Chlark Fanfic: Agenda, Chapter 23
Banner by go_clo.
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 smallvillebbang long Fanfic challenge. Many thanks to twinsarein for 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 23
When he’s pushed that planet out of Earth’s orbit on New Year’s Day all those years ago, Clark had had no idea just how much had been at stake.
His mind had been filled with thoughts of Chloe and her reassuring words. He stared into the sky, hearing her as clearly as if she’d been standing right next to him.
I have faith in you.
“This is for you, Chloe,” he’d whispered. Then he’d clenched his fists, bent his knees and shot up into the sky just as the sun broke on the horizon...
…at the exact moment that Gabriella had been born.
Wow.
“I knew it,” he whispered, stroking her cheek. “I knew there was something inherently pivotal and life-changing about that moment, but never once did I think that something so magical was happening...my little girl…” he stopped talking and just stared at her in awe, choking up with emotion.
“Pretty amazing, huh?” she said with a watery smile.
He laughed and wiped a tear from her cheek, still gazing at her in wonder. “You have no idea.”
Gabby reached up and took his hand, staring at him intently.
“Dad, I need to ask you something,” she began. “If you hadn’t stopped Darkseid on that day…what would have happened?”
A cold shudder ran through him. “It doesn’t bear thinking about,” he finally answered. “His plan was to enslave humanity and kill anyone who resisted.”
“So, if you hadn’t flown and redirected Apokolips from Earth…”
“It would be a very different world from the one you know today, honey,” he said.
“If I’d survived it at all,” she pointed out, and he remembered that it was indeed the day she’d come into the world. He pulled her close with his other hand and tenderly stroked her hair.
“Like I said…it doesn’t bear thinking about,” he replied, dropping a quick kiss on the top of her head. “And to be honest, if Darkseid had succeeded…well, it really wouldn’t have been a world worth bringing a child into.”
She nodded. “So you needed your time in the Fortress to prepare yourself fully in order to save humanity,” she mused. “Myself included, correct?”
His hand stilled in her hair as he saw where this was going. “Gabby…”
“Sometimes, huge personal sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, Dad,” she said softly. “No matter how much it hurts. I think Jor-El understood that.”
He stiffened. “Jor-El knows nothing about huge personal sacrifice.”
“I think he does,” she said quietly. “He’s a father who had to send his only child worlds away to survive; to a planet that he had to trust would take care of him. He could have saved himself, but he didn’t. He gave you a future at the expense of his own.”
“Gabby…”
“Please hear me out, Dad,” she pleaded. “Please. Mom loves you. You know she loves you, always has. I’d never even seen you before, but the moment I saw you together in your yearbook picture, I knew she loved you. Do you honestly think she would have given up the chance to make a real family with you if she had the choice?”
He stared at her, and she continued.
“Mom had to make a difficult decision, Dad; a really painful one for both of you, and…and I know it hurts to admit it, but ultimately it was the right decision to make, and she never meant to hurt you. Grandfather realised this, and as much as it hurt him to hurt you too, he couldn’t interfere. He had to keep the truth from you, believing that when the time was right, and when the world was safe, you’d get your chance to be a father to me.”
Clark ran his hands through his hair and gave a despondent sigh. Deep down, he understood the wisdom of what she was saying, but still…
“Thirteen years…” he said, a tear rolling down his cheek. “That’s a long time to have gone without you, Gabriella.”
“Sacrifices are never easy, Dad,” she admitted. “But the one you made has saved the world several times over. When you think of all that you and Mom have given up for this planet, you can’t turn on each other like this; not when you finally have a chance to be together like you’ve always wanted.”
Clark stared numbly out over the horizon as Gabby continued speaking.
“Mom and Jor-El…they didn’t let you know about me because they didn’t want to have to put you in a position to choose,” she said quietly. “They know how difficult it would have been for you to choose between being a father to your child and saving the world, and whatever decision you’d have made would have been a tough one. Save the world at the expense of your family, or stay with your family and put the world at risk. Neither of them wanted to put you through that.”
“It would have been you,” he said, his voice breaking. “Without a moment’s hesitation, I would have chosen you.”
“I know,” she said. “But then the world as we know it would be completely different, and I may never have even been born. Don’t you see?”
“Then they were right,” he said miserably. “I really was too weak to make the right decision.”
Gabby grabbed his hand and held it tight. “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” she said forcefully. “Choosing me wouldn’t have meant you were weak, Dad; it would have meant you were a father. A good one.”
He gave a shuddering sigh as tears blurred his vision. “I wish I could have been there for you all along, honey,” he said brokenly. “There’s so much I could have given you…”
“Dad, you gave me the world on the day I was born,” she said, smiling through her own tears, “Literally. And it’s the best gift ever. I mean, look around you---” she gestured to the sweeping hills and vineyards blooming in the sunlight, and the cities and towns in the distance. “You’re the reason why I’m alive, why we’re all alive. And even though you’re a little late coming to the Daddy Table through no fault of your own, I know that there isn’t any other girl in the world whose father loves her more than you love me.”
By now Clark could barely see through all the tears coursing down his face. He pulled his little girl to him and held her tight as she patted his back and uttered soothing words of comfort.
“I’m here now, Daddy,” she whispered. “I know you’ve had to wait a long time for me…but I’m here.”
***
Gabby stayed with him for another hour. He would have happily stayed up there with her all day, but he didn’t want her getting into trouble with Chloe for disappearing again.
“You’ve been here a while, sweetie,” he pointed out reluctantly. “You should get back before your mother begins to wonder where you are.”
She sighed and nodded. “Okay. You’re coming with me, right?”
“In a bit,” he hedged. “I need to visit the Fortress first.”
“But you will come home?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes Gabby, I will.”
“And you’ll talk to Mom today?” she asked, and he sighed. His daughter was nothing if not direct.
“I want to, but…where do I even begin?”
“All I know is that the longer you leave it, the harder it’s going to get,” she quipped, rising to her feet. “You love her, don’t you?”
“Of course I do?”
“And is that love worth fighting for?”
He nodded earnestly. “More than anything.”
Gabby smiled and got to her feet. “Then you know what you need to do,” she replied smartly. “And you know where to find her.”
And with that, there was a swift breeze and she was gone.
Clark lowered his head and smiled. So that’s what it felt like when he sped off on everyone else.
***
Chapter 24…