Fanfiction & Art for gemmiel (EllyFanfiction)

[babydee1]

For: gemmiel (aka Ellyfanfiction)
Request: Shelby, beach, Chloe's VW Beetle, Chlark as Soulmates, Happily Ever After
Type: Graphics + FIC
Title: Soulmates
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8,300 words
Warnings: Chlollie, brief mention of past Clana & Clois
Summary: Future-fic. This is how two best friends figure out that they are soulmates. The road for true love is scary, painful and not easy… but worth it.
A/N: I wasn't able to meet the no LLs request. But I promise it's only past mentions, no interactions. Un-beta'd so please forgive any errors.
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It was totally redundant yet completely mandatory and nothing put a brighter smile on her face than when watching Clark get the kids and himself ready for the school run. The commute from their home on the coast to the inner suburbs to Jonathan’s high school and further on to Lara’s preschool wasn't far. He’d make the round-trip in under an hour. No one on the planet would ever believe it, Superman wearing a cyclist’s helmet and peddling a push bike while towing a buggy, unless they saw it for themselves. Even if they did, she doubted anyone would connect Jordan Elliot with Superman.

Jordan Elliot was the house-husband of Annie Sullivan and father of Jonathan and Lara Elliot.

The whole riding to school gig was born from Clark putting his proactive parenting cap on in trying to get their gaming addicted, stubborn, sloth of a son to get fit. He had Clark's natural Kryptonian abilities which they had discovered in the usual way, by accident, and a lot of their worst traits among other things. So while his yellow-sun charged cells and two-thirds alien metabolism wouldn’t allow him to become weak, watching him drag his feet around was driving both his parents spare.

Jonathan had both their stubbornness. Chloe insisted he also had Jor-El's high handed ideology to life, and Clark's time management skills. Which were still a work in progress. He was faster than a speeding bullet, could out fly a rocket but he still couldn't make it to work on time. Clark insisted it was part of his cover but Chloe wasn't buying it. Since they were kids Clark could be counted on to show up late and sometimes not at all. Clark tried to say Jonathan's affinity for electronics was partially her fault. Chloe had let him have the couch for that implied failing. The schools were moving for paperless these days, everyone owned a tablet of some kind it was part of the curriculum. And she pointed out that coding, networking and programming were very different to gaming.

Case in point, Lara was into the Jurassic Park Lego Game and she insisted Mommy help her play. Chloe shrieked when her character fell off a large precipice after she had only just mastered the jump controls and climbed the cliff face. Needless to say, Clark, Shelby and Jonathan hadn't been impressed with her. Lara just grinned at her antics and helpfully offered to get her character to the top again. She would leave the gaming to her kids, and her occasional team mates.

If fact, it was her friends, her children’s pseudo uncles that were directly responsible for her children’s favorite past-times. And her son’s current addiction problem. Cyborg had gotten Jonathan an Xbox for his fifth birthday, and not to be out done, Oliver had given him a second generation, top of the line Q1 smart tablet for Christmas that same year.

Bart had been busy with Speed-Force problems but last year when he’d dropped in, he’d gifted his favorite nephew - his only nephew - with upgrades; a Palmer Station, a gamers’ headset, keyboard and The Avengers Elite Hero Collection. She’d just buried her face in her hands, while Clark tried to settle on expression between horrified and grudgingly grateful.

They lived on a remote, beachfront property on the edge of Coast City. Three seasons out of the year the weather was gorgeous and she had no trouble getting Lara outside to play fetch with Shelby or make sand castles. The most she could manage from Jonathan was about ten minutes around sunrise while she got breakfast together and just after school for another ten minutes while he put all the bikes away. Chloe bet that if the sun was hidden by clouds, that ten minutes would be shaved down to under a minute. Her eldest really was a bit of a couch potato.

Part time investigative journalist for Coast City News, mother of two, wife to the biggest powerhouse on the planet and learning she was descendant to an ancient race. How was this her life? Well as most things that came about in Smallville, the chaos in her life involved a Luthor.

Her world changed a little over five years ago when one of the Justice League's many informants reported a suspicious looking group moving through Smallville. Anything Smallville related that came through Watchtower got tagged priority one and went straight to her cell.

Martha was permanently based in D.C. She had retired after her last consecutive term but she’d build up a friendship base and many community projects, and since she had never considered herself a real farmer at heart, she had stayed in her adopted city. Besides she’d left the farm to Clark and he’d sold it. Much to Chloe and Martha’s disappointment but it was his choice to make. So while there was no immediate threat to Clark based in Smallville anymore, there were the caves which only a select few knew about. However considering that the old Lex had known about them, Chloe kept tabs on the area.

She immediately set about alerting John and Clark. Both of them would have the fastest response and they knew the importance of the caves. When her call to Clark went unanswered -- not an uncommon occurrence -- she started putting together a plan B. Clark was always busy, he had many roles to juggle and even with all his many talents, and he’d never been fond or savvy with technology. John said he was in London on a joint Interpol investigation for his day job, he’d try to slip away when he could but it might not be in time. Knowing that if Lex was involved that there wasn’t time to leave things to chance, Chloe put on Mia’s spare suit that she kept at the Queen Mansion and she told the housekeeper to keep an eye on Jonathan, who was in his room doing homework - or at least he looked like he was doing homework when she checked - and called in a favor from Bart for a lift and for back up.

Together they scouted the reserve surrounding the caves and found that the group must have already gotten inside, there were regular grunts watching the perimeter. Bart made short work of taking them out.

Chloe was faced with a conundrum. She’d had this conversation before with Clark about whether they should collapse the caves. Yes, they were cultural grounds for the Kawatche and they had historical significance but it also made the Fortress vulnerable.

The sudden light show that started to emanate from the entrance decided things for her. She had to do it. With a nod for Bart to play scout again, she followed behind him.

They weren’t prepared for Lex to have brought along friends. Powered friends. The plan had been to ambush Superman on his home turf. Lex had somehow discovered that the caves had a portal to Superman’s Fortress in the Arctic Circle.

Bart had his hands full trying to fight off Deathstroke and Black Manta, that Chloe was quickly overpowered by Psimon, who attacked her with a powerful psychic assault that she blacked out at the same time Lex fired some kind of pulse weapon at her. The last thing she saw as her vision swam, was Lex standing over her.

“The Archer and his allies have been a bane on my efforts for years, it’s most gratifying to finally take one off the board.”

Bart had activated his emergency signal to the League the second he spotted the individuals they were facing. The rumored Injustice League. Not so much a rumor anymore as a very real threat. He knew they were out of their depth. When he saw Chloe thrown into the wall by Lex’s attack, rock and debris hailing down around her, he disregarded his own safety and sped to get her out of the cave. In his haste, he didn’t take any notice of the intricate tribal looking bracelet that had fallen out of a void in the cave wall and had landed by Chloe’s hand.

Outside the caves, hidden in the shadows of the forest, Bart tried contacting HQ. He got through to Oracle, Batman’s associate and part of their Watchtower monitor duty rotation. She told him that backup was on the way. He got took off Chloe’s messenger bag of supplies and rummaged through it for a First Aid kit. He had a small pen light out but he was afraid to use it when he heard loud and angry voices searching for them. He would have run her all the way to Smallville Medical, but he’d been afraid to move her at all considering how she’d landed, and he’d been as careful as he could to support her neck and back while he’d been running her clear. Until he knew the damage, he wasn’t going to risk running any further with her. What he wouldn’t give for Clark’s X-ray vision right now, or Hal’s Lantern Ring. To his knowledge, the only limits on the Ring’s capabilities seemed to be your imagination and the strength of your will.

As a glowing green fire fight broke out, he breathed in audible relief. The cavalry had arrived.

John touched his shoulder. Bart was only too happy to leave Chloe in the Martian’s care. He knew that John looked out for Chloe like a surrogate daughter. “I’ll take her now. Help the others.”

While the Justice League members attempted to apprehend Lex and his cohorts. John flew Chloe to Metropolis General. As medical staff took her through for treatment, her family were notified and it wasn’t long until concerned familiar faces, filled the waiting lounge. Clark and Oliver were told twice by nurses to tone down their mud-slinging, but neither seemed to pay anyone any mind. Clark was a little more than upset that no one had thought to contact him about Chloe’s admittance and he’d only found out because the hospital had tried to contact Lois at the Planet, and she wasn’t available because she was covering a new trade agreement between China and the U.S. and he was the one to take the message.

“This is on you,” Oliver said jabbing his finger in Clark’s chest, wincing when he belatedly realized what a bad idea any physical confrontation would be to his wellbeing. “I saw the log. She called you first. Why weren’t you there?” he growled, a vein in his temple throbbing revealing just how angry he was.

Clark grit his teeth and glared back at Oliver frostily through his glasses. He was here as Chloe’s friend, not as Superman. They were all here in their regular identities. Well he, John and Diana anyway. Oliver was known as the Green Arrow, given her costumed attire everyone assumed Chloe was Green Arrow’s sidekick and no one had raised much of an eyebrow when her husband had landed his stealth Arrow Jet on the roof.

“She’s not my wife. I’m not the one responsible for her. You are! Where were you?” It was a lame excuse, he wished he had been able to respond to Chloe’s call but he’d been putting out a fire and helping rescue a building full of residents in Downtown Metropolis. He wasn’t about to defend himself to Oliver over how he prioritized his efforts. He had to make impossible decisions every day. He trusted that Chloe could take care of herself and he trusted Oliver to be there for her and have her back.

“Unlike some people, I can’t be everywhere at once,” Oliver hissed. “And at least I answer my damn phone.”

The arguing died down once the doctor came back. After they had checked her over, aside from small lacerations on her back and surface bruising, Chloe hadn’t suffered any obvious physical damage. The initial prognosis had looked bad because of the charring of her clothes and the fact that she hadn’t regained consciousness.

When they had removed the suit, it revealed that Chloe had been wearing body armor that had absorbed most of the blast. After handing the supervillians over to the D.E.O., those that they had managed to apprehend, Bart was able to update them on what had happened and surmised that perhaps Psimon’s attack may have caused neurological damage. Her treatment team had already scheduled a CAT scan but with limited staff they had more than an hour to wait to start the procedure. The results of her test had her doctors baffled. Chloe’s brain showed more activity than a conscious person, more than any scan they’d ever seen. They’d ordered more tests and had to wait till morning to consult more specialists.

Both Oliver and Clark refused to leave the hospital, so John promised to cover any emergencies that came up and Bart had sped over to Star City to relieve the housekeeper from watching over Jonathan.

Having changed into spare clothes he kept in his Jet, Oliver was marginally more comfortable but no less agreeable as the hours ticked by and Chloe remained unresponsive. “It’s been 18 hours. And she’s not waking up. How can there be no damage and she’s comatose? What freaky things did you have stored up in that place?” Oliver yelled at Clark, finally at his breaking point and not caring who overheard them.

“Nothing that would cause this, and absolutely nothing dangerous. Keep your voice down,” Clark growled. “Director. Trevor is working to get us access to Psimon. With his abilities they have to be really careful how they handle him. Lex escaped Hal in Smallville and he’s gone to ground. We’re still looking. We need to find out if he took anything and what he knows.”

“If you’d levelled the place years ago, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Oliver riled at him, while pacing the length of the corridor outside Chloe’s room.

“As if you’ve always made the best decisions,” Clark argued, his patience finally snapping. He didn’t like to bring up anyone’s past mistakes, he’d made enough of his own to know not to throw stones in glasshouses but Oliver was acting like he was the only one who cared about Chloe. “Says the man, who outed himself on National Television!”

Diana, honorary aunt to their son, had picked up Jonathan from Star City and driven him over. He’d been camped on the floor outside his mother’s room, hands on his knees. He suddenly gave up trying to listen to his iPod. “Both of you, shut up!” he yelled and pounded his fist on the wall behind him.

It was the first fit of temper, they’d ever witnessed from him. Granted he’d never had to see his mother in hospital before so they should have cut him a break, but the outburst had the opposite effect considering his tone and the results of his actions.

Jonathan had put his hands clean through two sheets of plaster and wood supports that when he’d pulled out his hands, they could see the staff lounge through the neat holes he’d left behind. Thankfully no one was inside. Clark unplugged the vending machine from down the hall and shifted it to cover the damage.

Oliver was too stunned to say anything, much less reprimand the boy for his disrespect.

Diana spoke up from where she calmly observed their not so meek expressions, as she came along bearing coffee. “Jonathan, how long have you displayed such strength?”

Jonathan shoved his plaster dusted knuckles into the pocket of his hoodie. “Ah, I didn’t know I could do that,” he mumbled, avoiding Oliver’s piercing stare.

She pushed the cups into Oliver’s hands, and indicated for Jonathan to show her his hands. She cleaned away the dirt to reveal perfectly unmarred skin. She glanced between Oliver and Clark. “Perhaps we should consult with Dr. Hamilton?”

“I’m not leaving, Chloe,” Oliver said firmly.

Clark grit his teeth. “Call me the second there’s any change. I’ll take Jonathan.”

The entire ride to Dr. Hamilton’s lab, Clark was sweating under his suit. Diana was casting him figurative sideways glances. She probably thought she was being stealthy, she wasn’t. Three failed attempts at drawing blood later, and his suspicions turned into a million dollar question. Before Emil could even utter the word meteor rock, Clark suggested they ask Chloe.

Emil had Chloe transferred to his care and between John unable to establish any telepathic link with her, they put her in the memory chamber, based on the design the Summerholt Neurological Institute developed. The same technology that Checkmate had later upgraded to create neurological links, allowing people to access and project memories.

It was only after entering her mind that Clark understood why she wasn’t waking up. She was trapped in a seemingly endless scope of memories that weren’t her own, the focus of which was a dark-haired woman that reminded him a lot of Chloe.

She had been so relieved to see him that Clark momentarily forgot his anger and confusion over her condition. Until he was reminded about the puzzling developments over Jonathan’s sudden invulnerability.

“What happened, Chloe?”

“I have no idea. Lex hit me with that new energy weapon of his and I was out. But before that Psimon tried to attack me. It felt like the time Brainiac tried to rewire my brain and got more than he bargained for.”

“Psimon’s in Sub-basement 4 in D.C.”

“That’s reassuring. That isn’t,” she said, suddenly covering her eyes. Which wouldn’t really do much good because this was playing out in her mind and she couldn’t escape it, and probably the more she thought on the memory, the longer they’d have to endure it.

Clark’s eyes widened. As he watched the familiar memory play out. Since when had they moved on to Chloe’s memories? Ones she had professed to never have any recollection over. Seeing himself shirtless in the Talon wasn’t a memory he expected to ever relive. “I thought you said you didn’t remember?”

Chloe stared at him gobsmacked. “That happened? When? I thought it was some weird childhood fantasy flashback.” Then she bit her lip when she realized what she’d admitted. Clark raised an eyebrow at her. She folded her arms defensively. “You were hot. I was in love with you. It happened. A few times. Get over it.” Then she frowned. “Right now, I’m infinitely more interested in is the fact that before this moment, I had no memory of that.”

“I told you about the time you and Pete got infected with those parasites, remember?” Clark explained haltingly.

Chloe’s lips formed a silent O. “So I’m the girl Lana was talking about,” she said softly to herself. Then she slapped Clark’s arm. “Why didn’t you tell me? And wow, that doesn’t hurt.” She slapped him again.

“Quit that.”

The memory changed and they were watching an alternate dark-haired Chloe again. The memories played out, and the other Chloe was never aware they were there. It was only when the disembodied male voice reached out for that alternate Chloe that Clark sucked in a breath. He knew that stone on the man’s wrist. It was exactly the same as the stone in the bracelet Kyla had given him. The bracelet the Kryptonian had given to his beloved.

Clark darted a glance at the Chloe standing beside him, however she wasn’t watching him. She was watching the memory of this dark-haired nymph like-Chloe as she danced through a field of wild flowers, her thin deer-hide dress hugging her every curve, her smile as brilliant and warm as the afternoon sun. His heart beat faster behind his ribs as the speculated over the implications of these memories.

“Do you remember the prophet the Kawatche believed in? The one who prophesied about Naman, and became some sort of spiritual leader for the Kawatche people after he fell in love one of the woman in their tribe?”

“You think this is them?” Chloe asked her voice betraying a hint of disbelief but also wonder.

“Maybe,” he answered, a little awed himself at what he was seeing.

The cave painting had depicted a dark haired woman as Naman’s fated. When he was younger he had believed that to woman to be Lana. Over the years of interactions with Lex and as he’d moved beyond a childhood crush and discovered the person Lana was, he’d realized that giving any credit to a myth or dreams was foolish and he’d put it out of his mind, dismissing it as nothing more than a Kawatche folklore tale. After putting the bracelet in the cave for safe keeping, along with his father’s journal, he hadn’t thought about the the Naman prophecy since. Now that he did, he wondered if he’d subconsciously considered Lois to be the dark haired fated one. He snorted. Fated. It was such a liberal term. He’d been with two dark haired women. Neither of them were his destiny. No matter how much the so called reformed Brainiac might have wanted him to believe in it.

Lana had turned out to be very different from the caring popular girl he’d always admired from afar. She had chosen to be with Lex despite his and Chloe’s concerns and then was more than bitter to discover his manipulations and secrets for herself, She’d chosen a dark path of vengeance which had ultimately ended any possibility of her ever being a part of his life again. Lois always saw him as this paragon of heroism. Someone larger than life. She didn’t understand Clark Kent. And when he allowed himself to look over the sum of their years of being in each other’s lives, he could finally accept that she never had. In print, it may seem to the masses that Lois was the woman in Superman’s life, but in reality they were colleagues, albeit tentative friends. They rarely spoke outside of the job, really having no common interests aside from the pursuit of truth and justice.

There was only one woman besides his mother that saw Clark Kent - man of extra-terrestrial origins, corn-field roots, character weaknesses, his fallibility, the superpowers and accepted him, quirks and all. Long ago he had come to the conclusion that he’d rather have Chloe in his life as his best friend than not at all. After his first encounter with the Phantom Zone and his return, he’d been dismayed to discover that her impromptu kiss, that blew his mind and gave him the strength and determination to come back, had been nothing more than a heat of the moment, end of the world impulse. So he’d grudgingly let her go all those years ago when she’d brushed him aside for Jimmy. He cherished her too much to risk messing up their long-standing solid, faithful friendship. He told himself he was happy for her throughout her relationship with Jimmy.

When he’d almost lost her to Brainiac, he had selfishly only taken away memories of his secret instead of removing himself entirely from her life. The safest choice would have been to distance himself completely, but he couldn’t. He wanted her, relied on her; needed her too much to let her go. Despite his good intentions, it had all gone to hell anyway. Both the de-Brainiac thing and her relationship with Jimmy.

When Chloe found someone she wanted to trust her heart with after the way Jimmy treated her, Davis had manipulated her and after everything had come to a head and he knew she needed him, he had had abandoned her. Clark hung his head. He’d had tried to make up for that in the years since but some hurts, as she had once confessed - and he was sure she hadn’t meant for him to hear - never fully heal. She bore the scars of those hurts. Those lingering painful memories left their mark but they hadn’t made her a bitter person. When people had hurt her, failed her, abandoned her, Chloe had never lost her ability to hope. She still fought to protect the ones she loved with very little regard for personal cost to herself. Through everything he put her through over the years, when he ignored her or disregarded her feelings, mistreated her, she had never once failed him. Chloe always saw the man behind the sigil. She knew that even with all his superhuman gifts, Clark Kent was flawed and human. And it didn’t matter to her, she loved him unconditionally.

As he watched her now, he felt a sting of regret. He wished he’d been braver. At one time, he could have had it all. If only he’d let her know years ago, while she was awake to hear it, just how much he cherished her. She really had saved him, more than he’d ever saved her.

He swallowed thickly. “Chloe, the reason I’m really here is we need you to wake up. You can’t stay here. We all need you. And Jonathan needs his mother. He’s going through something no one else understands, well I sort of do but we all have questions and…”

She tilted her head and quirked her lips like she did in her indulgent way when she was waiting for him to make sense and get to the point. “Clark, what are you talking about? He’s ten, he hasn’t hit puberty yet. What possible issues could he be having that no one else, especially Oliver, who’s seen and done it all? Well maybe not absolutely everything but near enough…”

“Chloe, Jonathan punched his fists through a wall and didn’t get hurt,” Clark blurted, interrupting her rambling.

Her mouth dropped open and she didn’t have words for a moment. “Oh.”

“Yeah, how did that happen?” he said with a slow smile, enjoying the fact that he’d managed to stump her for a change.

Chloe folded her arms under her chest and smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling mischievously, “Well when a man and a woman really like each other. And they get really close, their love for each bursts and spills over, making a baby.”

Clark tried to glare at her but she was being so playful that he couldn’t keep a straight face. Her analogy had conjured a very inappropriate picture in his mind of a lot of consensual, highly enjoyable mutual bursting. He tried not the let his embarrassment show, but he could feel heat creeping into his cheeks. “Ha ha, you’re a comedian. How do you explain this, Chloe? You’re not invulnerable, and since the last time we were on mission together, neither is Oliver.”

Chloe looked back to where the black-haired woman was being tenderly tucked in for the night, shadows from the firelight, dancing over her skin. Fingers they suspected belonging to the Kryptonian brushed away the hair from her cheek, before coming to rest on an obvious rounded belly. “I don’t know, Clark. I thought that Dax-Ur said it took years for him and his wife to fall pregnant. Years of him wearing blue Kryptonite.”

“Maybe that bracelet he’s wearing acts in a similar way but this was a long time before Krypton was destroyed. The period from the Kawache tribal dress and tools they use looks to be centuries old.”  Chloe gave him a doubtful look to which Clark levelled her with a raised eyebrow. “Which one of us took Natural History?” he asked with a challenging tone.

“Okay, so Mr. Mysterious pre-dates D-Day but I thought you told me that Jor-El made sure that the Kandorians wouldn’t have powers on Earth because he infused the genetic material stored in the orb with a blue crystal. Maybe blueK was a naturally occurring element and didn’t get created when the planet exploded.”

Clark nodded. “It would explain why my father’s victory ring was made from blue Kryptonite too,” he added, belatedly remembering that feeling of powerlessness when Kara’s father had used a clone of his mother give him that ring, to strip him of his abilities.

Chloe looked closer at the memory and stretched out her hand. Instead of passing through the image, her hand touched a solid warm belly. “Why does this feel so real? I was never there.”

“I think it’s genetic memory. You must be a descendant of the man whose memories these belong to. I had a similar experience with memories of Jor-El’s last visit to Earth, when he first met my grandparents and decided they were good people. It's how he later decided where on the planet to send me. I was meant to land on the Kent Farm in Smallville. He’d met the older Kents before. You look a lot like her, Chloe. I mean your hair’s obviously different and she has an olive complexion and higher cheekbones, but her mannerisms remind me of you and you share the same smile...”

“So she’s like a distant, way off, relation that no one remembers? I have a little Kawatche in me and a bit of Kryptonian?” If she even had a bit of alien mixed up in her DNA, maybe that meant that she and Clark were more genetically compatible that most, and maybe he didn’t need to be under the influence of blueK at all to attempt successful fertilization. She always thought Jonathan’s eyes weren’t hers or Oliver’s and he was apparently strong enough to do property damage with his bare hands and come away unscathed. But how did that even happen and when? A sneaking suspicion wrapped in gaudy jewelry and tulle came to mind. Chloe blinked rapidly and started hyperventilating, even though here she really didn’t need to breathe at all. “Clark?” she said weakly, before she fainted.

As Chloe collapsed their surroundings changed. Everything got hazy, but in the mist he could hear giggling. A door slammed, something broke and someone cursed. It sounded like shattered ceramic.

“Oh Mom’s gonna be mad. Do you think she’ll notice if I just toss it?"

“Clark, Martha Kent knows everything. No use hiding it.”

“Speaking of, we got married without her. She’s not going to like that either.”

“Nope,” Chloe said with an exaggerated ope. “I learnt my lesson the last time I faked my death. Always tell Martha Kent everything. Did you know I got to play White Queen to her Red Queen? We ladies got our work cut out for us, protecting you.”

“I don’t need protection." Clark heard himself say. Did he mean to sound like a four-year-old on the verge of tantrum?

The mist cleared and he could see Chloe as though she were right next to him. Which she was, but next to memory Clark. And he was still holding an unconscious manifestation of Chloe's true self. He closed his eyes and groaned inwardly, he could feel the beginnings of a headache coming. At the sounds of heavy breathing, his eyes snapped open again. He observed memory Chloe. She was wearing that ridiculous white Madonna-esque outfit with veil, while looking sexy and adorably cute at the same time. Wait as second, did she say they were married? He thought that was supposed to be a gag. The Marriage Certificate had been made out to Oliver and Chloe. But it was obvious to him from the way they were clinging to each other and talking, that the ceremony had been theirs. His heart started to thump loudly in his chest and he could feel the blood rushing in his ears.

“That invulnerability, savior complex, Mr. Kent, is exactly why you need us. I’ve thrown enough little green rocks away to know.”

“What would I do without you,” he said grinning at her wolfishly.

“What indeed?” she purred. “Are we going to linger in the doorway all night, Mr. Kent? Or are you we celebrating good and proper? I think I’ve waited long enough for my best friend to find his way back to me.”

Clark felt his eyes threaten to bug out of his head as he watched Chloe put her hand over the front of his crotch. His dream-like, memory self didn’t seem to mind though. He wondered just how much of his Kal persona had bled through while he’d been under Zatanna’s spelled champagne. He picked Chloe up with one arm under her butt and pressed her into the wall near the door, and proceeded to devour her mouth like a drowning man in search of air. He seemed to be doing his level best to suck it out of her lungs.

He looked down at the Chloe in his arms, still out cold and then back up at the very much awake, frisky Chloe who had her hands deftly removing his memory self’s belt.

They never made it into their would-be wedding suite/master bedroom at the farm. They made love right up against the wall, her panties shoved aside, his pants around his ankles, and her breast spilling over the top of her bodice just low enough for him to kiss, suck and explore with his mouth and tongue till she was screaming his name and pulling his hair so hard it would probably have come free from a human scalp.

His brain did quick mental math and he wanted to cry. Jonathan hadn’t come early. He’d arrived a little overdue, and it wasn’t any wonder now why the Paediatrician had taken one look at him and said he was perfectly fine and didn’t need any time in the NICU.

Chloe’s subconscious obviously remembered this. Their magically roofied champagne courtesy of Zatanna meant that until now, no one had a complete recollection of what happened that night. Only what Emil had managed to capture on video and only the parts that hadn’t got damaged by the alcohol bath the camera had taken a swim in.

He didn’t know if it was the fact that Chloe was of Kryptonian descendant or the magic that had affected them both, because somehow they’d managed what Dax-Ur and who knows how many other Kryptonians had tried to do over many years, in only one night. It was then that he heard a distant but incessant voice. It sounded oddly like Emil. Then he remembered. For pity’s sake, the memory machine. He’d forgotten all about the damn projections from the memory machine!

Clark found the virtual exit and sat up in the real world. One look at Oliver’s face told him that he’d seen it all. Jonathan on the other hand was being shielded by Diana who had her hands over his eyes, and whom had her own eyes firmly closed.

“Hera be praised, is it over?” she asked, cracking one eye open.

Jonathan huffed indignantly. “I could hear everything you know. Would have been better if you covered my ears. I can close my own eyes. Can I bleach my brain now? Mom and Uncle Clark, gross! And when did that even happen? Dad?” he implored his father for answers. Oblivious to the apparent implications of what he’d just heard.

Oliver was red in the face and breathing hard, he closed his eyes and patted Jonathan’s shoulder. “I have somewhere I have to get to, kid. Your mother and I will talk later.”

Clark frowned hard after him. He found it difficult to take that Oliver would just abandon Jonathan with them, even with his suspicions confirmed and Chloe still wasn’t waking up. “Oliver,” he said firmly.

Oliver froze at the door. He turned, revealing that his eyes were red rimmed and his face so dark it was almost purpling. “For the sake of my son, I’m not going to lose my temper. But you can bank on this Clark: if we meet on a dark roof top, I’m bringing the green ring and we’ll go a few rounds. I think that’s fair, don’t you?” He looked at where Chloe lay. “Chloe’s stronger than she looks apparently. And she knows where to find me.”

Chloe did wake up a short time later. With no memory of what Clark had seen and the rest of them had heard. He had the job of explaining things and showing her. Even though it had been a suspicion after her analytical brain had pieced together the facts, she was understandably mortified over the situation and now understood why Oliver had suddenly taken to dodging her.

When Chloe finally pinned him down between a string of sudden business trips for Queen Industries, it was because he hadn't only been busy with business. In his study, he had divorce papers.

The Reverend might have thought it was just two best friends horsing around but Oliver and Lois must have been clued up enough to see the proverbial writing on the wall, since he had found a torn half of a marriage certificate with his name on it in his pants the morning after and he'd followed Lois to spend the night out falling into old habits of excessive booze and high stakes poker instead of waking up to Chloe.

"I always knew how he felt about you.  It was obvious from the first time I saw you together. How territorial and protective he was over you. But the more I got to know you and the longer we worked together the less I cared about his denial. I wanted you for myself. I saw you, Chloe, your passion, your loyalty, the goodness that just inspires everyone around you to believe in something better. I needed that. But I'm done holding on to you. Holding you back. You've seen how it was, how it can be between you." He racked his hands through his hair and squeezed his eyes shut, his lips curling into a bitter sneer as he struggled with his thoughts. "Damn it, you owe it to yourselves to try," he said his face darkening in obvious distaste at having to say those words. He fixed her with a stare, his face mask of utter calm and seriousness then. "Jonathan is my son and I will always be his Dad, but we started this marriage based on a lie, Chloe. You have a chance to have something real. Don't hold back."

Chloe felt hot tears run down her cheeks. She wasn't a quitter, she didn't set out to fail at anything. This felt like both. "We were happy. Ollie, I was happy. Weren't you?"

Oliver let out a shuddering breath, struggling with his own emotions in the face of her pain and the heaviness of his own heart. "I was, Chloe, but at least do us both the courtesy of acknowledging that things have changed. I can promise you that my relationship with Jonathan will never change. He'll have to deal with enough in his life with all the Kryptonian stuff, he will never have to doubt my love for him. Blood or not, he's my son too but as for the two of us, there's no fixing this. And I don't think we're meant to. He loves you Chloe, he always has. Don't cheat yourself out of love because you're afraid."

Even with Oliver's unorthodox blessing, Chloe still didn't change the status quo of her and Clark's relationship. Oliver was right that she was afraid. Clark had been her one constant through so many years of riding one crazy roller-coaster that was her life, his friendship meant everything. She also wasn't ready to risk her heart again. It had been fractured enough to last several lifetimes. She wasn't sure she was strong enough to patch it together again if she suffered another heartbreak.

Naturally, it was another near disaster that gave them a push.

She woke up to the sound of Jonathan's quiet sobs, and saw his tear streaked cheeks and Clark's abnormally pale face and worried blue eyes. Toyman had planted a car bomb under her faithful old Yaris. Her remote unlocking had triggered it but she had been far enough away that the blast hadn't killed her. The force of the explosion had thrown her off the port pier parking lot and into the water. Clark had heard the abrupt change in her heartbeat and pulled her from the water.

Jonathan had been a step behind Superman having only lagged after his mom because his shoe laces had come undone and he'd stopped to tie them.

When the Man of Steel had inadvertently dropped his hero persona out of worry for Chloe, Jonathan had put strength, invulnerability and his long standing suspicions over Uncle Clark's thin disguise and weak excuses and come up with two right answers. Clark was his biological father and he was Superman.

They'd discovered Toyman’s lair but the perpetrator wasn’t there to be found. His plans and files revealed that he still had a vendetta against Oliver a.k.a Green Arrow and Superman and he made no secret that he'd keep trying to balance their debts against him and that had no qualms about getting his revenge through any means. Martha had pulled strings through her contacts in D.C. to get Chloe and Jonathan new identities.

The day Clark had delivered the documents to the safehouse where they were staying, he pulled her aside and sat her down, never letting go of her hands. "Chloe, I need you in my life. I always have. You're my rock. You've always believed in me, supported me and at one time you even admitted to being in love with me. I know you might not have those feelings anymore, but I love you. And I'm tired of not saying it out loud. Of burying it behind a mask, so that I won't scare you away or because I knew you're in love with someone else and at least you were happy. But you're not happy. You're not with Oliver anymore. There's no reason for me not to tell you the truth. This is how I feel. I'm not perfect; I make a lot of mistakes, and I know you see it all. I don't have to hide with you, Chloe. You're the most important person in the world to me. Jonathan too. Trust in me? Let me show you, that I won't hurt you. Give us a chance to be together? Let us be a proper family?"

Chloe brushed away a tear that had escaped the corner of her eye and hugged herself, regarding him carefully. "This isn't just about Jonathan? Because you've already won him over, Clark. He's got a pretty bad case of hero worship. His father's Superman."

Clark cracked a small grin but quickly turned serious, reaching for her and pulling her hands free and hugging one arm around her shoulders. "I want there to be an us, Chloe. I wasn't brave enough years ago when you put Jimmy between us, but I won't let you go without a fight this time."

She pulled back enough to read the sincerity in his eyes and her heart melted in the face of his earnest hopeful expression. Like his next breath hung on her answer in his favor. She choked on a sob and smiled. "Okay, Clark."

He took her downstairs then, promising to show her something in the parking garage. “It’s not an engagement ring but I could only plan for one big expense at time on my bullpen wage. And I figured you could use this more right now.”

Sitting under the lights in the basement of the small apartment complex was a small red VW Beetle. Not her VW but the same model and year as her original had been.

“We had adventures in that first bug, I figured we could make some new memories with this one.”

Chloe launched herself at her sentimental, nostalgic best friend who had slight pack rat tendencies and didn’t understand the concept of Spring Cleaning, and kissed him soundly. He seemed taken aback by her enthusiasm but pleased as he held and hugged her tightly.

“So it’s a keeper?” he asked softly, his voice betraying a hint of uncertainty.

Chloe wiped her eyes and nodded. “Yes, and I think I’ll keep you too.”

His answering smile warmed her all the way to her toes. It had been too long since she’d seen him smile like that and she never wanted to suffer its absence again.

They married in an intimate ceremony with a bridal party of two, and only a handful of their family and friends in attendance.

Shelby had accompanied Connor and Martha from D.C. It was a marvel that the old dog was still kicking. They both suspected that it was because of the meteor rock experiments that had left lasting effects on his cells. He had seen Chloe from a mile off and had all but bowled her over in his excited greeting. She had bent down and giving him a good scratching behind the ears.

He alternated between nudging Clark's leg and nosing Chloe's chin as if to say, 'About damn time, you lug head, kids.' Wagging his tail madly all the while.

A silent exchange in a single shared look with Clark and it was decided that Shelby would be relocating to the Eastern seaboard permanently. Besides, Connor was rarely home now that he was an intern at Wayne Enterprises, working in Applied Sciences for Lucius Fox since graduating top of his class from MIT.

"If you'd trusted your old man's wisdom this could have happened years ago," Gabe Sullivan chided gently as he enfolded his beaming daughter in a bear hug.

He stood close to her mother, who had recently started undergoing a new experimental therapy using nanobots developed by Palmer Tech that could be programmed to target and shrink previously medically inoperable tumours and cysts. Her mother's catatonia from the tumours in her brain were fading by the day and her bouts of lucidity were becoming more frequent. As Chloe touched her mother's shoulder she could have sworn there was a flicker of recognition in her eyes.

"You were always so confident, focused and ambitious. You always knew exactly what you wanted and you were never afraid to just go for it. Except for when it came to him. It's how I knew he was the one. It's how it was for your mother and me. She said I turned her around. I couldn't believe it. Most popular, smartest gal on campus started babbling and blushing over me?" He turned to Clark as her husband approached to shake her father's hand. "Take good care of my little girl, Clark."

"Always, sir." He took Chloe's hand and squeezed it, giving her an adoring look, his heart in his eyes. "Always and forever."

It was four years on and she was watching her husband put his bike in the shed and come up the garden path.

He pulled her into a hug the moment he reached her side and for a long beat she just held him tight and breathed him in, pressed firmly against his broad chest. As always, he smelled of those cinnamon buns he loved to eat and a fresh scent that was signature to Clark. She wished she could bottle it, just so she could spritz it around but she had never smelled another fragrance like the natural comforting scent of him. She had to settle for burying her nose in his pillow when he got up of morning, or wearing his sweaters around the house.

"Whatcha think in' about?" he asked, kissing her and breathing out against her hair. A quiet Chloe was a reflective Chloe and he was always curious to know what was on her mind. He wanted to know everything about her. More than thirty years of knowing her and he swore he learned something new every day and even though he couldn't explain it or understand how it was possible, his love for her continued to grow.

"Us," she said against the soft fabric of his pullover, then leaning back a little she regarded him thoughtfully. “Aren’t you going to be late for the office? Clark Kent’s absence from the street beat is bound to be missed. You’re Perry’s favorite gopher from what I’ve heard.”

Clark rubbed slow circles over her back before settling his hands on her hips. He tugged her flush against his body, his lips twitching with a suggestive smile. "Daily Planet’s finest has landed in hot water with Lex’s presidential campaign team and Perry has put us all notice till the backlash cools. We’re not to show our faces until tomorrow. Do you have to be anywhere for the next couple hours?" he asked, his implication clear.

Chloe inched her fingers under the hem of his clothing and found warm skin covered in a satiny fine trail of hair that led from his navel to his belt. She could feel something hard stirring against her stomach in response to her touch and grinned. It never ceased to amaze her how quickly she could turn him on. One look up into his eyes showed her just how turned on he was. His irises glowed amber. "What a fortuitous happenstance, I'm free the whole day."

"Good, I plan on keeping you busy for the next three hours at least," he said his voice dropping, to his deeper baritone bedroom voice. He swept her up in his arms like she weighed less than a feather and jogging them inside.

As he lay her out on their king-size bed, Chloe looked out their floor to ceiling bedroom window to see the crashing waves on the beach and she swallowed hard.

The world they lived in was corrupt, dangerous and broken. People were starving, hundred dying through war, crime, natural disasters and poverty every second of every day, her husband was a saviour to so many. He spent tireless hours, days, weeks, year-round committed to helping as many as he could, all over the world but he was still a man. He was a man who needed his family and needed-craved love and acceptance. They had carved out this small peaceful place for themselves.

Their own haven.

Together they were free to be just Chloe and Clark.

Best friends forever and soulmates for all eternity.

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The End.