Chlark Fanfic: Agenda, Chapter 7
Title: Agenda
Author: babydee1
Pairing: Chlark
Rating: NC-17 (mostly PG-13)
Warnings: None
Timeline: Futurefic; follows Season 8’s Injustice & Failsday Doomsday
Disclaimer: All known characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: More than a decade after the Doomsday Rampage, Clark makes a shocking discovery that changes his life forever.
Feedback: …makes me squee. :-)
Written for the 2011 smallvillebbanglong Fanfic challenge. Many thanks to twinsareinfor all her tireless organisation and support!
Beta’ed by legendarytobes& The Fallen Sky at KSite.
Art by sylvanelfmistre& go_clo.
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 7
Over the next few days, they worked on fine-tuning her super-hearing. As Chloe had suspected, Gabby had started picking up ultra-high frequencies, and with Clark’s help, she’d been able to successfully tune them out on demand and hone yet another ability to perfection.
“What’s the first sound you can make out?” Clark asked her on the final afternoon of hearing training.
Slight pause. “Song lyrics,” she answered. “Enya, playing in the bathroom, I think. The acoustics are hollow, kinda. And it sounds like you have the volume turned down really low.”
“Spot on. Okay, try to focus on something a little quieter.”
She grimaced. “It’s kinda hard; it makes the clock in the living room sound like a big bass drum.”
“It sucks, I know. But it’s important that you learn how to filter sounds and isolate them in order of importance.”
She sighed. “Okay, I’ll try. Um…a-ha! Electric toothbrush!”
“Bingo. What else?”
She grinned in excitement. “Your watch; I can hear the mechanism of your watch.”
“Good girl. And now?”
Gaby cocked her head. “It sounds like you’re brushing a feather on the table.”
He smiled with fatherly pride. “Amazing. Well done, Gabby. I know it’s hard to filter through a cacophony of sounds at the beginning, but you’re doing an excellent job.”
She grinned. “Thanks, Dad.”
Her use of the word ‘Dad’ never failed to thrill him. “Let’s take a thirty-minute breather, and then we’ll see if we can jumpstart your x-ray vision.”
“Okay.” She sat at the table as he went to the kitchen and returned with a Diet Coke for her and a regular Coke for himself.
“You remembered,” she said, grinning shyly.
“You made a great first impression,” he said, holding up his can for her to clink with his. “Cheers.”
Gabby’s cell buzzed, and she checked her messages. “It’s Mom,” she announced, reading off the text. “Everything’s fine in Gotham, she wants us to take care of each other, and she should be back here by the end of the week.”
He nodded sagely. “That’s good. “I’m sure you must miss her.”
She gave a shy smile. “Yeah, I do. I may give her grief, but I love her, really.”
“And she misses you too, I’ll bet,” he added. “But probably happy to get to spend some time with Bruce after having been away.”
Gabby observed him over her Coke can with a narrow-eyed gaze, and Clark fidgeted. Like her mother before her, her eyes missed nothing.
“Are you still in love with my mom?” she asked bluntly.
He reddened and ran a finger around his collar. “Huh?” he said lamely.
“You heard me. Do you love Mom?”
“I, uh…” he paused, concentrating hard on not squeezing his can into a microchip. “She’s with Bruce now, Gabby,” he finally said.
“That wasn’t the question.”
“How I feel about your mother isn’t relevant anymore,” he explained. “She’s moved on, and she’s happy.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“She was in quite a hurry to get back to him, if you didn’t notice,” he pointed out, inadvertently making a dent in the doomed can.
“Is that what you think she was doing?” she said incredulously, and laughed. “Sheesh, and I thought I was bad at reading people.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Mom didn’t leave because she was pining for Bruce, Dad; she left because she wanted you and I to spend some time together without her getting in the way,” she explained. “She and I have had each other for thirteen years, and now she suddenly has to share me with you. It’s gotta be difficult for her.”
“I thought she was happy that you and I are getting on so well,” he said, surprised.
Gabby sighed. “It’s a two-way street,” she replied. “She’s thrilled that we’re bonding, yes, but at the same time she must feel like she’s being pushed aside, because you and I are connecting over something she can’t help me with. Try and understand, Dad. She’s micromanaged me her whole life; now she has to not only relinquish control, but also learn to share. It’s not easy.”
“You really think that’s it?” he said dubiously.
“Of course!” she said confidently. “And you still haven’t answered my question, Dad. Do you still love my mom?”
He sighed wearily. “I never stopped.”
She grinned excitedly. “So tell her, silly!”
“Gabby, she’s been with Bruce for as long as you’ve been alive,” he said glumly. “I can’t expect her to throw that all away. Besides, the reasons I left her all those years ago still apply. I have to protect her.”
“Protect her from what?”
“From danger, Gabby. Superman has many enemies…”
She shrugged. “So does The Batman, but that never stopped her from hooking up with him.”
He stared at her. “So you know? That Bruce is…?”
She fixed him with a sardonic look. “Come on.”
He sighed. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that Mom lives to walk on the wild side,” she explained. “She was into the weird and unexplained long before you came into her life. And she hasn’t changed! If she really wanted ‘a normal life’ deep down, don’t you think she’d have settled down with Johnny Average years ago and popped out a couple more kids?”
“Well…”
“Exactly,” she said triumphantly. “Instead, she hooks up with Gotham’s most visible hero and proceeds to do what she’s always done: Double identity. Journalist to the world, heroine behind the scenes. If you ask me, I don’t think Mom ever forgot you either.”
“I want to believe you, Gabby,” he said hesitantly. “But if what you say is true, then why is she going back to Bruce?”
Gabby gave him the look that Chloe used to give him: the look that said she thought he was as thick as two short planks. “My guess?” she drawled. “She’s gone to break up with him.”
***
“I always knew this was coming,” Bruce said with a wintry smile as soon as Chloe walked into his office.
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say---” she began as she walked towards him.
“You’re ready to move back to Metropolis, or you will be soon; you hate long, drawn-out goodbyes, there’s always be a spot in your heart for me…” he held out his hands and took hers as she reached him. “Feel free to stop me when I hit a wrong answer.”
Chloe sighed, her shoulders drooping. “You know me well, Bruce.”
“Thirteen years is a long time to be with a person,” he said with a smile as he squeezed her hands. “And while we had a fantastic relationship, I’ve always known your heart belonged to someone else.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she cupped his cheek tenderly. “I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t be,” he said, resting his hand over hers and brushing her hand with his thumb. “I’m not angry, not at all. If I’m to be totally honest, my heart was occupied as well.”
He was right. She knew they’d both been in a bad place when they’d found each other.
“Our relationship was one borne of need, Chloe,” he continued. “I’d just lost Rachel, you’d just lost Clark and Jimmy, your cousin had disappeared, the Justice League had deserted you, and found yourself alone and pregnant. We needed each other; we healed each other, and what we had was amazing, by any standards.
“But now it’s time for you to do what’s best for yourself and for Gabby,” he continued. “She needs her father now. She needs Clark. And so do you.”
Chloe stared at him in wonder. Finally she spoke.
“I must have rehearsed by exit speech a hundred times,” she said softly. “And I couldn’t have put it as eloquently and honestly as you did just now.”
He grinned and squeezed her hands again. “Like you said; I know you.”
“Indeed you do,” she agreed. “You gave me thirteen years of awesome, Bruce Wayne. I’ll never forget you.”
Bruce smiled and held out his arms. “Do I get a hug goodbye?”
Chloe smiled and went into his arms, sighing as he held her close. Bruce had been a comfort and a solid, dependable rock to her for well over a decade; but as he’d rightly said, both their hearts had belonged to other people, and always would.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you, Bruce,” she said, feeling choked and emotional. “My life would have been completely different, and not in a good way. Thank you. For everything.”
“It was a pleasure,” he said, leaning back to grin down at her. “Tell Clark I said he’d better look after you both, or he’ll have me to answer to. And I mean that; I have the kryptonite to follow through.”
Chloe laughed, and then her eyes widened as she remembered her daughter. “Oh my gosh, Gabby’s going to miss you so much,” she exclaimed. “I feel terrible, like I’m taking her away from you.”
“Hey, she’s a smart kid,” he reassured her. “She and I have had our own special relationship over the years, but the one thing we’ve always known is that I’m not her father. Nor did I ever try to be, because those are some extremely big shoes to fill, and I knew Clark would return one day to do that.”
He paused and sighed. “I will miss her like crazy, though. She was a real ray of sunshine around this place.”
“Well, look on the bright side,” Chloe said with a smile. “At least now you won’t have to worry about Gabby and me cramping your style and putting a nix on your social life.”
Bruce shook his head. “Don’t ever feel like you were a burden to me, Chloe,” he said seriously. “Having you and Gabby come into my life when you did saved me. I mean that. And you’re both welcome back anytime you want to pop in.”
She nodded and smiled, eternally grateful for his wisdom and generosity of spirit.
She rested a hand on his cheek. “Somewhere out there is a woman who’ll love you and accept you for the wonderful man you are, Bruce Wayne,” she whispered. “I hope she comes along soon, and when she does, I hope she’ll realise just how lucky she’ll be to have you.”
***
Chapter 8…