Maybe

She comes to him dripping wet in the dead of night, standing outside his doorstep with red eyes.

He lets her in without question, regardless of the hour. She looks different than he last saw her, but that was ages ago. Her hair is shorter now—he likes it, it makes her look different somehow. Separate from the girl she was back in Smallville.

He knows enough of what it going on. Chloe calls him and talks to him, especially now with all of her issues. Jimmy is dead and while Pete was never a fan—part of him still feels as though he missed his big chance to have Chloe to himself—he knows that what Chloe needs is a friendly ear. She never discusses too much. Mainly they talk about the old days and he hears how Clark is doing. Chloe suspects he is in love with Lois, but too dense to see it. Pete himself can hardly believe it, the girl in front of him has always been the one thing Clark wanted more than anything, as much as it hurt him to want it.

That, he thinks, is what Lana Lang brings. She is easy to love, too easy. The problem with her is that she has a way of making a man feel a certain way, like he is her hero, her salvation. She plays the victim so well that one cannot help but feel sorry for her and she only makes it more so by seeming to not realize that she is playing it. All her life she has said that she does not want special treatment, while all her actions demand otherwise.

In spite of everything, she wants to be treated like the fragile girl who lost her parents. She wants special treatment, or else she would not show up at his house at quarter past two and expect to be let in with no questions. They were never really friends and she has broken his best friend's heart so many times that he cannot count. Clark broke hers as well, but that he can forgive. Clark never married Lex Luthor of all people.

“Lana, what's wrong?” he asks, leading her to his kitchen where he flicks on the coffee pot. This may take awhile and he needs something to keep him awake and warm her up.

“I needed someplace to go and I couldn't stand to go back to Smallville.” she answers, teeth chattering.

Codependent. That is what she is. She tried to be independent but it always failed. There was always some boy or another with her or interested in her. She needed someone to stand beside her, to take care of her. First Whitney and all her other admirers, then Clark, then Jason, then Lex with Clark thrown sporadically into the mix. He saw her much more clearly than Clark ever did.

He does not hate her for it. He pities her. Even at this age, she does not know who she is or what she wants. She is as lost as she was back in high school. He thinks she will always be a little lost.

“That someplace could've been a hotel?” Pete says back. It is only half joking. Lana frowns, her gaze cutting to him like he should feel guilty for not wanting her in his house at two in the morning. The gaze moves just as quickly away, replaced a look of typical Lana Lang hurt feelings and angst.

“You're right, I don't know what I was thinking. I'll just-” Lana begins, rising to her feet.

“Sit down.” he orders lightly.

“I just wanted to see a familiar face.” Lana explains. Pete nods, as if her dropping in is a normal thing. One learns to handle the unexpected when living in Smallville and being friends with an alien. The coffee is ready so he pours a mug for Lana and one for himself. He does not bother asking her if she wants one. Working at the Talon all those years had to make her develop a taste for java. Lana takes the cup he offers with a smile. It mildly surprises him when she begins to drink it black with no sugar or cream.

“Why are you really here?” he asks and Lana's smile falters and her eyes harden.

“Chloe filled you in on my situation.” she says. It is not really a question but Pete says yes anyway. “I'm loosing my powers.”

0o0

Loosing her powers she is. How he is not sure, because from what Chloe told him it is impossible. Then again, most of the things in their life they thought impossible came true at some point so why should this be any different?

It makes her ill. The first night he allowed her to sleep on his couch. His flat only has one bedroom and his couch pulls out into a futon. While he is a gentleman, he never expected Lana to stay for more than one night. One night stretches into a few days and he allows it because her condition is unique and it is what Clark and Chloe would expect of him.

Now she is becoming sick, sweating and puking into the trashcan he has set beside the futon. She is too weak now to move into his room and she likes it better in the open. She feels less closed in that way.

A friend stopped by the first day she was sick and saw her lying on his futon. He thinks that perhaps Pete got lucky, until Pete explains that she is an old high school friend just dropping by for a visit. He explains her illness as being hung over, which is an easily digestible excuse.

Or was. Anyone who sees her now would never believe it. Her skin is ghost white and her hair is lank. The most shocking is she is sweating green beads of what has to be kryptonite. She cannot stop throwing up, and when she does it is a vile green concoction. Her body is expelling the stuff from her system, though he cannot fathom why.

Neither does she know. It frightens him and he wants to call Clark but she begs him not to. He does not know and she does not want to tell him, she does not need to worry him. Finally, he asks why she is so hell-bent on not telling Clark.

“Because I want him to be able to move on with his life. If this gets rid of the kryptonite, it won't hurt him to be around me anymore. He'll think we can be together and I can't...as much as I...he's better off without me. We were never meant to be.”

Her answer shocks him. Every word is the truth, but he never expected either of them to accept it. It is hearing this that he begins to regard Lana as something more than Clark's girl. It is the first time that he sees her as an actual person, not merely an extension of Clark or Chloe.

It is the moment that makes them friends.

0o0

In time she gets better. She can walk and talk but she is still weak. The days of rolled into nearly two weeks and he finds that he likes having her around. It is funny considering not too long ago he was a roadie and wanted nothing more than a place to call his own, to be alone in.

She makes the place warmer somehow. Makes it feel like a home instead of a place to crash and burn. She greets him when he gets home from work. She chats with him when he ordinarily would have no one to talk to, unless he invited a random friend over.

He still takes care of her, he cooks and cleans and makes sure she is feeling alright. He thinks she is still fragile even if she insists she can take care of herself. He does not remind her that she has always thought that and has always been wrong. It isn't something that matters. Everyone needs to be taken care of sometime.

In there own way, they take care of each other.

0o0

It has been a month since the night she shown up at his door and she is fully recovered now.

Pete wants to do something to celebrate, so they decide to go out. It is her treat—she still has plenty of Luthor money to spend. He suspects the money is stolen, but he does not ask. Stealing from a Luthor is hardly a crime.

When he sees her all dolled up in a red dress, his heart nearly stops. Of course, she has went and bought new clothes. It would hardly do to have her keep stumbling about in his as she did the first days when she was too sick to leave. However, he is not prepared for the sudden tightening in his stomach at the sight of her.

“How do I look?” she asks, doing a little turn that is almost flirty. It isn't mean to be and he knows it. It is an honest question. This is the first time she has left other than to pick up the dress and a few other outfits and she wants to look nice when she rejoins society.

“You can hardly tell you were puking your guts out last week.” he says, Lana laughing and hitting him playfully on the arm. “It was a few weeks ago.”

“I know. I'm going to have to start charging you rent.” he jokes.

Lana's face crumbles and she pulls away from him. “I have overstayed my welcome, haven't I?”

“No, I like you being here. It was too quiet before.” Pete says, his mind protesting at the idea of her leaving. “Besides, if you go who's going to do my laundry?”

“Glad to offer my services.”

0o0

They talk about everything. His past. Her past. Their past. Clark. Lex. Some of it he doesn't want to hear but she needs to say. At the end he hates Lex more than ever, thinks Clark is all wrong for her (but he always has) and wishes that they had the chance to start it all over.

They do not mention the future. Her leaving is not something either wants to consider. Pete likes having a friend around and Lana needs a place to call home. She hasn't had a real home in awhile.

“I'll have to go soon. I have no reason to stay now that I'm better.” she says and it makes him think she was only staying because she was sick, though he knows what she means.

“I've been thinking about that. I could use a roommate and since you're already here...”

“You have one bedroom Pete.” Lana reminds him with a shake of her head and a smile. She places her hand over his. “You don't have to take care of me. I'll be fine.”

“I don't want to take care of you. But I want you around.” he answers, Lana looking at him in something close to shock.

He realizes that she never has been with someone who didn't try to take care of her. Clark tried to take care of everyone, Whitney thought she needed to be taken care of, as did Lex, Jason thought she was a child. Everyone she has ever known has treated her like she is a piece of glass, fragile and easily broken. Maybe what she needs is for someone to treat her as though she is strong enough to stand on her own.

He doesn't know it, but that is the moment that starts him down the journey of falling in love with Lana Lang. The real Lana Lang who is buried under layers of doubt and confusion.

“If I stay, I'm buying you a new futon.”

0o0

He pushes her. Lana is content to sit at home and let the world pass her by, hiding from her own pain but he will not allow it. Pete makes her go out and get a job—she takes one at the local coffee shop, but that is something she knows a little too well, but it is a start. When she goes into one of her bouts of melancholy he pulls her out of it with a joke, or if he has to with a fight.

They fight as any people who live together are bound to do, but the fights are never extreme. She wants to fall back into her old ways and insecurities and he refuses to let her.

There are times when he catches a glimpse of her, of the person that she does not know she is, the one that lives deep inside her. He sees what she truly is, what she can be and it is something beautiful.

He only has to make her see it as well.

0o0

The first time he falls a little in love with her is three in the morning on a Saturday night.

He hears her cursing so he follows the sound of her voice into the kitchen where he sees her standing at his sink, wrench in hand with water shooting at her from the pipe. He stands in the doorway a moment and laughs, startling Lana so she turns and looks at him. Upon seeing him, she laughs too until they are both clutching their sides and giggling like children.

“Why didn't you come get me? What did you do?” he asks, Lana's face tinting pink.

“I think it was loose, but I turned it the wrong way. I didn't want to wake you when I could fix it myself.” Lana answers.

Pete looks at her and her pink face and realizes that she is trying for him. She is trying to be her own person, one who could take care of things. The problem with Lana was she could never find the balance between being independent and not trusting anyone to help her. Nell had never passed the test, she had never let her fill the gap from her dead parents. Many others had also failed. The ones who had passed were the ones who treated her like fine china. It made sense she was who she was.

“Guess I'll leave you to it then.” he says, making to turn around.

“Pete!”

He laughs and takes the wrench from her. “Let me handle it. Get on some dry clothes.”

“Do you need any help?” she offers.

“I could use some company.”

0o0

They fall into a pattern.

Their lives become so twined that they no longer see the difference between them. It is as if Lana has always been there and always will be. Pete likes it that way, he cannot imagine her gone. She is a piece of his past, one of the few people who really understand what is out there in the world. He does not think in the long term, she is there and they are happy. Things beyond that do not need to be questioned.

Lana feels differently. Or so it seems, as one day while they are eating dinner—she cooks and he cleans—she asks a question that throws him off guard.

“Pete, I have to ask...I'm glad that you've let me stay here, but...doesn't it get in your way? It has to be hard to find a girl willing to accept you've got another girl living with you.”

Her eyes are on anything but him as she asks and he thinks that maybe what she is asking is whether he wants to find a girl willing to accept it. But he does not know and Lana has never shown any signs of wanting anything more than friendship. And why should she, because he has not either. They are what they are.

“I haven't been looking. But it can't be that bad. Guys hit on you all the time.” Pete answers. He knows the claim is true, he has seen men hitting on her when he comes to pick her up from work. She always says no.

“I don't want anyone else. I'm happy with my life as it is.”

Something about her answer keeps him awake most of the night, mulling over her words.

0o0

He realizes what he feels for her all at once in one moment.

His friends have been teasing him about her. Letting a girl camp out in your living room means something, or so they say. None of them believe the just friends line anymore, they think he is lying to keep out of the public eye. Lana Lang is also the former Mrs. Luthor and that draws a bit of attention.

Pete never pays much attention to their jests, if any of them had a girl who looks like Lana holing up with them,he would assume the worst (or best, depending on how one looks at it) too.

Still, the thought sometimes lingers in his head and it is that thought he is chewing on when he arrives home this night. He opens the door to be greeted to the sound of loud music. From the sound it is pretty old, the stuff they listened too back in high school.

“Lana?”

She does not answer when he calls so he steps into the kitchen, where she usually is at this time, cooking something far more edible than he could ever manage. The sight he sees nearly makes him laugh. Lana is dancing and singing.

“And you say that I changed, well maybe I did. And even if I changed, what's wrong with it?”

She sees Pete and is startled. She stops dancing and laughs. “I was looking for something to listen to and I found this old mixed CD Chloe made.”

“Our songs. Mine and Chloe's. She gave it to me before I moved. They were songs that were supposed to remind me of home. The next one is 'Maybe' by Stereophonics. We danced to it freshman year.” Pete answers. He listened to it far more often than he should have at the time, even the songs he didn't like. Chloe was an infatuation that died hard. Not nearly as hard as Clark or Lana for each other, but in its own way.

“I remember this song. I danced to it with Whitney.” Lana replies with a smile that is a little sad as the song begins.

“Let's dance.” Pete suggests. He doesn't want to see her sad, thinking about Whitney being dead and he never got to dance with her back then. Back then most of her dances went to Whitney.

“Okay.” Lana says and takes the hand he has offered.

Maybe one thing, Maybe something, Maybe nothing, All I know is friend, It's nothing new

They do not speak for a moment, swaying together and something is building inside him that he cannot fathom. Something about this brings back memories, but it also brings something else entirely. Some new feeling.

Maybe it's me, what is to be, Maybe lucky, All I ask is where, We're supposed to be

It hits him like a blow to the gut, there with her in his arms that what he feels for her is something more than he would like to admit. All at once it is clear and a sort of longing settles inside him, burning hotter than anything before.

He pulls back from her a little, searching her face before meeting her eyes with his own. Lana looks a bit confused, but there is more there that he can see. Something in her eyes shining back at him, it looks a lot like hope.

He does not think. He acts without hesitation, without heed to the consequences it may bring. He kisses her. He kisses her and she kisses him back. When they finally break apart, after what could have been minutes are even days both are too shocked to speak.

“What are we doing Pete?” Lana asks.

“I don't know. I-” he starts, but he cannot find the words.

Lana takes his hand in hers. “I know. Me too.”

This complicated things. There was Clark, for one thing. But Chloe said he wanted Lois, so maybe it would be okay for him to try to have something with Lana. He doesn't know how to make this work, or if it even can work.

“We'll figure it out along the way.” Lana says, as if reading his thoughts.

For now, that is enough.