Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, Superman, or any characters that appear or are mentioned in those series/movies.

Okay, was forced to go to the doctor yesterday (hate hospitals!) and found out that I have a 'serious kidney infection' and they also want me to have a cat-scan (brain scan) on Monday… 0.0 I don't wanna do it!

Amazing…this is it! This is the last chapter of Winds of Change…to think this started out as a oneshot…then as a story that was only supposed to be around four chapters long, and now, here it is ending at chapter sixteen, yeah, a little more than four! Grins

So, I want to thank everyone who has stayed faithful with me, encouraging me and just letting me know that you were reading and that you enjoyed it--you have no idea how that helped me keep inspired and not let this story fall into HIATUS like a couple of my other stories. As you read this final chapter (and EPILOGUE), know that you kept me concentrated and that we got this far thanks to you all!

So, yeah, once again: THANKS!

Shadowglove

P.S. THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO SABRINA…she knows why.

Three years.

It'd been three years since Clark Kent had just mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth.

At first Lex Luthor had thought it was some cleverly orchestrated plan to get him off his trail, he'd been this close to discovering the whole truth about Clark Kent and his little abilities and then the farm boy had just disappeared. Lex had known that if there was anyone smart enough to pull something like this off, it was Chloe Sullivan, Clark's little sidekick, and so he'd kept an eye on her, had her followed, even bought the Daily Planet to track her every movement, to catch her when she made the mistake.

But she never did…

And he began to wonder if she truly did know where Clark had disappeared to.

He'd then started watching her because he was sure that when Clark returned he'd return to Chloe first thing. Most of his life Clark had been blind to the beautiful blonde friend of his, but Lex had noticed a difference during the months leading up to Clark's disappearance--noticed how Clark had finished things permanently with the annoying Lana Lang, noticed how he'd never left Chloe's side and was always there for her.

He'd noticed what Chloe hadn't.

He'd seen Clark Kent in love.

So, yes, it made all the sense in the world to keep an eye on her both at work and at her home. And, he admitted, she intrigued him. As was her decline in zeroing him out and lashing out at him with that sharp little pink tongue of hers. He'd noticed her slowly pulling away from their confrontations, noticed her stop fighting him on the pieces he made her write--but it'd been more obvious after her annoying cousin, Lois Lane, had gotten herself killed while going after a story he'd told her to leave alone.

Chloe had completely broken down, and all the fight had gone out of her. She didn't fight him when he insinuated sexual things about them to her coworkers, she didn't fight him when he kept her back for whatever pretext in the evenings to go over the pieces he wanted her to, she didn't even fight when he'd moved her desk until it was right by his office so he could have her always in his line of vision or when he started making her go with him to every function he had to attend.

He'd won…

And yet the victory wasn't half as sweet as he'd once thought it would be. He'd dreamed of shutting up the blonde, of making her submit, of making her understand who was the superior—the winner. He'd dreamt of this moment since their friendship had dissolved so bitterly, and yet now that he had her as he'd always wanted her, he'd discovered that he truly didn't want her like that.

He'd missed that spark in her eyes, missed the way she'd glare at him and say something amazingly witty and biting whenever they battled verbally…and it'd pissed him, and confused him.

So he'd changed his tactics and just started observing her. She hated what he made her write, everyone in the Daily Planet were disgusted with her because of the rumors of her having gained her position by being his whore, and yet she worked silently, efficiently, giving her all, her pieces literary works of art. Everything she did was perfection, and before Lex could realize what was happening, he'd begun obsessing again, and yet this time it was with the young woman who he watched in his office, through the distorted glass, as she typed and worked on leads and became as desirous to the young billionaire as she was unobtainable to him.

He'd always known of her friendship with Oliver Queen, they'd met through Martha Kent, and yet he hadn't realized that they were as close friends as they were. Lex had gone to the Daily Planet as usual (honestly, he was spending more time there than at Luthorcorp), coming up with reasons to have Chloe have lunch with him at some fancy restaurant so he could dazzle her--they could go over some piece he wanted her to write, it wouldn't look weird, the whole office thought he was banging her anyway.

He groaned, thinking about her beneath him, whimpering, whispering his name as he slid in and out of her warmth…

And then he'd come upon her desk and found her gone.

It was odd, Chloe never ate lunch out of the office, Lex would spend his lunch in his office just to be able to watch her as she nibbled on a sandwich and continue to type in her computer. So when he'd asked some nameless floozy who'd tried to get into his pants more than once--Cat something--where Chloe was, and she'd told him that Oliver Queen had appeared in the office, with a rose in his hand, and had whisked the blonde away, Lex hadn't been able to tap down the fury that'd welled up in him.

He remembered going to his office and slamming the door, surprised to realize that what he was feeling was jealousy. It was that moment that he'd finally admitted to himself that he wanted the blonde reporter, wanted her badly, wanted her only for himself. The young man had tried to keep a reign on his temper, to be stoic as ever, but the moment she returned with that goofy smile on her face--that smile that had never shone on her face after leaving a meeting with him, he'd ordered her in his office and lost his temper, interrogating her on what she'd been doing with Oliver Queen--as if he had any right to demand anything from her.

She'd looked surprised and a little afraid--but he'd only seen her with Oliver once afterwards and she'd returned to the office with her eyes red. His blonde rival tried getting into contact with her several times, but Lex's men informed him that Chloe brushed him off every time.

It'd helped calm his jealous insecurities, but when he'd come in again around lunchtime and she wasn't at her desk, he'd felt that dark feeling welling up inside of him again as he asked around but no one knew where she'd gone.

He'd banged the door of his office closed and gone to call her on her cellular--the only number he knew by heart.

It rang once.

Twice.

Three times…

And then she answered, her tone wary. "What do you want, Luthor?"

"Where are you?" He knew his voice was clipped, terse, but he didn't care because he was keeping back the desire to shout at her and demand to know if she was with Queen.

"Out." Her answer was irritatingly vague. "What do you want?"

"For my star reporter to be at her desk, close to my office, as she should be." He growled. He didn't like it when he couldn't see her. She'd become his obsession, his necessity, his drug of choice, and he feared what he was going through right now was similar to what addicts would call 'withdrawal'.

"I'm on my lunch break, Luthor, even your star reporter needs to refuel once in a while." She sighed and she sounded so small, so vulnerable. "I can't live off of coffee forever."

"I know, Chloe." He liked the sound of her name on his tongue. It sounded so soft, so feminine, and yet quirky, just like the girl who wore the name proudly. "I've been trying to get you to have a good lunch for months now." Maybe this was a good way to begin working in the new routine of them not only spending the evenings at the DP together, but having regular lunches as well. "I just thought it odd that you weren't by your desk."

"Why don't you tell me why you're really doing this, Luthor?" She didn't snap, didn't sound annoyed, she just sounded so tired. "Is it another fluffy LuthorCorp-Saves-The-World piece? I'll write it up as soon as I get back."

"No, I don't have anything specific for you to write." He paused, suddenly realizing something. "There's an echo…where exactly are you?"

"I told you, out."

"You sound tired." That observation escaped his mouth before he could bite it back. She wasn't going to believe that he was worried about her, not yet, not before he'd managed to manipulate her into having only him to rely on and she gave in.

"Look, I haven't been sleeping well. Nothing big." And suddenly she was defensive again for the first time in a whole year. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm still on my lunch break--."

He narrowed his eyes. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"That's IT!" She snapped, the same anger and passion he'd been missing coloring her voice. "Luthor, I'm having lunch! Give me a break! You have people trailing me day and night, I try to give them the slip now and then, but I know that most of the time I fail. You know that I don't know where Clark is, you know that I am no doing anything against you, and you know that I spend all of my nights at home in front of the television with a carton of Ben & Jerry's!"

He was silent, savoring the familiar passion, glad that she hadn't lost it, imagining the blonde applying that same passion in the bed, in his bed, somewhere he wouldn't let her leave once she gave in. And she would.

"You have nothing to fear from me anymore." She whispered, broken. "You've won. Now let me have my lunch in peace."

He paused, savoring her defeat, knowing that soon he'd have her completely. "Then, if I've won, you'll be dying your hair brown. No one will ever truly take you seriously if you're a blonde." He'd already made this suggestion, but she'd given him the evil eye when he had.

There was a sigh. "Luthor, apparently you haven't realized that I'm really a brunette, and if it keeps you quiet, I'll stop dying my hair."

"Good." He paused, closing his eyes, imagining Chloe with long brown hair and wincing slightly as he began to grow hard immediately. "I'll have my secretary set up an appointment at the best beauty salon for you for this evening to get them to dye your hair back as close to your natural color as possible, that way I don't have my star reporter looking like some washed out, unkempt girl who can't even dye her roots."

"Whatever you say." She gave into him, again. "So unless you want to use up more of my short lunch break, goodbye." And she hung up on him.

But Lex didn't care.

Victory was nearly won.

He'd have Chloe Sullivan in his bed and in his life, it was only a matter of time.

Lex shook off the lingering memories of the dream he'd had the night before and sat down having lunch, looking down at the newspaper in front of him, at the first page.

METROPOLIS POLICE CHIEF INVOLVED IN ILLICIT "KIDDY" PORN PRODUCTION AND TRAFFICATION by LOIS LANE

A year had passed since Chloe had left him, and it would seem that the only way he could get close to her was through her writing--something she'd thrown herself into completely since she'd ended their engagement.

Lex closed his blue eyes and sighed, remembering the evening seven months ago when he'd cornered her on her way to her new apartment, and forced her to tell him what he'd done wrong, pleaded for her to give him another chance.

And she'd glared at him and let it all loose. She told him how she'd been breaking little by little by his side, how she'd thought he'd been having an affaire and then she'd discovered his little experiments.

His heart had stopped in horror as suddenly everything made sense.

He'd tried to get her to understand, but she'd looked at him as if he was worse than the cruelest monster, and told him to be prepared because she was coming after him.

A month later she published an article with enough evidence to prove that he was experimenting on human subjects…and Lex couldn't help but feel proud of her for having gathered so much evidence when he'd made sure to keep all the evidence under lock and key.

Of course, the case had gone to court, but Lex hadn't been sentenced. He'd managed to perfect the serum his father had been working on, and while only a few of the mutants had been injected with it, they were manipulated easily and testified in court how they'd asked to be experimented on so that they could find a way to become normal again.

Lex had been slapped on the wrist, told to keep the government informed of his experiments, and that'd been all.

He'd tried getting in contact with Chloe after the trial, but she'd evaded him.

He sighed, finger trailing over her black and white image as she interrogated the police chief as he was being hauled away by his own men.

Chloe hadn't understood what he was doing, but he didn't blame her. He'd gone around things the wrong way. He should have gotten her to see how dangerous the creatures were, should have made her hate them a much as he did...

But what was done was done.

"Chloe…"

It'd take time, but he'd have her back. Chloe Sullivan was his, always had been and always wouldn't be.

She'd be his again…it was only a matter of time.

Rubbing Shelby's head, Martha sighed as she looked up at the sky. "Do you think that he's going to be okay?"

Jonathan came up to his wife and placed his arms around her shoulders. "Of course he's going to be fine. This is his destiny, Martha. He was born for this, and we cannot stand in his way. We've done our job, we've raised a good man, now we have to just let go."

Martha sighed. "As a person I completely understand you, and I agree with everything you have just said. But as a mother I just want to hold onto him and never let go." The lovely redhead turned and looked up into the eyes of her husband. "He could get hurt--he does have a weakness! What if his enemies discover it?"

"We all have weaknesses, Martha." Jonathan whispered. "And we are only truly strong when we learn to live with them."

She paused before smiling tenderly at him. "How did such a self-proclaimed 'ignorant hick' become so smart?"

He grinned. "Fatherhood."

"Thank you and come again!" Dinah smiled at the last customer and turned to Chloe. "So, where was I?"

Chloe smiled as she looked at her cousin, standing behind a countertop filled with flowers, wearing an apron, her face wiped clean of makeup, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, hair pulled behind her in a simple ponytail. And she was wearing slippers. And yet the woman looked happier than she had since…well…forever.

"On how Jimmy's a horndog." Chloe couldn't help but grin as she said that, unable to believe that her geeky co-working was so good that Dinah swore that fainting during an orgasm was a weekly occurrence.

It's always the quiet ones.

"I tell you!" Dinah grinned brightly, arranging some of the flowers closest to her. "Ever since we've moved in together above the shop, well, the guy's insatiable!" And considering that her grin could light up the whole of Metropolis—well—she wasn't exactly complaining. "Last night I actually had to tell him to go and rent a porno because I just couldn't keep up!"

Chloe couldn't help but admire her cousin. After she'd realized that she couldn't continue working at the Daily Planet (there was too much stress and she kept wanting to scream at the women who realized that if DINAH was with Jimmy so long he had to be a catch and flirted with the still oblivious photographer) she'd quit her job and opened up a flower boutique, saying that flowers were what had brought her and Jimmy together. She'd called it Flowers and Chocolate…and also sold chocolates and cards of every kind.

Flowers and Chocolate was doing extremely well, and Dinah was amazingly enough in her element.

Her watch beeped, and Chloe looked down, frowning. "Darn. I have to go back to the DP."

Dinah grinned. "You could always quit and be my assistant."

"If I do that, Cat Grant will probably be doing the investigative work," Chloe laughed at the look Dinah gave her at that.

"You stay right there at the DP, missy, that hussy needs to be fired! Not promoted! And if you can get her fired, do so!"

"You're just jealous because she tried to jump Jimmy in the photocopying room."

"Damned right." Dinah growled.

Laughing, Chloe shook her head. "Gotta go, Cuz." Walking out of Flowers and Chocolates, Chloe winced when she realized that she was going to be late. The blonde cut the corner and decided to go through the back alleys since they were a shortcut, but the second she was surrounded by a group of men she remembered all too late about the rapes that'd been happening in this part of the town.

"Well, what do you know fellas? It's Lois Lane." One of the larger guys sneered.

"Always wanted to get my hands on some of that." Another advanced.

Chloe tensed, knowing that she couldn't fight them all off but that even if she screamed no one would be able to hear her in the hustle and bustle of the city life.

She closed her eyes as one of them rushed at her, and then suddenly the men cried out in pain and something had grabbed her, going up, up.

The brunette opened her eyes and gasped, holding onto her savior as she realized that she was flying, the ground disappearing beneath them as she caught a glance at her assailants, who'd all been thrown to the ground, unconscious.

Her shocked gaze went to her savior's face only after realizing that he was wearing some extremely well fitting spandex suit, and her eyes widened when she saw his face.

CLARK?!

He grinned down at her, holding her bridal style, and suddenly they'd descended on the top of the Daily Planet's building. "You know, Ms. Lane, for a investigative journalist, you sure don't listen to the news. There's been attacks--."

"I know." She whispered, looking at his face hungrily, unable to believe that Clark Kent was there in front of her--had saved her--and had such an incredible body. GOD. He looked great in a suit that'd make anyone else seem ridiculous. And his voice was lower, so, so...wow. "Thank you."

He smiled and shook his head before tilting his head to the side, smile replaced by a frown. "I have to go." And with that he took to the sky.

"But--!" He was gone in the blink of an eye before she could even finish her sentence.

She sighed. How do I get in contact with you?

Shaking her head, Chloe went down into the Daily Planet and went immediately to her desk. She didn't know how long she'd sat like that, looking at her nameplate and yet seeing Clark.

He could fly.

Was he a meteor freak too?

Had he gotten powers during the last meteor shower?

And he's helping people…

She was worried. She needed to find him, to tell him that if he was going to continue to help others that he at least needed a mask! If Lex--.

Chloe closed her eyes, heart hurting her at the thought of Lex Luthor. She'd managed to somehow live her life away from him--or as far away as he'd let her, which really wasn't that far--but it still hurt like hell to see him, especially when they were attending the same galas and she'd see a new brunette on his arm. The strange thing, something Dinah had pointed out to her after looking over a collection of pictures of Lex and his numerous dates--was that all of them looked like Chloe somehow.

And for some morbid reason Chloe felt better, although deep in her heart she wanted Lex to go on with his life, and needed to get on with her own life as well.

Still, she'd loved Lex from the time she was seven years old--and that sort of love didn't vanish in only a year.

"Excuse me, Lois?"

She recognized that voice, and looked up in surprise to see Clark Kent standing nervously by her desk. He was drastically changed from the getup he'd been wearing the last time she'd seen him. Instead of the spandex, he wore a boring business suit, with glasses, and ruffled hair. He also seemed to hunch in on himself, as if trying to hide the fact that he was so tall.

She frowned. Since when had Clark needed glasses?

"Um, I don't know if you remember me." Clark's voice was timid, completely different from the one he'd used earlier on in the day. "My name is Clark Kent, we met each other in Smallville a while back."

Why was he acting as if they hadn't just seen each other just this morning?

And suddenly she understood. He thought that with his getup--with both of them--that she wouldn't recognize him He was doubting her intelligence! Her discernment! Everything that made her who she was!

Narrowing her eyes at him, Chloe raised an eyebrow. Oh, so you want to play? I'll play. "Kent?" She pretended to think it over, as if she didn't have dreams about him and a blonde version of herself every night. "And you say that I met you in Smallville?"

The small smile had fallen off of his face and he looked a little hurt. "Yeah. We met in Smallville."

Too bad she was spiteful and the look did nothing for her. "Wait, yes, I remember you." Though she did feel a bit bad when his smile returned full-force at that. "You were the guy who was engaged to Lana!" She gave him a large smile, seeing his disappear immediately. "How is she? Did you two get married? Any children?" She pretended to be a little confused. "Have you gotten paler? I remember you a little darker."

God, she was going to hell for playing with him like this…

But HE started it!

Yeah, so they'd probably end in Purgatory together.

"No--no--." Clark quickly shook his head, looking a little frantic that she couldn't remember him. "That was my friend Pete. I'm Clark Kent, you, Lex and Dinah were at my house when the meteor shower hit."

"Right!" She pretended to suddenly remember. "You're the guy that Dinah always used to call Smallville! You know, I always thought you two would make the cutest couple--but you're outta luck, Di's with Jimmy Olsen now, our photographer."

He looked miserable, but she doubted it had anything to do with Dinah's news.

"So, Kerby, how can I help you today?" Chloe asked, leaning back on her seat.

"Uh, it's Kent actually, and, uh, I was just hired and Perry said that I'm to be your partner."

She shot up. "My partner? He put you on the beat? With me?"

"Y-yes?"

She took in a deep breath. "What's your experience in writing, kid?"

He looked affronted that she'd called him that, but answered anyway. "I worked at the Smallville Ledger, and I'm studying."

"Yeah." She shook her head. "Okay, Kenneth. I don't judge Perry because everyone thought he was insane by making me a full-time reporter, but I'm telling you this. Our bylines, they're going by the name Lois Lane and Clark Kent, I'm the senior and you're the newbie. Got that?"

"Yes ma'am." He nodded quickly, looking somewhat intimidated by her and her orders.

She suppressed a grin. It wouldn't do for him to see how intrigued she was with this arrangement. "So, I guess you'll be getting the vacant desk by mine. It used to be Dinah's. I'm still on lunch break, but afterwards we're going to some meetings I have, okay newbie?"

"Yes ma'am."

She turned her back on him so he wouldn't see the grin of amusement on her face. He kept calling her 'ma'am' like some repentant school boy being scolded by the teacher. "Now excuse me, Kennedy, I gotta do something."

Time to test out a theory.

Taking the elevator back up to the rooftop of the Daily Planet, Chloe closed her eyes as she stepped onto the ledge. Instincts, you better not let me down today. She stepped off of the ledge and screamed as she began to freefall down the air, and then, in seconds, she'd been caught by a whirl of blue and red.

Holding onto Clark's neck, burying her face in his chest, thanking all holy that her instincts had proven her right, Chloe sighed, adding super-speed to ability to fly.

"What the world were you thinking, Ms. Lane?" Again his voice was deeper, and she wondered if he did that to try help camouflage himself.

She looked up into Clark's face and smiled. "Testing a theory."

He looked down at her in confusion and worry. "You were trying to kill yourself to test a theory?"

"That--and because we didn't get to talk last time." She continued to smile into his face, realizing that their mouths were so close… "How else was I supposed to get into contact with Metropolis' own super man and secure an interview with him before someone else did?"

"Super man?" He blinked, looking down at her in shock, cheeks tinting red as they continued to float in the air.

"Well, I can' t call you superboy, can I?" She whispered, a little embarrassed because it'd come out as a purr.

He tore his eyes from hers and looked away, clearing his throat. "That was a foolish thing to do just for an interview." Neither of them noticed the people who were watching them from below, who'd been watching since Chloe had taken the plunge…or of the pictures being taken of them.

"But it worked, didn't it?"

He looked back at her, eyes softening slightly. "I'll follow your heartbeat to your home tonight, and I'll give you your interview."

Follow my heartbeat? She wondered if he could hear it as it fluttered at those words. God! If there ever was a heat-melting line it's that one! Chloe grinned at him. "Eight? My balcony?"

He nodded.

"Great, it's a date." She whispered as he lowered her to the rooftop and flew away. Chloe looked at the sky, smiling like she hadn't in a long time, sure that when she got below Clark would be in his boring little suit once again, hiding behind a false hunch and godawful glasses, but she knew the truth.

She also wondered how long they were going to play this little game.

My life just got a bit more exciting.

Closing her eyes, Chloe sighed with a smile, enjoying the feel of the breeze against her skin. The wind seemed to be softer, cooler, bringing change with each caress, promising something with each whisper.

Green eyes opened.

She could hardly wait.

Hey people. This is it. THE END! Review for old times sake?