Chlark Fanfic: Agenda, Chapter 11
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 11
Clark stared at her in surprise. “Are you saying Gabby set this whole thing up?”
Apparently, making me look silly is still a form of amusement to her,” Chloe replied with a wintry smile and a sigh. “I apologise for Gabby’s forwardness, Clark. I didn’t ask her to do this.”
“I know you didn’t,” he said flatly. “But open your eyes, Chloe. Maybe, once again, she’s trying to tell you something.”
“Like what?” she snapped, her eyes narrowing.
“Like maybe she thinks you and I…” he trailed off, knowing he didn’t need to complete the sentence for her to get the message.
To which she simply shrugged. “I told you when we moved in here, Clark - I’m not expecting anything from you,” she replied, completely indifferent. “Yes, we have a child together, but that was one just the result of one emotional night, and we were careless. You don’t have to be saddled with me because of one little indiscretion.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “Careless? Saddled?? Chloe, surely you don’t think I asked you out because I felt like I had to, or that I owe it to you because you’re Gabby’s mom?”
She folded her arms. “That’s exactly what just happened here, isn’t it? You saw me in the nude, and felt like you have to take me to lunch to make up for it. What’s the going rate for accidentally groping a breast, huh? Dinner and a movie?”
“I asked you out because I wanted to,” he said quietly. “That’s all.”
“But Gabby---”
“Had the same idea, and was a little bit faster to act on it than I was,” he finished. “That’s all.”
Chloe studied him carefully, looking for any sign that he might be lying. She’d always known when he wasn’t being honest with her; they’d often joked that he had the world’s worst poker face.
But today, all she saw in those green eyes was sincerely. Sincerity and hope.
So her earlier instincts had been correct; he did want her.
“So how about that lunch?” he asked politely. “I hate to hurry you, but if we’re hoping to get somewhere decent, we need to get a move on.”
“Could we just…stay here?” she asked. “And I’m not really hungry just yet.”
“D’you wanna talk?”
“I guess.”
“Okay.” He sat down on one side of the bed and she sat beside him, tightening her robe around herself.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask,” he began, “…do you have any pictures from when you were pregnant?”
She blinked. “Um…yeah, sure. You want to see them?”
He nodded. “Please.”
Chloe stood and returned a few minutes later with a small photobook of pictures. Clark took it from her and stared at it for several seconds before opening it to the first page.
Right there before his eyes was a photo of a widely smiling Chloe with a modest baby bump.
“I have video diaries, too,” she said nervously. “Wanna see? They’re tucked away in storage somewhere…”
“In a minute, I just…” he stared and stared at pictures of her in various stages of her pregnancy until she could practically see the warmth in his eyes. “You look so beautiful like this,” he whispered thickly.
She smile. “I have my own opinions on that, but I’ll keep them to myself.”
“You do that, because I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong,” he said emphatically. “You look beautiful when you’re pregnant, Chloe. I wish I could have seen you like this.”
He cheeks warmed at his sincere praise. “Thank you, Clark.
They were silent for a while, the only noise being the slight swish of the pages of the photobooks as they were studiously turned.
“No Bruce?” he asked after he’d gone six pages without seeing her former significant other.
“Not in this album, no,” she replied. “We do have several photos taken of the three of us, but this one’s just Gabby and me.”
“I see.”
She wrung her fingers nervously. “I…I figured you might get to see it sometime in the future, and I wanted…”
He smiled and stroked her cheek. “It’s okay, I understand.” He leafed through the pictures, his photographic memory storing every single image of her in the various stages of her pregnancy.
“How was the birth?” he finally asked quietly, and she gave a short laugh.
“Long,” was the swift reply. “Painful. Loud. I remember swearing a lot.”
He frowned. “Didn’t you have pain relief?”
“Oh, there was pain relief,” she said, sounding edgy. “But for all the pain it relieved, I might as well have been munching on mints instead of aspirin, or having water passed into my spine instead of epidural fluid. Because none of them did a damned thing to ease my suffering.”
“I’m sorry. How long was your labour?”
“Twenty-four hours. Easily the most painful New Year’s Eve I’ve ever experienced.”
He stared at a photo of Chloe holding a newborn Gabby in her arms wrapped in a hospital baby blanket, and his heart constricted painfully at all the opportunities that had been lost to him.
Out loud, he said: “I’m sorry you had to go through that alone.”
“Oh I wasn’t alone, I---” she stopped, but he guessed what she’d been about to say, and it made his heart hurt even more.
“Bruce was with you.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
He closed his eyes and slowly shook his head in regret. “I should have been there. I should have…”
“You had no way of knowing, Clark,” she said softly.
“I should have felt something,” he continued, sounding disgusted with himself. “An inkling, some sixth sense…how could my own child have been coming into this world, and I didn’t even have a clue?”
“Hey, it was probably better you weren’t there,” she said lightly. “I’d probably have blabbed your secret to the entire delivery suite in a fit of pain-induced pique. And, and just for shits and giggles, given them some kryptonite so they could kindly assist me in kicking your ass!”
He sighed and smiled at her, grateful for her levity at a time when the gravity of all that he had missed was beginning to make him feel a touch maudlin. Without breaking his gaze, she took his hand and placed it in the centre of her chest.
“You were with me, Clark,” she replied softly, pressing her hand over his. “In here.”
***
It was the simple touch that ignited his already simmering feelings for her. Tears stung his eyes as her heart thudded rapidly beneath his fingers, and he just couldn’t hold it back anymore. Every emotion he’d ever felt for her assuaged his senses until his need for her was so great it threatened to engulf him.
Slowly he moved his hand to the left, filling his palm with the swell of her breast, and gently squeezed. Chloe inhaled sharply and her heart beat faster as he felt her nipple hardening against his palm.
The feel of her warm flesh in his hand shattered his self-control, and with a groan he lowered his head and claimed her lips with his. His hand tightened on her breast, kneading the softness as his lips caressed hers and his tongue sought entrance to her mouth. She parted her lips willingly, her hands clutching his biceps as he stroked her tongue with his.
Clark’s blood rushed south so fast he suddenly felt light-headed. He lowered her to the bed and slid his hands along her arms, effectively disrobing her from the waist up. Chloe’s arms went around his neck and she burrowed her hands into his hair, caressing his scalp with soothing fingers.
He groaned and settled himself over her, his cape draping over them both. Chloe shifted and parted her thighs, and suddenly his groin was pressed intimately against her moist heat. His fingers fumbled with the sash of her robe, and he had just prised the knot loose when his cellphone rang, shattering the silence.
Chloe stiffened instantly, and he could feel her emotionally withdrawing from him.
“Damn it,” he swore angrily, grabbing the offending unit from the dresser and studying the caller ID.
“It’s the office,” he told her grimly. He glanced at the watch, swearing again when he realised what the time was. “They’re probably wondering why I haven’t come in yet.”
“Better get going then,” she said briskly. A quick glance revealed that she’d sat up and had put her robe back on, knotting the sash tight. Withdrawing both emotionally and physically.
“Chloe---”
“It’s okay, things just got a little out of hand,” she said dismissively, waving her hand as she got to her feet.
He shook his head. “Cut it out, Chloe. We’re not teenagers anymore, you don’t need to make excuses for---”
“Ooh,” she interrupted, looking pointedly at the clock on the wall and making a wry face. “You should get going, or you’re going to be really late and Perry will eat you alive.”
Clark sighed and stood. “I know what you’re doing, Chloe, and it’s not going to work anymore,” he said quietly.
She folded her arms defensively. “Hey, just because we got a little physical---”
“It was a lot more than that. And you know it.”
Clark’s phone rang insistently again, and he shut it off angrily.
“Yeah, that’s not such a wise idea right now, seeing as I don’t start earning an income again until next week,” she joked.
He folded his arms and gave her a look that told her he wasn’t buying her act.
“Listen, I have to go, but this isn’t over,” he promised. “Can we talk later?”
She shrugged and held the bedroom door open for him to leave. “As far as I’m concerned, there really isn’t much to talk about.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “Suit yourself.” He walked past her and paused, then turned to stare directly into her eyes.
“I love you, Chloe,” he said, making her gasp and her eyes widen. “I love you. I never stopped loving you. Never.”
She continued to stare at him, speechless. He raised his hand and stroked her cheek tenderly.
“I just wanted you know that,” he whispered. “And whenever you’re ready to move forward…I’m here.”
He dropped his hand from her stunned face and whooshed out of the room, heading towards the Daily Planet.
***
Chapter 12…