Fic: Ex Machina (7/9)
Fic: Ex Machina (7/9)
Series: Special Projects
Summary: After their experience with the Demon Meg, Chloe is broken. Dean is shattered. Somehow, they've got to find a way back, while at the same time figuring out how to stop a Demon-made Artificial Intelegence.
Author: pen37
Beta: Clarksmuse
Fandoms: Smallville/Supernatural/DCU
Characters: Chloe, Sam, Dean
Pairing:Chloe/Dean
Rating: Pg-13.
This is a part of the Special Projects series. You can find the rest of the series here.
Written for the Crossovers100 challenge. Prompt #67 Snow. The table is here.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9
As they got closer to the house, Dean noticed that Chloe's hands got clammier and clammier. He ran a comforting hand down her arm, and felt as her pulse at her wrists sped up. He figured that her heart was hammering in her chest. He wanted to tell her that everything was okay, but judging by the look of determination on her face, he doubted that she would appreciate the sentiment.
She paused at the top of the newly-rebuilt porch steps, and took a shaky breath. Then she marched into the house, over to the table where her computer was set up and sat down at it. She looked neither right nor left, but instead began clicking on her keys immediately. Her hands barely shook as she typed.
“You doing okay there?”
“Yeah,” she nodded while keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the screen.
“You barely seem scared.”
“I'm terrified,” Chloe inclined her head slightly in a nod. “But that's what my subconscious was trying to tell me: the trick is to feel the fear - and not mind it.”
Dean chewed on that as he stood in the doorway and watched. A noise from across the room drew his attention. Clark stood in the hallway leading to the kitchen, watching Chloe work. He looked at Dean, and raised an eyebrow.
Dean scowled at him. In response, Clark rolled his eyes, and then looked out the window. He turned, and walked toward the door. Dean turned to follow.
“You two play nice,” Chloe said without turning around.
“Always do, darlin'.” Dean said. He shot a lazy smile her way, but Chloe didn't look up from her typing.
Clark crossed the yard, picked up a whole freakin' car, and moved it so that he could sit on the hood without the rising sun hitting him in the face. Dean scowled again.
“You always up this early?”
“I grew up on a farm,” Clark said mildly. “As far back as I can remember, I've been up with the sun. Lois likes to sleep in, so it's good quiet time. I used to buzz over to Seattle and bring Chloe back a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.” He shrugged. “Her sleep schedule is about like mine.”
“Freakin' Superman,” Dean muttered.
“You should know that I can hear you,” Clark said mildly.
“You think that bothers me?” Dean said.
Clark gave him a Mona Lisa smile that he had to have picked up from either Chloe or her cousin, Lois. “You don't like me very much, do you?”
“Dude, I don't even know you.” Dean crossed his arms.
“So then why the hostility?”
Dean frowned, and then looked back at the house. Through the window, he could see Chloe glance out at them. She was chewing her lip in anxiety, but he wasn't sure if it was from the claustrophobia that she was trying to conquer, or worry about the two of them.
“Listen, Dean,” Clark sighed. “I've always respected the decisions that Chloe made. Even when we were kids. We did date, for about a week. If she'd wanted to continue the relationship, I would have. Hell, for that matter, there were plenty of opportunities for her to pursue a relationship with me since then. But that's not what she chose. Instead - for reasons that I can't even begin to understand - she waited all this time and chose you.”
“And what about you?” Dean crossed his arms at his chest and gave Clark a defiant scowl. “Didn't you ever think that Chloe was worth going after?”
“Not at the risk of losing her forever,” Clark's lip twisted wryly and he shook his head. “I'll admit that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But I was blessed with a second chance with Lois. And I thank God every day that I haven't screwed that up.”
Dean snorted at that.
Clark gave him a patient look. “You realize that I could put you in traction with my pinky.”
“I also know you won't.” Dean said.
“I'm tempted,” Clark said with a frown. He glanced toward the house and sighed. “But I wouldn't want to make Chloe upset.” He turned to regard Dean again. This time with wide, sorrowful eyes. “She's more than my best friend, Dean. She's my family. And trust me, coming from someone whose whole planet was wiped out - I don't say that lightly.
“What you need to do, is respect that fact that Chloe has always had the right to make her own decisions. You do a disservice to her when you put it all on me. She made the decision to be my friend. And it's no use getting mad at me because of things that we resolved a long time ago.”
Dean felt his right hand curl into a fist. “You have any idea how cautious she was about getting back into a relationship?”
“Some,” Clark acknowledged with a nod. “Not all of that is me, Dean. Chloe had issues before we met. And if I'd known then what I know now . . . but I was a fourteen year old boy. Don't tell me you weren't stupid when you were a teen.”
Dean sighed and shook his head. He'd probably been worse than Clark at fourteen.
“Doesn't mean I still wouldn't like to hit you,” he muttered.
“So do it,” Clark said.
“What?” Dean blinked.
In response, Clark pulled a box from his pocket and tossed it to Dean. Dean looked down at it, and then back at Clark with an eyebrow raised in question.
“Look in the box.”
Dean pulled the lid open cautiously, and peeked inside. A fragment of green rock was nestled inside. He glanced up at Clark in question.
“That's a fragment of meteor from my home planet. You know all about those.”
Dean nodded. Dust made up of the same type of rock that was in this box was shot all through Chloe's body.
“It's irradiated, so it's poisonous to me,” Clark said. “If you have that in your hand, you could probably beat me to a bloody pulp.”
Dean gave him a suspicious look. “Then why are you giving this to me?”
“Because you're important to Chloe,” Clark gave him an earnest look. “And she's family. So if there's a problem between us. I'm hoping that we can work it out. One way, or another.”
Dean frowned, and shut the box. “Man, you suck.” He shook his head. “How the hell am I supposed to kick your ass after that?”
Clark shrugged.
Dean tried to hand the box back to Clark, but the alien held his hand up in negation. “Keep it.”
“You sure?” Dean's eyebrows scaled his forehead.
“Yeah,” Clark said. “Chloe has a piece of it somewhere. So do Lois and my mom. I'm pretty sure that Ollie and Batman both have them all over the place.”
“Why?” Dean asked.
“Failsafes,” Clark said. “In case something ever goes wrong. Lex likes - liked to posture about being destined to be my check, but my family are the reason that I walk the straight and narrow.”
“It's happened before, hasn't it? Things have gone wrong.” Dean remembered Ellen's story about how she'd met Chloe. “Like that time at the roadhouse?”
“More times than I'm comfortable with.” Clark gave him a pained look, and nodded. “And that's not something that I'm proud to say. I haven't let anything like that happen since that mess in your friends' roadhouse. I just have to be careful.”
Dean tucked the box in his pocket thoughtfully. “It's a big responsibility, isn't it?”
Clark nodded. “Something tells me you know a lot about responsibility.”
“A thing or two,” Dean said.
“So . . . we good?”
“Yeah. I don't think I'll ever want to share a beer with you over a hand of five card draw, but we're good.”
“Good,” Clark said. “Because my mother expects to see Chloe and my Kent Cousins for Christmas in Metropolis this year. So unless you want me to hijack you three and that car of yours, you'd best point it toward Kansas when this mess is done.”
Dean chuckled. “You're awful bossy for an alien.”
“I prefer the term intergalactic traveler.”
“Guys!” Chloe's cry from the house sent Dean and Clark both running.
“What's wrong?” Dean asked.
“I tried using one of Lionel's windows to access Luthorcorp.”
“Without telling us?” Dean scowled at her.
“Never mind that,” She waved him off as she looked up with and excited expression. “I made sure to get everything I needed off of my laptop, and then I wiped it down before trying this. But that's not the important thing. The Demon AI tried to get at my files.”
“And?” Dean asked.
“And while it was doing that, I snuck in behind it and copied part of its programming.”
“You . . . so now we have two of these things?”
“No, we personally have a half of one of these things.” Chloe said. “Which is enough coding that we could overwrite a patch to make it work for us.”
Dean gave her a look that said: yeah, and?
“How would you like that thing to help us locate where all the clones are? We could shut down the whole process before it became an even bigger headache than it already is.”
Clark smiled at that. “I'd really like that.”
“Thought you might,” Chloe said. “Get everyone up. We should get to work on this right away.”