Banner by
go_clo.
Title: Agenda
Author:
babydee1Pairing: 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 24
Chloe was sitting glumly at the kitchen table when her daughter breezed through the door.
“Hey,” Chloe greeted with a smile. “What have you been up to?”
“Visiting my grandfather and stuff,” she said, and Chloe’s smile slipped a little.
“I see,” she said, unable to hide the tightness in her voice. She’d been up there yesterday, as well. “And how is that going?”
“Exceptionally well,” she replied, sitting at the table and reaching for an apple. “That disk he gave me? Turns out it’s a lot more than just a history class.”
Chloe pursed her lips and folded her arms. “I knew it. I knew he was up to no good. Is he trying to brainwash you into some Kryptonian future destiny crap?”
“Easy, Mom. It turns out it’s also a fantastic instruction manual for superheroes in general,” she went on. “I’ve learned really important lessons on hazard perception, how to read and assess dangerous situations and come up with solutions in a split second, and even coping with emotional distress, like when you can’t save everyone.”
“Huh,” Chloe mused, thinking of Clark’s many guilt trips. “Where was that class when your father needed it?”
“Dad wrote it.”
Chloe blinked. “Oh.”
“Or at least, co-wrote it, with Jor-El’s help,” she said. “I saw Dad today as well, you know. In fact, I’ve been with him for the last couple of hours.”
Chloe swallowed. “How is he?” she asked, unable to help herself.
“Not happy, Mom,” she said grimly. “According to him, you two had a lot of heated words last week.”
Chloe grimaced. “That’s putting it lightly.”
Gabby pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. “Wanna tell me what happened?”
“I thought your father had already done that.”
“He has, but I want to hear your side.”
That sounded fair. Chloe sighed, and decided that her daughter had a right to the truth.
“He hasn’t forgiven me for not telling him about you,” she said. “I explained my reasons, but he made it clear what he thought about them.” And where she could stick them, she thought grudgingly.
“And you’re surprised he’s upset?” she asked.
Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “You think it was easy for me, not telling him about you?” she asked. “I wanted to, but I couldn’t, and I told him why, that I was trying to do the right thing for everyone! Why is he punishing me for it?”
“Seriously?” Gabby exclaimed with raised eyebrows. “Put yourself in his shoes, Mom, just for a second. If Dad turned up on your doorstep out of the blue with me in tow, and told you he’d taken me from you when I was born and that he…” she raised her hands and made finger quotes in the air “…‘had his reasons’ for doing so and expected you to just roll with it, what would you do? How would you feel?”
It was the question that she had asked herself a million times since Clark had brought it up a week ago. And she knew what her answer was, and it wasn’t pretty.
“Be honest,” she pressed. “Would you really just accept his explanations with no hard feelings?”
Chloe closed her eyes. “No,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t. No parent would.”
“That’s exactly how he feels, Mom,” Gabby said quietly. “He’s my father, and you took that away from him. Whatever reasons you had for keeping me a secret, he had every right to know he had a child - and he has every right to be upset with you for lying to him.”
“But I explained why,” she said hollowly. “I thought he’d understand...”
“How could he?” Gabby asked. “Come on, Mom. Dad’s a very understanding man, but he’s still a man, and no ordinary one at that. He’s not gonna smile and say ‘yes, dear,’ while you make life-changing decisions that metaphorically cut off his cahones.”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said helplessly. “He’d left me, he was ready to face his destiny…he said human attachments made him weak, Gabby. That’s why he left. Was I supposed to show up at the Fortress with a baby in tow, and cause him even more conflict?”
Gabby sighed. “He still had a right to know he had a child out there,” she replied, her tone softening. “But you don’t really need me to tell you that, do you, Mom?”
Chloe shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks. God, she’d messed everything up so badly…
“For the record, he does understand your reasons,” Gabby went on softly. “But that doesn’t mean he has to like it. And he doesn’t like it, Mom, no-one would. And you should have been a little bit more sensitive to how he must be feeling and how he’s dealing with all this. It’s a big adjustment for him, and telling him that you just didn’t care was a big No-No.”
Chloe winced and held her knuckles to her mouth in anguish. “He hates me, doesn’t he?” she mumbled.
Gabby shook her head. “No, he doesn’t---”
“He must do, how could he not?” she said, choking on a sob. “I hate me. And I’d hate anyone who did to me what I did to him.”
“He doesn’t hate you, Mom; he loves you,” she said emphatically. “But he is very upset with you, which is completely understandable and should be expected. Especially when he discovered that Jor-El knew all about me, but kept it from him as well.”
“What?” Chloe exclaimed. “Jor-El knew about you? Since when?”
“Since I was conceived, apparently,” she said, and shuddered. “Eww.”
“Oh my God, no wonder Clark hates me!” she moaned. “How the hell did I ever end up on the same side as Jor-El in keeping secrets from him? He must think we ganged up on him, and…Oh, God!”
It was one thing for her to have kept Gabby from Clark, but to have his father do the same thing - completely independently of her - was just too much. No matter what their reasons were, Clark should have had a choice when it came to his only child. She and Jor-El had taken that from him.
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and tried to stem her tears, but to no avail. There were probably no words to describe the levels of hurt he must be going through.
Simply put, he must feel like shit.
“This is why I was so scared of getting back with him,” she sobbed. “We just can’t seem to stop hurting each other...”
“I didn’t mean to upset you, Mom,” Gabby said in alarm, quickly wrapping her arms around her in a hug. “I’m just trying to make you understand how he must be feeling right now.”
“Oh, I know,” she sniffed. “Believe me, I know, and I’m so ashamed of what I said to him. God, he can’t even stand to be near me.”
“Mom, that’s not true…”
“It must be if he’d rather stay out on patrol all night than come home to a warm bed!” she wailed. “I’ve driven him away, Gabby. I’ve chased him out of his own home, and---”
“And you’re beginning to scare me now with all the melodrama,” Gabby said with a withering glance. “Pull yourself together, Mom. Seriously.”
Chloe calmed down and dried her eyes, her shoulders heaving with the occasional sniffle.
“Do you think...do you think he’ll ever forgive me?” Chloe whispered without hope of a favourable answer.
To her surprise her daughter smiled. “That’s something only he can answer, but you won’t know unless you talk to him, Mom,” she said. “He said he’d be coming by later; think you’d be able to handle a heart-to-heart chat with him?”
Chloe nodded with a hopeful smile. “I will. I have to.”
Gabby grinned. “Good. I’ll be in my room, but let me know if and when you might need me to, er…pick up some groceries, or something.”
Chloe managed a smile for her daughter as she left the room, but as soon as Gabby was gone her brow furrowed with worry. She’d said a lot of hurtful things to Clark, and he’d had a week to live with the pain of it all. Given the lack of communication, she’d assumed any chance they might have had to be together was long gone…
Chloe sighed and rested her head on the table. She could only hope and pray that Clark was even half as forgiving as he’d been when they were younger.
***
Chapter 25…