Quid Pro Quo - Chapter Four
Chapter Four
Tess sat in her office at The Daily Planet, the warm mid-morning sunshine pouring through the large windows and warming her shoulders pleasantly. It was really oddly comfortable sitting around in a fuzzy bath towel, she might have to do more of her work like this.
She typed away efficiently. “Extraordinary stamina”, was in one of the thought bubbles off the main topic “Effects of red K on the subject”. She added another leg, “What level of this relates to red K or is innate?” She pondered different ways that she could test this theory.
Her fingers hovered over the laptop’s keyboard and then, suddenly, they weren’t. Tess blinked. Her laptop was closed, her fingers were safely restrained by a large hand, and an angry face was glowering down at her.
“Clark!” She tried to shoot up to her feet but ended up scrambling about for a few seconds, the gentle pressure of his hand more than capable of keeping her in place, her towel slipping down slightly embarrassingly. “What are you doing here?”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing here Tess?” He growled.
She had never heard him, or anyone else, make that sound before. He hadn’t sounded quite that angry even under the influence of red K. She pursed her lips, knowing that she could not answer him.
“You don’t feel like talking? Right, well I’ll put together the pieces on my own shall I?” He offered, his voice a low rumble of anger. Like the threat of a thunder storm. “You get the job of CEO and decide to imitate your brother in every single way, down to continuing his research projects while telling us all that you were different”.
Although he hadn’t overtly threatened her, she still felt the adrenaline beginning to pulse through her system urging her to fight or fly. Neither would do her any good in this position. She knew enough to pick her battles and forced herself to remain as calm as possible.
“Those pictures this morning. You set me up. Tell me the truth”, he stated plainly, finally releasing her hands and brushing his long, deceptively strong fingers up her arm, over her shoulder until he could cup her face. Gently, he raised her chin so that she had no choice but to look at him.
Tess harnessed every bit of her resolve to force herself not to shake and prayed that her voice would remain neutral as she answered, “Yes”.
“Then you set up a series of events that would lead me into a quarry where there was kryptonite”, he continued.
“Red, not green”, she pointed out, more for her sake than for his.
“You know”, he surmised straightening up and removing his hands from her with something like disgust.
“I know its not fatal to you”, she said, more confidently than she felt, “it doesn’t hurt you it just makes you a bit ...”
“Amorous?” He leant back against her desk and folded his arms, his eyes never leaving hers.
“No”, she managed to force out the syllable but it was with notable trepidation.
“You aren’t leaving until you tell me the truth”, Clark informed her resolutely. He didn’t know why it mattered so much to him, but if she had betrayed him then he was going to make her say it. If Chloe had been there, she would probably have guessed that it had something to do with his deep seated desire to believe the best in people and that he was hoping that Tess would come up with something that would completely exonerate her.
Tess gripped the arm rests of her chair, her nails digging deeply into the dark leather, too scared to care if he noticed this slight concession to weakness, only caring about not making a complete fool of herself by bursting into tears or begging for mercy. She had never cried before, not even when her arm was broken in two places. “I was told that it only made you do what you wanted to do. No inhibitions or something”, she stated in a tight voice.
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“You ...” A thought suddenly occurred to her. A thought so horrible that it banished every other concern from her mind. “Doesn’t it?” If it didn’t, if Lex and his scientists had got it wrong ... If it actually effected his desires at their core point rather than just his willingness to act on them ... Oh God what had she done?
“It lowers my inhibitions yes”, Clark informed her, almost gently. He had seen the spark of true remorse in her eyes. Maybe they could come to some understanding, they could wipe the slate clean if she would just tell him the truth. “Are you admitting it?”
She clamped her jaw shut. She knew that it wouldn’t do any good. She knew that he knew. But this was her best defence mechanism. It never helped to argue, or to defend yourself, even if you were innocent.
Clark stared at her for several long minutes, waiting for her to crack but she only seemed to grow more resolute in her refusal to come clean. He sighed. “Why am I even bothering? I thought you were like Lex when he was younger”. He stared at her in disgust, “You aren’t. You are like he was in the last few years: twisted”.
“I never said that I wasn’t like Lex. I’m not ashamed of my family”, she snapped, jumping to her feet and yanking her towel back into place as it slipped.
“You should be”, he sneered. Or came as close to sneering as Clark Kent ever did.
“Fuck you, farm boy!” She spat.
“You almost did”, he reminded her, pressing against her in a second. “Tell me was that part of testing me?”
She felt sick and far more exposed than she had done with red K Clark. She tried to push passed him.
“Like hell you are getting away from me”, he wrapped one arm around her, cupping her face with the other. “Admit it”.
She shivered but tilted up her chin; she would not crumble. “Fine, I admit it. I was trying to get to the bottom of the mystery that was Clark Kent. I did what I had to do.”
“You are a stupid callous bitch”, he roared, way passed fury now.
Clark had been through years of cumulative stress ever since he had arrived in that cornfield. His parents had been kind and sympathetic: when he had broken the kitchen table; when he had accidentally run several miles in the blink of an eye chasing a ball; and even more embarrassingly when he had set fire to things in a lustful haze. Most parents had only had to deal with sticky bedsheets, not spontaneous combustion.
He had been more scared about that than he had ever dared to admit. His power, strength, abilities, all of it. He wanted to use his Kryptonian ‘gifts’ to help mankind but every time he reached for someone, hugged them, even shook their hand ... He risked so much.
He was so tried of it all. He actually felt sick. Years of pent up anger and frustration at Lex exploded, at the wrong person. “You’ve got everything in the world and yet you are following Lex’s path to a T. It’s disgusting and I’m not playing this game again”. He felt his guts twisting, he’d wanted to fuck her senseless that morning and unfortunately with him that wasn’t necessarily hyperbole.
“Get your hands off me!” She snapped.
He didn’t. She had to learn that he wasn’t a man to be trifled with. “You want to know something about me, just ask. And here’s something to start with: I’m faster than a speeding bullet, invulnerable,have x-ray and heat vision. I can be an enemy, an ally or your friend but I am not going to be kicked around. Got it?”
~*~
Chloe watched in horror as a tear trickled down Tess’ ivory cheek on one side of her screen and on the other she read through Tess’ medical records. Not the ones which Chloe already had on file, those must have been forged.
History of systematic abusive. Alcoholic step-father. Broken arm. Broken ribs. Black eyes. Lacerations too numerous to mention. The phrases jumped out at her.
“Oh fuck!” She moaned as the weight of these discoveries bore down on her. As did her reaction to the man in her office at that moment. She was petrified. “What have you done Clark?”
~*~
“Smallville where have you been?” Lois demanded, of her journalistic partner the second that he walked into the bullpen.
“What? Nowhere?” He used his finally honed ‘dear in a headlight’ stare.
“Nowhere, that’s a great alibi”, Lois huffed, “and what the hell happened to your suit? It looks worse than it did this morning. You know you wouldn’t look half bad if you smartened yourself up a bit”, she berated him, as she attacked him with a lint roller,
Clark had changed into his old suit, cleaned and pressed the one that he had borrowed before returning it, and then hurried back to work after confronting Tess.
“Lois, please”, he started. Clark never got ill but he had a headache.
“Honestly Smallville, it’s as if you want to get fired!” Lois exclaimed, cutting him off.
“Lois for God’s sake stop fussing and stop calling me Smallville”, he extracted himself from her meddling hands, causing her to frown. “I know that you like to belittle me but ...”
“What?” Lois gaped at him and not just because Clark never stood up to her. Or anyone else for that matter.
“You know the rules of journalism that change on a daily basis, brushing my suit, calling me Smallville”, he started to list the ways in which she continuously pestered him.
“Listen to me you over grown, wannabe boy scout”, she poked him in the chest, “I will repeat what I told you the very first day I met you. Or it might have been the second, I can’t remember. The only thing I like about you is your mother. Mrs Kent has been really good to me and I’m hardly going to let her only son get fired, get into debt and end up as a useless wastrel just because he can’t be on time, don’t know how to dress and have a tendency to look like you were just bailing hay!”
He blinked at her.
“And your name is Smallville. Are you ashamed of where you come from?” She demanded with a particularly hard.
“No”, Clark answered perplexedly, softening his chest so as not to damage her finger.
“Well then”, she turned and replaced her lint roller.
He sighed, seeing that she was really hurt by his actions and had only been trying to help. “Lois, look I’m sorry it’s been a bad day, I ...”
“Don’t sweat it Smallville”, she shot him a sunny, if a little forced, smile. “You look like enough of a state already!”
He smiled back at her. “Thank-you Metropolis”
Before Lois could respond to her new nickname, the messenger of doom otherwise known as Tess Mercer’s personal secretary, came in and announced, “Lane. Kent. The boss wants to see you”.
“Now?” They asked in unison, but with differing degrees of apprehension.
“Now”.
“Don’t look so scared Smallville, I’ll protect you”, Lois whispered.
“You don’t know what that means to me”, he muttered, not wanting to admit that he really was grateful for Lois’ protection. For as long as the meddlesome brunette was around, Tess couldn’t want to talk more about his secret life. She didn’t, as it happened when they got there Tess was dressed formally and staring at the stacks of papers on her desk.
“Here are your assignments for the today”, she said, handing over the pages without even looking up at them.
“Thanks boss”, Lois said taking the page and reading it over. It was strange, Tess was normally more involved than this.
Clark was momentarily relieved as he read the document that he had been handed and saw that it had nothing to do with meteor rocks or aliens. If he had any sense he would run away then with his tail between his legs but he couldn’t. He stayed where he was, staring at the red head. He couldn’t see much of her face but what he could appeared pale and shaken.
“Tess?” He inquired gently.
“Miss Mercer”, she raised her head to stare at him. “And you may leave now”.
“Geez what did you do to tick her off”, Lois asked as they left the office.
“I um ...” he strained, “I broke one of your rules”.
“Well Smallville it’s like I always say ...”
~*~
Clark strode up the stairs of one of the most exclusive bars in the city. Not exactly his usual haunt. He would not have been able to bypass security without his superpowers. He entered the large, dark room and scanned the area. He had no idea why Chloe had sent him there or why the place was so empty until he made out a familiar figure, “Tess?”
The statuesque redhead turned, slowly and blinked blearily at the person calling her name. She swayed slightly on the spot and squinted hard before turning back to the bar.
He sighed and really wished that it had been some Kryptonian eating meteor freak he had to face down. You know, something simple. Wondering what was going on and how he was going to fix it, he made his way over to the bar and took a seat next to his boss.
Before he could open his mouth Tess raised her hand shakily above her head and the bartender materialised with two large glasses of what he assumed was vodka and coke and lined them up next to their empty, fallen comrades. He was more than a little concerned.
“Bottoms up”, Tess raised her glass to both men and sloshed half of it out and over her fingers. She stared at it in confusion, as if trying to work out what had happened.
The second that the bartender retreated Clark downed his drink and then hers. He had to stop her from drinking it somehow.
She stared at him.
“Alcohol never effects me”, he explained with a shrug.
“Me neither”, she said, unable to sit without moving.
“So I see”, in spite of the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't help but smile slightly.
Tess stared at him even harder then tried to stand up and leave the conversation only to have her legs give way.
“Come here”, Clark was by her side in a nano second, pulling her up into his arms bridal style.
“What are you doing?” Tess wondered, frowning at her knees which were now much closer to her face than they normally were.
“God you really are drunk”, Clark commented.
“No shit Sherlock!”
“Come on, I’ll take you home”, he checked that the bartender was gone, then sped out of there.
“What do you care?” Tess asked, part of her sentence spoken in the bar the other in the penthouse apartment.
“You really think that I need a reason not to want my boss to be drunk and helpless on the streets of Metropolis?” He stared at her incredulously as he laid her down on the bed. Her only response was to raise her shoulders a millimetre. He guessed that she had been aiming for a shrug.
“Should I call someone?” He asked quietly.
“Who?” She stared at him blankly.
“Someone to look after you”, Clark clarified.
“Oh, the staff will already be asleep. Don’t wake them. I’m fine”, Tess managed to get, although it seemed to take her far longer than normal.
He frowned, realising for the first time that she didn’t have anyone in her life she could count on. Just like Lex. He watched as she closed her eyes and laid her head down properly. She didn’t look comfortable or relaxed, in fact, she kept on wincing. “Does your head hurt?”
“Yes”, she sighed.
“Just hang in there”, he reached over and brushed his fingers across her forehead, “I’ve got an ace up my sleeve when it comes to dealing with this kind of thing”. He straightened up and slipped his phone out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. Two rings later, he spoke softly, “Hi Lois, I have a favour to ask you”.
“Shoot”, came her instantaneous reply, just as he had known it would in spite of their earlier blow up.
“I am dealing with a hangover and I thought of you”, he informed her with a smile.
“Ah Smallville, I’m touched”, Lois’ voice came through the phone. “I’m glad to hear that the boyscout is finally loosening up a bit. What were you drinking?”
“I wasn’t the one drinking, well not enough to get drunk”, he explained. “I found a woman vulnerable. I don’t want her to be alone or hung over”.
“Seriously?” Lois sounded disappoint. “You can take the boy out of the farm but not the farm out of the boy. Right, three litres of sports drink, two aspirins, and one pickle”.
“A pickle?” Clark repeated.
“Don’t argue with me Smallville!”
“Alright, I’ll get her a pickle. Anything else I should know about?” He made a mental note of everything he needed to get.
“We will deal with your knight in shining armour complex later. Have fun”, Lois rang off.
“Bye”, Clark said to an already dead line. He transferred his attention back to Tess’ recumbent form. “I’ll be back in a second”, he told her and disappeared for a moment and then returned with arms ladened with goods. “Okay, here you go. I got everything we’re going to need”.
“Huh?” She cracked an eye open, “You’re still here?”
“As you see”, he opened the bag, “sports drink, aspirin and ...”
“Is that a pickle?” Tess broke in before he could finish.
“Um yes”, he blushed slightly. It sounded like a weird thing to bring into a woman’s bedroom but he trusted Lois and her encyclopaedic knowledge on certain subjects.
“Don’t bother I just need some aspirin”, she reached over for her bedside table but couldn't make it the whole way.
Clark opened it for her and looked inside, he found vial after vial of pills. He pulled one out and read the label. It wasn’t aspirin. “Tess, what is this?”
“Wha?”
“This”, he grasped her shoulder and showed her the vial.
“Don’t shout”, she protested, placing her hands over her ears.
He hadn’t been shouting but, nevertheless, he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Then answer the question”.
She took the pills and pulled the vial so close to her face that it was touching her nose. “Sleeping pills”, she finally decided and popped the top of it and poured a load into her hand.
“What the hell are you doing?” He demanded not caring about his volume or that Martha would have serious words for him if she ever found out that he had used that kind of language period, let alone in front of a woman. “Do you want to kill yourself?”
Tess blinked up at him. “I have problems sleeping”.
“Oh”. He had prevented her from taking the pills by taking possession of her wrist and still did not feel compelled to return it.
“Not that it is anything to do with you”, she fought for control of her wrist until didn’t manage to move it a fraction of a centimetre.
It wasn’t a suicide attempt, he didn’t think. She was just drunk and didn’t know what she was doing, but it was still incredibly dangerous. He removed the dangerous pills from the state in the blink of an eye and then read the back of the packet of aspirin that he had brought for her. “When was the last time that you ate?”
“Umm”, she thought hard, “yesterday, I think. Why all of the questions?”
“I don’t think that you are the one to talk about asking questions”, he mumbled. Apparently she couldn’t sleep, drank heavily and could eat and he felt sick about it but he couldn’t forget what she had done. “Do you think that you can stomach anything to eat?”
“No”, she shook her head but then stopped when that made her dizzy.
“Right, well here you go”, he produced a glass out of thin air.
“What’s this?” She wondered.
“Milk.”
“Milk?”
“Yeah, you know comes from cows”, he said with an amused smile in spite of the gravity of the situation.
“I don’t like milk”, she found the strength to complain.
“Well drink it anyway”, he positioned himself to help her drink.
Tess drank it, mostly because she didn’t have any choice in the matter, and commented, “This is better than the stuff I have”.
“It’s just regular organic farm fresh full fat milk”, he didn’t add that it was from his favourite cow Trudy. Or that the newest Luthor scion had a milk moustache.
“Full fat?” Those two words somehow managed to penetrate her alcohol ladened mind.
“Of course. You don’t drink skimmed do you?” He wrinkled his nose. “That’s just not natural”. He had grown up on a farm and he had yet to see a skimmed or even semi-skimmed cow. He wondered if they had different coloured spots. Or maybe they were striped.
“Says the man who can fly”, she muttered.
“I can’t fly”, he replied with a frown.
“Never mind. Hung over”, she closed her eyes as if that would make her invisible to him.
“Well come on, drink up then you can have some aspirin then”, he lifted the glass to her lips once more, “a pickle, apparently”.
She frowned, “Why are you here?”
“I brought you back, remember?” He continued to try to get the rest of the milk down her, but she wouldn’t cooperate.
“I mean, why didn’t you just leave me there?”
He stared at her, unsure how to react to that. “Why would I leave you there? Who would do that? You could have been hurt or ...” It didn’t bear thinking about. “Best case scenario some pap gets a picture of you and your reputation is ruined. You’ve worked hard. You don’t deserve that”.
“Sure I do, I’m a callous bitch, remember”, she pointed out, a little more loquacious after her milk.
“I didn’t mean it”, he said dismissively.
“Yes, you did”, she challenged.
He stared at her and then admitted shamefacedly, “Yes, I did mean it, at the time but I still shouldn’t have said it”, he sighed and sat down next to her. “Here, take your aspirin”, he held the small white pills out to her.
She did so slowly and with his help had some more milk. She was really developing quite a taste for it.
Clark wiped the milk off her upper lip and placed the glass on the bedside table before lying down next to her. For some time they both just stayed there, staring up at the ceiling.
“You know what you did was really awful. Didn’t your parents ever teach you any better?” He finally broke the silence; Chloe and he hadn’t had a chance to talk until she had called and sent him to the bar.
“What, you think that just because we were both adopted we had the same luck?” She chuckled dryly. “Your parents are farmers. Mr and Mrs Kent. Pillars of the community and all of that”.
“You’ve researched me”, he stated simply.
“Yep. Lots and lots and no in my house we didn’t do the whole family dinner time, talking about our problems, morals and all of that crap”, she dismissed him sarcastically, as if she scorned those things.
“You wish that you had had some of those things”, he stated, gazing at her.
“No”, she lied, not very convincingly.
He swallowed. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t excuse what you did”.
“I know”, she sighed.
“How long have you known about me?” He asked.
She pondered the matter. “A while”.
“That’s informative”.
“Clark, you are an honest guy, right?” She turned her head to look at him.
“I like to think so. Deep down”, he replied. He lied, a lot unfortunately, but only to protect himself and his family.
“Do you know where Lex is?” She stared at him beseechingly.
“No, I’m sorry”, the words stuck in his throat and he wanted to die as he witnessed the small flicker of hope in her eyes dying. “I have scoured every inch of the Arctic, followed every lead, done everything I can think of but I can’t find him. I wouldn’t lie to you about that”, he reached out and rubbed her shoulder. “I know how much you must miss him”.
“I barely knew him”, she admitted quietly. “I didn’t even know that he was my brother until after he disappeared”.
“You didn’t?” He swallowed. He had always assumed that Lex had found his long, lost sister during the years that they were no longer friends. “What is it?” He asked gently when he saw her frowning.
“Do you think that he would have liked me?” She finally posed the question which had been bugging her since the moment she had found out that she had a real, biological family.
He stared at her and stroked her flaming hair. “Of course he would. Lex always wanted a real family of his own. He would have been the proudest big brother in the world. He wouldn’t have let me (or any other man) near you”, he smiled.
She returned the smile, sleepily.
He continued to caress her hair gently, thinking that it would help her to drift off to sleep. It didn’t, after a few minutes, she began to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” He wondered.
“After years in an abusive household, cowering in a closet at night, a year on an island, several years in grad school, living hand to mouth as a waitress, I finally get everything and I can’t sleep in a big soft bed”, she giggled.
Clark felt like a shit. He wrapped their arms around her.
“What are you doing?” She asked, alarmed and tried to pull away from him.
“I need a hug”, he explained.
“You are so weird”, she informed him, but stopped trying to escape from his embrace, “are you sure that you don’t get drunk?”
“I’m sure”.
~*~
Clark had had a productive morning. He had got up, showered, dressed, had a conversation with Chloe and tracked down Tess’ bastard of an adoptive father and had misplaced him - he would enjoy the phantom zone he was sure - all before Tess had woken up.
When Tess finally bestirred himself, he was sitting on the side of her bed with a gourmet breakfast from Paris laid out on a tray on her bedspread.
“Oh crap!”
“That wasn’t the expression that I was expecting”, Clark admitted with a rueful smile.
“It wasn’t a dream”, she put her hand to her throbbing head.
“No”, he admitted. He had done a great deal of research the night before, by which he meant Chloe had and had written him several long emails. Phones really were wonderful things.
“Oh God”, she groaned. “So, got any embarrassing pictures of me?”
“No”, he leant forwards and caressed the side of her face, careful not to seem like he was looming over her this time. “I meant what I said before: I won’t be threatened and I won’t be your little play thing.”
“Good to know”, she did her best to sound nonchalant.
“But I’m never going to hurt you and I think that if we were to team up, then it would be beneficial for everyone concerned”, he said earnestly, “What do you say?”
She fixed her piercing blue eyes on him. “I say: hand over the coffee”.
He smiled, “I’ll take that as a yes”, and poured them both some coffee. They ate together in silence for a while until Tess finally managed to get up the courage to ask the question that had been torturing her since the day before. She had sort of got an answered but ... “Clark?”
“Yes?” He stopped mid bite.
“Red K only makes you do things you already wanted to do? Right?”
“Yeah”, he blushed.
“Soooo ...”
Tess sat in her office at The Daily Planet, the warm mid-morning sunshine pouring through the large windows and warming her shoulders pleasantly. It was really oddly comfortable sitting around in a fuzzy bath towel, she might have to do more of her work like this.
She typed away efficiently. “Extraordinary stamina”, was in one of the thought bubbles off the main topic “Effects of red K on the subject”. She added another leg, “What level of this relates to red K or is innate?” She pondered different ways that she could test this theory.
Her fingers hovered over the laptop’s keyboard and then, suddenly, they weren’t. Tess blinked. Her laptop was closed, her fingers were safely restrained by a large hand, and an angry face was glowering down at her.
“Clark!” She tried to shoot up to her feet but ended up scrambling about for a few seconds, the gentle pressure of his hand more than capable of keeping her in place, her towel slipping down slightly embarrassingly. “What are you doing here?”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing here Tess?” He growled.
She had never heard him, or anyone else, make that sound before. He hadn’t sounded quite that angry even under the influence of red K. She pursed her lips, knowing that she could not answer him.
“You don’t feel like talking? Right, well I’ll put together the pieces on my own shall I?” He offered, his voice a low rumble of anger. Like the threat of a thunder storm. “You get the job of CEO and decide to imitate your brother in every single way, down to continuing his research projects while telling us all that you were different”.
Although he hadn’t overtly threatened her, she still felt the adrenaline beginning to pulse through her system urging her to fight or fly. Neither would do her any good in this position. She knew enough to pick her battles and forced herself to remain as calm as possible.
“Those pictures this morning. You set me up. Tell me the truth”, he stated plainly, finally releasing her hands and brushing his long, deceptively strong fingers up her arm, over her shoulder until he could cup her face. Gently, he raised her chin so that she had no choice but to look at him.
Tess harnessed every bit of her resolve to force herself not to shake and prayed that her voice would remain neutral as she answered, “Yes”.
“Then you set up a series of events that would lead me into a quarry where there was kryptonite”, he continued.
“Red, not green”, she pointed out, more for her sake than for his.
“You know”, he surmised straightening up and removing his hands from her with something like disgust.
“I know its not fatal to you”, she said, more confidently than she felt, “it doesn’t hurt you it just makes you a bit ...”
“Amorous?” He leant back against her desk and folded his arms, his eyes never leaving hers.
“No”, she managed to force out the syllable but it was with notable trepidation.
“You aren’t leaving until you tell me the truth”, Clark informed her resolutely. He didn’t know why it mattered so much to him, but if she had betrayed him then he was going to make her say it. If Chloe had been there, she would probably have guessed that it had something to do with his deep seated desire to believe the best in people and that he was hoping that Tess would come up with something that would completely exonerate her.
Tess gripped the arm rests of her chair, her nails digging deeply into the dark leather, too scared to care if he noticed this slight concession to weakness, only caring about not making a complete fool of herself by bursting into tears or begging for mercy. She had never cried before, not even when her arm was broken in two places. “I was told that it only made you do what you wanted to do. No inhibitions or something”, she stated in a tight voice.
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“You ...” A thought suddenly occurred to her. A thought so horrible that it banished every other concern from her mind. “Doesn’t it?” If it didn’t, if Lex and his scientists had got it wrong ... If it actually effected his desires at their core point rather than just his willingness to act on them ... Oh God what had she done?
“It lowers my inhibitions yes”, Clark informed her, almost gently. He had seen the spark of true remorse in her eyes. Maybe they could come to some understanding, they could wipe the slate clean if she would just tell him the truth. “Are you admitting it?”
She clamped her jaw shut. She knew that it wouldn’t do any good. She knew that he knew. But this was her best defence mechanism. It never helped to argue, or to defend yourself, even if you were innocent.
Clark stared at her for several long minutes, waiting for her to crack but she only seemed to grow more resolute in her refusal to come clean. He sighed. “Why am I even bothering? I thought you were like Lex when he was younger”. He stared at her in disgust, “You aren’t. You are like he was in the last few years: twisted”.
“I never said that I wasn’t like Lex. I’m not ashamed of my family”, she snapped, jumping to her feet and yanking her towel back into place as it slipped.
“You should be”, he sneered. Or came as close to sneering as Clark Kent ever did.
“Fuck you, farm boy!” She spat.
“You almost did”, he reminded her, pressing against her in a second. “Tell me was that part of testing me?”
She felt sick and far more exposed than she had done with red K Clark. She tried to push passed him.
“Like hell you are getting away from me”, he wrapped one arm around her, cupping her face with the other. “Admit it”.
She shivered but tilted up her chin; she would not crumble. “Fine, I admit it. I was trying to get to the bottom of the mystery that was Clark Kent. I did what I had to do.”
“You are a stupid callous bitch”, he roared, way passed fury now.
Clark had been through years of cumulative stress ever since he had arrived in that cornfield. His parents had been kind and sympathetic: when he had broken the kitchen table; when he had accidentally run several miles in the blink of an eye chasing a ball; and even more embarrassingly when he had set fire to things in a lustful haze. Most parents had only had to deal with sticky bedsheets, not spontaneous combustion.
He had been more scared about that than he had ever dared to admit. His power, strength, abilities, all of it. He wanted to use his Kryptonian ‘gifts’ to help mankind but every time he reached for someone, hugged them, even shook their hand ... He risked so much.
He was so tried of it all. He actually felt sick. Years of pent up anger and frustration at Lex exploded, at the wrong person. “You’ve got everything in the world and yet you are following Lex’s path to a T. It’s disgusting and I’m not playing this game again”. He felt his guts twisting, he’d wanted to fuck her senseless that morning and unfortunately with him that wasn’t necessarily hyperbole.
“Get your hands off me!” She snapped.
He didn’t. She had to learn that he wasn’t a man to be trifled with. “You want to know something about me, just ask. And here’s something to start with: I’m faster than a speeding bullet, invulnerable,have x-ray and heat vision. I can be an enemy, an ally or your friend but I am not going to be kicked around. Got it?”
~*~
Chloe watched in horror as a tear trickled down Tess’ ivory cheek on one side of her screen and on the other she read through Tess’ medical records. Not the ones which Chloe already had on file, those must have been forged.
History of systematic abusive. Alcoholic step-father. Broken arm. Broken ribs. Black eyes. Lacerations too numerous to mention. The phrases jumped out at her.
“Oh fuck!” She moaned as the weight of these discoveries bore down on her. As did her reaction to the man in her office at that moment. She was petrified. “What have you done Clark?”
~*~
“Smallville where have you been?” Lois demanded, of her journalistic partner the second that he walked into the bullpen.
“What? Nowhere?” He used his finally honed ‘dear in a headlight’ stare.
“Nowhere, that’s a great alibi”, Lois huffed, “and what the hell happened to your suit? It looks worse than it did this morning. You know you wouldn’t look half bad if you smartened yourself up a bit”, she berated him, as she attacked him with a lint roller,
Clark had changed into his old suit, cleaned and pressed the one that he had borrowed before returning it, and then hurried back to work after confronting Tess.
“Lois, please”, he started. Clark never got ill but he had a headache.
“Honestly Smallville, it’s as if you want to get fired!” Lois exclaimed, cutting him off.
“Lois for God’s sake stop fussing and stop calling me Smallville”, he extracted himself from her meddling hands, causing her to frown. “I know that you like to belittle me but ...”
“What?” Lois gaped at him and not just because Clark never stood up to her. Or anyone else for that matter.
“You know the rules of journalism that change on a daily basis, brushing my suit, calling me Smallville”, he started to list the ways in which she continuously pestered him.
“Listen to me you over grown, wannabe boy scout”, she poked him in the chest, “I will repeat what I told you the very first day I met you. Or it might have been the second, I can’t remember. The only thing I like about you is your mother. Mrs Kent has been really good to me and I’m hardly going to let her only son get fired, get into debt and end up as a useless wastrel just because he can’t be on time, don’t know how to dress and have a tendency to look like you were just bailing hay!”
He blinked at her.
“And your name is Smallville. Are you ashamed of where you come from?” She demanded with a particularly hard.
“No”, Clark answered perplexedly, softening his chest so as not to damage her finger.
“Well then”, she turned and replaced her lint roller.
He sighed, seeing that she was really hurt by his actions and had only been trying to help. “Lois, look I’m sorry it’s been a bad day, I ...”
“Don’t sweat it Smallville”, she shot him a sunny, if a little forced, smile. “You look like enough of a state already!”
He smiled back at her. “Thank-you Metropolis”
Before Lois could respond to her new nickname, the messenger of doom otherwise known as Tess Mercer’s personal secretary, came in and announced, “Lane. Kent. The boss wants to see you”.
“Now?” They asked in unison, but with differing degrees of apprehension.
“Now”.
“Don’t look so scared Smallville, I’ll protect you”, Lois whispered.
“You don’t know what that means to me”, he muttered, not wanting to admit that he really was grateful for Lois’ protection. For as long as the meddlesome brunette was around, Tess couldn’t want to talk more about his secret life. She didn’t, as it happened when they got there Tess was dressed formally and staring at the stacks of papers on her desk.
“Here are your assignments for the today”, she said, handing over the pages without even looking up at them.
“Thanks boss”, Lois said taking the page and reading it over. It was strange, Tess was normally more involved than this.
Clark was momentarily relieved as he read the document that he had been handed and saw that it had nothing to do with meteor rocks or aliens. If he had any sense he would run away then with his tail between his legs but he couldn’t. He stayed where he was, staring at the red head. He couldn’t see much of her face but what he could appeared pale and shaken.
“Tess?” He inquired gently.
“Miss Mercer”, she raised her head to stare at him. “And you may leave now”.
“Geez what did you do to tick her off”, Lois asked as they left the office.
“I um ...” he strained, “I broke one of your rules”.
“Well Smallville it’s like I always say ...”
~*~
Clark strode up the stairs of one of the most exclusive bars in the city. Not exactly his usual haunt. He would not have been able to bypass security without his superpowers. He entered the large, dark room and scanned the area. He had no idea why Chloe had sent him there or why the place was so empty until he made out a familiar figure, “Tess?”
The statuesque redhead turned, slowly and blinked blearily at the person calling her name. She swayed slightly on the spot and squinted hard before turning back to the bar.
He sighed and really wished that it had been some Kryptonian eating meteor freak he had to face down. You know, something simple. Wondering what was going on and how he was going to fix it, he made his way over to the bar and took a seat next to his boss.
Before he could open his mouth Tess raised her hand shakily above her head and the bartender materialised with two large glasses of what he assumed was vodka and coke and lined them up next to their empty, fallen comrades. He was more than a little concerned.
“Bottoms up”, Tess raised her glass to both men and sloshed half of it out and over her fingers. She stared at it in confusion, as if trying to work out what had happened.
The second that the bartender retreated Clark downed his drink and then hers. He had to stop her from drinking it somehow.
She stared at him.
“Alcohol never effects me”, he explained with a shrug.
“Me neither”, she said, unable to sit without moving.
“So I see”, in spite of the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't help but smile slightly.
Tess stared at him even harder then tried to stand up and leave the conversation only to have her legs give way.
“Come here”, Clark was by her side in a nano second, pulling her up into his arms bridal style.
“What are you doing?” Tess wondered, frowning at her knees which were now much closer to her face than they normally were.
“God you really are drunk”, Clark commented.
“No shit Sherlock!”
“Come on, I’ll take you home”, he checked that the bartender was gone, then sped out of there.
“What do you care?” Tess asked, part of her sentence spoken in the bar the other in the penthouse apartment.
“You really think that I need a reason not to want my boss to be drunk and helpless on the streets of Metropolis?” He stared at her incredulously as he laid her down on the bed. Her only response was to raise her shoulders a millimetre. He guessed that she had been aiming for a shrug.
“Should I call someone?” He asked quietly.
“Who?” She stared at him blankly.
“Someone to look after you”, Clark clarified.
“Oh, the staff will already be asleep. Don’t wake them. I’m fine”, Tess managed to get, although it seemed to take her far longer than normal.
He frowned, realising for the first time that she didn’t have anyone in her life she could count on. Just like Lex. He watched as she closed her eyes and laid her head down properly. She didn’t look comfortable or relaxed, in fact, she kept on wincing. “Does your head hurt?”
“Yes”, she sighed.
“Just hang in there”, he reached over and brushed his fingers across her forehead, “I’ve got an ace up my sleeve when it comes to dealing with this kind of thing”. He straightened up and slipped his phone out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. Two rings later, he spoke softly, “Hi Lois, I have a favour to ask you”.
“Shoot”, came her instantaneous reply, just as he had known it would in spite of their earlier blow up.
“I am dealing with a hangover and I thought of you”, he informed her with a smile.
“Ah Smallville, I’m touched”, Lois’ voice came through the phone. “I’m glad to hear that the boyscout is finally loosening up a bit. What were you drinking?”
“I wasn’t the one drinking, well not enough to get drunk”, he explained. “I found a woman vulnerable. I don’t want her to be alone or hung over”.
“Seriously?” Lois sounded disappoint. “You can take the boy out of the farm but not the farm out of the boy. Right, three litres of sports drink, two aspirins, and one pickle”.
“A pickle?” Clark repeated.
“Don’t argue with me Smallville!”
“Alright, I’ll get her a pickle. Anything else I should know about?” He made a mental note of everything he needed to get.
“We will deal with your knight in shining armour complex later. Have fun”, Lois rang off.
“Bye”, Clark said to an already dead line. He transferred his attention back to Tess’ recumbent form. “I’ll be back in a second”, he told her and disappeared for a moment and then returned with arms ladened with goods. “Okay, here you go. I got everything we’re going to need”.
“Huh?” She cracked an eye open, “You’re still here?”
“As you see”, he opened the bag, “sports drink, aspirin and ...”
“Is that a pickle?” Tess broke in before he could finish.
“Um yes”, he blushed slightly. It sounded like a weird thing to bring into a woman’s bedroom but he trusted Lois and her encyclopaedic knowledge on certain subjects.
“Don’t bother I just need some aspirin”, she reached over for her bedside table but couldn't make it the whole way.
Clark opened it for her and looked inside, he found vial after vial of pills. He pulled one out and read the label. It wasn’t aspirin. “Tess, what is this?”
“Wha?”
“This”, he grasped her shoulder and showed her the vial.
“Don’t shout”, she protested, placing her hands over her ears.
He hadn’t been shouting but, nevertheless, he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Then answer the question”.
She took the pills and pulled the vial so close to her face that it was touching her nose. “Sleeping pills”, she finally decided and popped the top of it and poured a load into her hand.
“What the hell are you doing?” He demanded not caring about his volume or that Martha would have serious words for him if she ever found out that he had used that kind of language period, let alone in front of a woman. “Do you want to kill yourself?”
Tess blinked up at him. “I have problems sleeping”.
“Oh”. He had prevented her from taking the pills by taking possession of her wrist and still did not feel compelled to return it.
“Not that it is anything to do with you”, she fought for control of her wrist until didn’t manage to move it a fraction of a centimetre.
It wasn’t a suicide attempt, he didn’t think. She was just drunk and didn’t know what she was doing, but it was still incredibly dangerous. He removed the dangerous pills from the state in the blink of an eye and then read the back of the packet of aspirin that he had brought for her. “When was the last time that you ate?”
“Umm”, she thought hard, “yesterday, I think. Why all of the questions?”
“I don’t think that you are the one to talk about asking questions”, he mumbled. Apparently she couldn’t sleep, drank heavily and could eat and he felt sick about it but he couldn’t forget what she had done. “Do you think that you can stomach anything to eat?”
“No”, she shook her head but then stopped when that made her dizzy.
“Right, well here you go”, he produced a glass out of thin air.
“What’s this?” She wondered.
“Milk.”
“Milk?”
“Yeah, you know comes from cows”, he said with an amused smile in spite of the gravity of the situation.
“I don’t like milk”, she found the strength to complain.
“Well drink it anyway”, he positioned himself to help her drink.
Tess drank it, mostly because she didn’t have any choice in the matter, and commented, “This is better than the stuff I have”.
“It’s just regular organic farm fresh full fat milk”, he didn’t add that it was from his favourite cow Trudy. Or that the newest Luthor scion had a milk moustache.
“Full fat?” Those two words somehow managed to penetrate her alcohol ladened mind.
“Of course. You don’t drink skimmed do you?” He wrinkled his nose. “That’s just not natural”. He had grown up on a farm and he had yet to see a skimmed or even semi-skimmed cow. He wondered if they had different coloured spots. Or maybe they were striped.
“Says the man who can fly”, she muttered.
“I can’t fly”, he replied with a frown.
“Never mind. Hung over”, she closed her eyes as if that would make her invisible to him.
“Well come on, drink up then you can have some aspirin then”, he lifted the glass to her lips once more, “a pickle, apparently”.
She frowned, “Why are you here?”
“I brought you back, remember?” He continued to try to get the rest of the milk down her, but she wouldn’t cooperate.
“I mean, why didn’t you just leave me there?”
He stared at her, unsure how to react to that. “Why would I leave you there? Who would do that? You could have been hurt or ...” It didn’t bear thinking about. “Best case scenario some pap gets a picture of you and your reputation is ruined. You’ve worked hard. You don’t deserve that”.
“Sure I do, I’m a callous bitch, remember”, she pointed out, a little more loquacious after her milk.
“I didn’t mean it”, he said dismissively.
“Yes, you did”, she challenged.
He stared at her and then admitted shamefacedly, “Yes, I did mean it, at the time but I still shouldn’t have said it”, he sighed and sat down next to her. “Here, take your aspirin”, he held the small white pills out to her.
She did so slowly and with his help had some more milk. She was really developing quite a taste for it.
Clark wiped the milk off her upper lip and placed the glass on the bedside table before lying down next to her. For some time they both just stayed there, staring up at the ceiling.
“You know what you did was really awful. Didn’t your parents ever teach you any better?” He finally broke the silence; Chloe and he hadn’t had a chance to talk until she had called and sent him to the bar.
“What, you think that just because we were both adopted we had the same luck?” She chuckled dryly. “Your parents are farmers. Mr and Mrs Kent. Pillars of the community and all of that”.
“You’ve researched me”, he stated simply.
“Yep. Lots and lots and no in my house we didn’t do the whole family dinner time, talking about our problems, morals and all of that crap”, she dismissed him sarcastically, as if she scorned those things.
“You wish that you had had some of those things”, he stated, gazing at her.
“No”, she lied, not very convincingly.
He swallowed. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t excuse what you did”.
“I know”, she sighed.
“How long have you known about me?” He asked.
She pondered the matter. “A while”.
“That’s informative”.
“Clark, you are an honest guy, right?” She turned her head to look at him.
“I like to think so. Deep down”, he replied. He lied, a lot unfortunately, but only to protect himself and his family.
“Do you know where Lex is?” She stared at him beseechingly.
“No, I’m sorry”, the words stuck in his throat and he wanted to die as he witnessed the small flicker of hope in her eyes dying. “I have scoured every inch of the Arctic, followed every lead, done everything I can think of but I can’t find him. I wouldn’t lie to you about that”, he reached out and rubbed her shoulder. “I know how much you must miss him”.
“I barely knew him”, she admitted quietly. “I didn’t even know that he was my brother until after he disappeared”.
“You didn’t?” He swallowed. He had always assumed that Lex had found his long, lost sister during the years that they were no longer friends. “What is it?” He asked gently when he saw her frowning.
“Do you think that he would have liked me?” She finally posed the question which had been bugging her since the moment she had found out that she had a real, biological family.
He stared at her and stroked her flaming hair. “Of course he would. Lex always wanted a real family of his own. He would have been the proudest big brother in the world. He wouldn’t have let me (or any other man) near you”, he smiled.
She returned the smile, sleepily.
He continued to caress her hair gently, thinking that it would help her to drift off to sleep. It didn’t, after a few minutes, she began to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” He wondered.
“After years in an abusive household, cowering in a closet at night, a year on an island, several years in grad school, living hand to mouth as a waitress, I finally get everything and I can’t sleep in a big soft bed”, she giggled.
Clark felt like a shit. He wrapped their arms around her.
“What are you doing?” She asked, alarmed and tried to pull away from him.
“I need a hug”, he explained.
“You are so weird”, she informed him, but stopped trying to escape from his embrace, “are you sure that you don’t get drunk?”
“I’m sure”.
~*~
Clark had had a productive morning. He had got up, showered, dressed, had a conversation with Chloe and tracked down Tess’ bastard of an adoptive father and had misplaced him - he would enjoy the phantom zone he was sure - all before Tess had woken up.
When Tess finally bestirred himself, he was sitting on the side of her bed with a gourmet breakfast from Paris laid out on a tray on her bedspread.
“Oh crap!”
“That wasn’t the expression that I was expecting”, Clark admitted with a rueful smile.
“It wasn’t a dream”, she put her hand to her throbbing head.
“No”, he admitted. He had done a great deal of research the night before, by which he meant Chloe had and had written him several long emails. Phones really were wonderful things.
“Oh God”, she groaned. “So, got any embarrassing pictures of me?”
“No”, he leant forwards and caressed the side of her face, careful not to seem like he was looming over her this time. “I meant what I said before: I won’t be threatened and I won’t be your little play thing.”
“Good to know”, she did her best to sound nonchalant.
“But I’m never going to hurt you and I think that if we were to team up, then it would be beneficial for everyone concerned”, he said earnestly, “What do you say?”
She fixed her piercing blue eyes on him. “I say: hand over the coffee”.
He smiled, “I’ll take that as a yes”, and poured them both some coffee. They ate together in silence for a while until Tess finally managed to get up the courage to ask the question that had been torturing her since the day before. She had sort of got an answered but ... “Clark?”
“Yes?” He stopped mid bite.
“Red K only makes you do things you already wanted to do? Right?”
“Yeah”, he blushed.
“Soooo ...”