fog, finally falling back to Earth as precipitation.

So raindrops aren’t anything special.

Chloe sighed and stared out the window as she had for the past 30 minutes. The rest of the Beanery was packed, but she had found herself the perfect corner up against the window. She cradled the cup of coffee in her hands, trying to warm herself up. She had gone home after Mr. Fordman’s funeral and changed, but she still wasn’t warm.

“You want another cup?” the waitress asked, surprising Chloe. She looked down at her coffee, the milk starting to make a swirly pattern on the top.

“Yes, please.” Maybe she would drink this one.

Chloe wasn’t sure what her problem was. She was being melodramatic. She didn’t even know the Fordmans that well. She certainly didn’t know Mr. Fordman.

But she had stood at his grave today. And it was killing her inside.

Every time she thought of the black coffin being lowered into the ground, a lump stuck in her throat. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the Fordmans and her stomach turned.

And every time she thought at all, she saw Clark and Lana, eyeing each other over a dead man’s lowering casket.

How fucking sickening were they? Chloe shuddered at the mental replay of that scene

She had to put it out of her mind. So she looked out the window again.

She thought about the most trivial things. Should she make the masthead of the paper a bit smaller? Did she want to get new towels for her bathroom at home since the old ones were getting ratty? Would she be able to get an extension on her history paper? Who was she going to take to the Spring formal….

The formal. Oh god. Justin. Justin and Principal Kwan and she really thought she was going to die this time. How many times was that going to happen before she got used to it?

Chloe took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. The Beanery is not the place to lose it, she reminded herself, even whispered it, to make sure it stuck.

The rain to beat down harder, and Chloe could barely make out the shapes on the other side of the window. She couldn’t remember a time it had rained so hard. She almost wished there was something to those metaphors. Maybe she could go outside and all the problems of the week – all the problems of the year – would start to wash away. Clark and Lana, Shawn and Justin, nightmare inducing flowers and sick LuthorCorp. employees, they would all just fade.

“Chloe?” a rough voice sounded behind her. She turned around in her seat.

“Whitney.” *What should she say, what should she say, what should she say?* Oh god. She had no idea.

“Hi…Do you mind if I…There aren’t any other… Could I...” He trailed off as he gestured to the seat across from her.

“No, yeah, I mean…” She said quickly, stumbling over the words. She took a deep breath and started again. “Please, sit down,”

“Thanks.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Chloe turned her head slightly to the window, and glanced back at Whitney quickly. He had taken her lead and was looking out the window as well.

“It’s really coming down out there isn’t it,” Whitney said in a flat tone.

“Yeah…it is.”

“I just kinda wanted to get out of the house…you know?” Whitney said, seemingly to the window. “I didn’t think it would still be raining like this.”

“Same here.”

They lapsed into silence for a minute as Chloe gather her courage.

“I...I just wanted to say…I’m sorry. I mean…” Chloe started, her voice wobbling a bit.

Whitney looked away from the window and glanced at Chloe’s face. ”I know. I…Thanks.”

Chloe nodded at Whitney and they both looked out the window again. Chloe couldn’t help it, she had to ask the generic question, the one she knew everyone asked. “Is there anything I can do?”

Whitney shook his head, and glanced at Chloe quickly. “No, just…just sit with me?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

Chloe picked up her coffee cup and cradled it in both hands again. And she and Whitney sat and watched the rain pour down.

-The End-