"We have mutants!"  Chloe explained, excitedly.

 

    Clark groaned.  "Don't encourage her, Willow.  One she gets started on a subject she won't let it go."

 

    Chloe elbowed him in the ribs and grinned, "That's just one of the many things you love about me, Clark Kent."

 

    Clark laughed lightly and slung his arm around Chloe's shoulders.  "Another thing we all love about Chlo is her incredibly modesty," he joked.

 

    Willow smiled at the two of them. Despite Clark's obvious crush on Lana Lang, Willow didn't think it would take too big of a push to get these two friends together.  But right now, she had more important things to be thinking about.

 

    "You have mutants?" She asked, not quite sure what to think.

 

    Chloe nodded her head vigorously, "Ever since the meteor shower.  There have been all sorts: people with telekinetic powers, a girl who could shape shift, a guy who could control insects."

 

    "I know it sounds farfetched," Lex broke in, "but Chloe is correct.  There have been some very unusual occurrences in this town."

 

    "Well, it's better than their being another hellmouth," Willow muttered under her breath.

 

    "What was that?" Chloe asked.

 

    "Oh, nothing.  So mutants, that's really interesting, and you think that it's linked to the meteor shower?" Willow asked, wanting to get the attention off herself.  But she noticed Clark was giving her a strange look.  She wondered if he might have heard what she had said about the hellmouth.  She hoped not.  She didn't think she was ready to talk about her adventures in Sunnydale.

 

    Clark studied Willow as Chloe explained her theories.  What, he wondered, was a hellmouth?  She obviously hadn't meant for the others to hear her, and without his enhanced hearing he wouldn't have.  He didn't want to make her suspicious, by asking her about it.  Maybe he should talk to Chloe about it later.  She could help him research it.  She was great with stuff like that.

 

    Lex was also studying Willow.  There was something he found intriguing about her.  She was beautiful, yes, but that wasn't it.  Lex had been with many beautiful women.  There was just something different about Willow, the way her face lit up while she was listening to Chloe, and offering suggestions of her own.  She had a radiance about her.  He knew she wasn't staying in Smallville long, but he hoped that she would be able to spend more time with her; she seemed like someone he should get to know better.

 

    Even while listening to Chloe, Willow's mind was racing.  The stuff that happened in this town was fascinating.  She had done lots of research on demons and magic, but mutants were different.  They were based in science.  Chloe's theory on the meteors being the cause of it all was very interesting.  Willow wanted more time to study it.  She was only supposed to be in town for the week, but already she was considering on calling Giles and telling him that she would be staying longer.

 

    Chloe was glad that Willow seemed interested in what she was saying.  Sure, Pete and Clark were too, but after a while they tended to get fed up with her.  Though they always were there to help stop the bad guys, they just didn't seem to hold the same obsession with it that she did.   It looked like Willow could be a kindred spirit for Chloe.  Too bad she was only in town on vacation.  But there was another good thing that had come out of Willow's visit: the tour they would be giving her.  This would be time for Chloe to spend with Clark and best of all Lana wouldn’t be there.