Chlark Fanfic: Agenda, Chapter 26
Runner by sylvanelfmistre.
Title: Agenda
Author: babydee1
Pairing: Chlark
Rating: NC-17 (mostly PG-13)
Warnings: None
Timeline: Futurefic; follows Season 8’s Injustice & Failsday Doomsday
Disclaimer: All known characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: More than a decade after the Doomsday Rampage, Clark makes a shocking discovery that changes his life forever.
Feedback: …makes me squee. :-)
Written for the 2011 smallvillebbang long Fanfic challenge. Many thanks to twinsarein for all her tireless organisation and support!
Beta’ed by legendarytobes & The Fallen Sky at KSite.
Art by sylvanelfmistre & go_clo.
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 26
Chloe’s jaw dropped and she stared at him with eyes widened in shock. What he was saying couldn’t possibly be true…
…could it?
She swallowed, casting her mind back to the day her daughter was born. When her child had been placed in her arms and she’d been asked for a name for the birth certificate, the name Gabriella has dropped from her lips without a moment’s thought.
“I don’t…” she stopped and swallowed before continuing. “I don’t know, I never…”
“You couldn’t have known, not consciously, but all the signs were there,” he said. “It’s like you said; all Gabby’s trips to the Fortress, her calling Jor-El ‘Grandfather’ when I can barely bring myself to think of him as my father had me thinking. And when I was at the Fortress, he pointed out that she had accepted him and was eager to get to know him. She barely knows him. Heck, she’s still just getting to know me.
“And then it struck me that she’s never had the influence of a male parent-figure in her life. Yes, she had Bruce, but by his own admission, he never tried to fill that role with her, and you didn’t encourage him to. It got me wondering why.”
“But…but why would that have anything to do with me not telling you about Gabby?”
“Because you were subconsciously worried that history might repeat itself,” he said quietly. “You didn’t want her to have to go through what you did, when your father left.”
She gasped and stared at him in shock. “But you’re not my Dad, you’re nothing like him!” she exclaimed. “I wouldn’t blame you for his mistakes, Clark, I swear. I would never do that to you!”
“Not consciously,” he said in a quiet voice. “But parental instincts are strong, Chloe. If you felt you needed to protect your child from pain, you’d have done whatever it took.”
Chloe gulped and lowered her gaze. Clark, ever vigilant, noticed the sudden shift in her body language and squeezed her hand.
“Something happened with your Dad, didn’t it?” he asked gently.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Recently?”
“No. It was a long time ago.” But it still hurt, everyday. “I…I reached out to him when Gabriella was born.”
“What happened?”
Her vision blurred with tears as the memories came back to her. “He made me regret I ever picked up the phone.”
***
“Dad?”
“Chloe? Is - is that you?”
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “Yeah, it is. Happy New Year, Dad.”
“Happy New Year to you too, honey,” he said warmly. “Wow, it’s…it’s been a long time.”
“It has.”
“How have you been?” he asked. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine. I, um…I had a baby.”
Silence. “You what?” he gasped after several seconds.
“I just became a Mom. Today.”
More silence. Then: “How did everything go? Are you both alright?”
“We’re both fine, Daddy.”
“And your husband?”
“Husband?” she echoed.
“Well..the baby’s father, then” he said. “Are - aren’t you married?”
“Um…no.”
“Well, to be honest, after the last disastrous time I don’t blame you for being cautious. But he is supporting you?”
“Well…not exactly, but---”
“Oh, great. Are you even together?”
“I didn’t call for a lecture, Dad, I just wanted to let you know how I was,” she said, her voice beginning to wobble.
She heard him give an exasperated sigh. “I’m very disappointed in you, Chloe,” he said, sounding very grim. “This…single motherhood? This isn’t the life I wanted for you.”
Her heart fell. “Daddy---”
I trusted that you were smart enough not to get yourself into any trouble, but I was wrong,” he went on furiously. “First you get married and divorced before the ink dries on your certificate, and now this?”
“I just had a baby, Dad,” she said, her voice wobbling with tears. “I thought you’d be happy for me.”
“How can I be?” was the terse reply. “You’re barely twenty-two, you’ve already got one failed marriage, and now you have a baby with no father? No, I’m not happy for you. Now you’re just another sad American statistic, with nothing but a lifetime of poverty to look forward to.”
She hadn’t waited to hear anymore. With a push of her finger she’d disconnected the call and sobbed uncontrollably into her pillow, until the cries of her child had demanded her attention.
“Did he call you back?” Clark asked after she’d been silent for a while.
She shook her head. “No. He didn’t have my number, and besides I’d called from the hospital.”
“Did you call him again?”
She sighed. “After what he’d said, I didn’t see the point. I did email him a couple of Gabby’s baby pictures, and, which he responded to. We exchanged emails a few times, but he never visited, so I asked if he wanted us to come see him.”
Clark held his breath. “And what did he say to that?” he finally asked.
“Nothing,” she said blankly. “The emails stopped, just like that, and I figured that once again I wasn’t worth the effort.”
“I’m so sorry, Chloe.”
She shrugged. “I’m over it.”
“And what about Gabby?” he asked. “Did she ever ask about him?”
“A few times. I told her he lives far away with a new family, and he’s always very busy,” she said. “I…I can see now how my relationship with my father may have spilled over into how I handled the issue of you with Gabby when she first asked about you, but I swear I never meant it to.”
“How old was she when she first asked about me?” he queried.
“She was very young, about three or four. I…I guess I always thought I’d be enough for her, so it did freak me out when she asked about you. I never encouraged her whenever the subject of her father came up, and eventually after years of stonewalling and deflection, she got the message that the subject was off-limits, and that she wasn’t going to get any answers.”
“Hence the rebellion.”
She nodded. “It all makes sense now. I was wrong thinking she didn’t need her father in her life. She’s been yearning for you for years, and I couldn’t even see it.”
“After what you went through with your Dad, you probably didn’t want to.”
She sighed heavily. “Well, it’s all in the past now---”
“It isn’t,” he said. “You love your father. Despite everything you love him more than you care to admit, but you’ve never really gotten over his leaving you?”
Once again she fell silent.
“You were little more than a child yourself when he took off, not much older than Gabby is now,” he noted.
“But I managed fine without him, ergo I didn’t need him,” she insisted. “I’ve built a whole life for myself that he has no clue about, and even if he showed up now, I wouldn’t let him be a part of Gabby’s life. Walking away from me was bad enough, but no way will I stand by and let him get her hopes up and walk away.”
“Is that what you thought I’d do to her, Chloe?” he whispered. “You were afraid I’d turn my back on her, like your father did to you?”
“Not like he did, Clark,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “Like you did. To me.”
****
Chapter 27…