fic: gotham's broken hero, ch2
Chloe Sullivan on Sons of rich men
She always thought that a man with as much money as Lex Luthor had would be a happy man. Money did after all turn the world around. Gotham was proof of that statement day by day. The city was corrupt; so much that even Gotham’s finest weren’t always on the side of those that wanted the right thing, but those that had enough cash in their pockets.
The richest man in Gotham was Bruce Wayne. All Chloe knew about him was what she read prior in newspapers articles and archives. Had he not been Gotham’s richest and most important person, she wouldn’t have bothered to look up information on the man.
She knew that he was the son of Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha Wayne. She also knew that both his parents died at a mugging gone wrong, and that Bruce, at that time only seven years old, had to watch his parents get murdered before him. He had attended a bourding school and finished all his clases with excellent marks. Bruce Wayne was now the CEO of his own company and as far as she could see did what most rich men in his position did.
He drove fast cars. He dated supermodels. And bought things, that just seemed to her so ridicules that she would have suggested to the man to out right burn his money instead of spending it like that. Not that she knew the man to suggest something like that to him in person. She only heard of his strange and extravagant behaviour from various sources.
Many stories had been told to her about Gotham’s best known playboy billionaire and bachelor number one. One of her favourite stories had been the one were a drunk Bruce Wayne had on the day of his birthday first insulted his posh ‘friends’, then kicked them out of his palace-like home, and finished the day by burning the manor down to the grounds.
She imagined Bruce Wayne to be this super-womanizer, a man-slut sleeping is way through the upper and privileged female population of Gotham. She heard that many gossip columnists that had met him at parties and galas had fallen for his charms right away. That he had boyish charms and lived life carelessly and to the maximum whenever possible.
She just couldn’t phantom a man having such effects on women. Not even Oliver Queen, her cousin’s ex-short time-boyfriend had had that kind of effect on women in general. Sure his looks would get him very far, and even his out-right friendliness was a big plus, but she knew that he just didn’t get a great start with a lot of women because of his attitude. One of them had been herself.
She had been able to approve of his looks, but she just didn’t like his overplayed exterior whenever someone was around. You couldn’t hold a serious conversation with the guy, without him turning it into some kind of joke. She just never got on good ground with him.
Of course Lois had told her everything about him from her point of view, making Chloe feel like she knew him personally and not fleetingly from the two times she had seen him at parties. The picture painted was of a man who was a little selfish, but gave back as good as he got. Lois had explained then that Oliver participated and donated a lot to humanitarian organizations. A philanthropic rich man who was only human and had therefore of course mistakes too.
If she’d be honest with herself, she occasionally was when she was within the safety of her lonely and small apartment, the reason she never could get to sympathise with those sons of rich men was her first encounter with one.
If there was something Lex Luthor had taught her it was that you couldn’t ever trust anyone. Not even a person that you had helped put his homicidal father away with. Chloe had helped convict and jail Lionel Luthor for the murder of his parents, and without her help Lex Luthor wouldn’t have had the chance to see his father arrested.
You’d think that after that the Luthor heir would try to nurture their alliance into friendship or at least thank her for putting herself and her father in mortal danger. But nothing of that sort happened. Lex Luthor had taken it as a given that Chloe Sullivan would testify against his father after having heard his confession to her.
Chloe reflected that sometime after the trail was over and Lionel Luthor was convicted that the least Lex Luthor could have done was help find her father a job. But again the Luthor heir had done nothing of that sort. Her father, Gabe Sullivan, had found no good or at least average paid job anywhere near Smallville or Metropolis.
That phase in her life back then was hard. It was even harder than having to go into hiding just so she could testify again the Luthor patriarch. That was due to the fact that at that time Chloe had been kept in a different safe house than her father. She hadn’t seen him, or felt his despair of not being able to pay their bills; she hadn’t had to live with an utterly depressive and shattered father who feared for the future of his daughter.
At the end of it all her father had found a job in Florida, Tempest Key to be exact. It wasn’t a well paid job, but at least it was something. Chloe wondered what would have happened to her life had she stayed in Smallville with her friends instead of moving away with her father. Maybe Lois and she would have gotten a flat together, maybe she could have solved more mysteries that made Smallville and Meteor rocks so special to her.
She didn’t mind the move or the changes that did happen to her life. Tempest Key had proven to be as interesting to an aspiring investigative reporter as Smallville had been. And Chloe soon befriended people that always seemed to be in the middle of certain happening there.
When she made the decision to move to Gotham because she had gotten the chance to start at the Gotham Globe she knew that she would miss her old new life in Tempest Key and the new friends that she had made there. Arthur AC Curry was one of these people, as well as their mutual friend and her boss Eva, and even old grumpy McCaffery would be sorely missed on rainy nights that were just perfect for his horror stories and old fishermen tales.
The one condition that her father did make, so that he’d let her move away from Tempest Key, was that she had to call him every second day. Of course she had argued that this condition was utterly silly. What if she had to go undercover for a story? What if she had so much work that she just couldn’t call? She argued with her father that it would be much better if she called at least twice a week, to which her father agreed. That was the reason why she was at the moment curled up on her sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and her fluffy multi-coloured home socks, she had gotten as a farewell present from AC and Eva.
“No, dad! Of course I eat lunch on a regular basis…”
“And what about dinner? Are you sure that you’re really eating enough? I know you like to forget your meals when on a hot story…”
Chloe rolled her eyes. Only her father could say ‘hot story’ and make it sound absolutely boring. But she was secretly pleased that there was at least someone to fuss over her. Even if the fussing was only over the phone.
“No ‘hot stories’ for me at the moment. There is this really boring party I need to attend. They want an account of what happened, and the who is who there attending. Tony is also invited.”
“Will it be worth collecting for the wall?” asked her father with interest.
“I don’t really think so, it’s only a party some rich guy is holding because he finished re-building his house. Or mansion actually.” Chloe took another sip from her hot drink and held the cup in both hands, while jamming the phone between her ear and shoulder. It warmed her usually cold fingers.
The wall her father was referring to was his kitchen wall. It had once been barren and naked, until her father decided that having a book to collect Chloe’s written work wasn’t original enough. Nor did it fill the whole her absence was making in his life. So he started clipping and hefting her articles, and the occasional new photo of her to the wall.
He had told her, not to make her feel guilty but to share his feeling with his daughter, that this way he’d see part of Chloe everyday. When ever he got up and made himself breakfast in the morning, her face would be smiling at him from his kitchen wall.
Sappy, but so sweet, thought Chloe.
“What’s so special about that, that they’d send you in there?” her father huffed. He did after all believe that his daughter, even at the tender age of 23, was so full of potential that sending her to a boring house-opening was more the work for a gossip-columnist, not an aspiring investigative reporter.
“Well, considering that the guy is the riches man in all Gotham, and that he is bound to do something extremely unexpected, I think it is save to say that they didn’t want Kat on this one. Besides, I heard from Tony that Kat wasn’t allowed to get near Bruce Wayne via restriction order.”
“Bruce Wayne? As in Bruce Tomas Wayne?” asked her father with something that sounded like surprise and eager to get an answer.
“Hmm… Well I know his father was called Thomas… so, yes I guess…. You know him, dad?” asked Chloe with renewed interest in their conversation.
Her father was silent for a while, before he answered. “No… no, I just read an article about him some time ago.” He finished his sentence, and even though Chloe knew that her father hadn’t been honest with her, she didn’t insist anymore on the subject.
“Yes well, the party will be one big bore! And I still can’t believe that he’d throw a party so soon after Harvey Dent’s disappearance. I mean, that is very inconsiderate of him.”
“Hmmm…” was the only thing her father replied. At that her brows furrowed and she asked with suspicion “Dad, what are you eating?”
“Nothing!” her father replied with a full mouth. He was obviously chewing something and making loud noisy eating sounds.
“I really hope that you’re not eating what I think you’re eating!” she said sternly. She had after all talked to his doctor, who’d told her that Gabe was supposed to lessen his sugar and fat intake.
“Don’t worry sweetheart. That’s only some tofu-cheesecake Tom got me. His son AC has taken up a new hobby.” Gabe joked.
“So, has AC decided that he’ll stop his marine activist life and start a new career as a vegetarian cook?” joked Chloe back with her father.
“No, he said AC lost a bet with Eva, and had to bake her a cake. He apparently liked it that much that he made a whole stack of cheesecakes. I got one with strawberry sauce.” Replied Gabe amused by the thought that someone like AC would stop his sporadic actions of setting marine animals free from water parks and the likes.
“Oh…” said Chloe sadly. She did after all miss her life back in Tempest Key, even if her life in Gotham was just as promising as a career in Metropolis would have been. She missed hanging out with AC, listening to his dad, Tom Curry, tell her about the strange happening out on his rescue missions. She even missed having Eva boss her around in her beach bar. Even if she decided that she would never ever take another job as waitress in her whole life, having worked for Eva was something she liked. If only for the fact that the Ocean was in near proximity and the relaxed atmosphere there.
Her father heard the longing through the phone said “AC and Eva asked about you the other day.”
Chloe took another sip of her now cold chocolate-y drink. “Yeah… I talked to Eva some time ago.” She said vaguely. Eva and her phoned from time to time but AC hadn’t called at all until now. And she was slowly getting the feeling like he wouldn’t. That made her sad.
She chatted another five minutes with her father before deciding that her duties as a daughter were taken care of for the time being. “Dad, listen… I need to go to sleep now… So I’ll talk to you then… later.”
Her father nodded while answering back “Sure thing pumpkin. I need to … go do something anyway. Goodnight Chloe.”
“Bye Dad.” Hesitantly she added “love you” not wanting to sound needy. She did after all not want her father to think that she wasn’t handling being alone in an alien dark city the best she could.
“Love you too, sweetheart.” She heard her father’s affectionate voice and then the line went dead.
She sighed in relief. She wouldn’t have to call her father for the rest of the week, and risk feeling lonely again. She always did feel a little melancholic after chatting with her father. She felt guilty for leaving him behind, and starting a new life somewhere else. But to her relief Tom Curry, their neighbour, had assured her that he’d make sure Gabe wouldn’t feel lonely without his daughter around.
Chloe rose from her sofa, got to her kitchen area and put her now empty cup into the sink. She opened the tap and rinsed her cup. She wondered where her father really knew Bruce Wayne from. His little lie hadn’t convinced her.
As she made her way to her bedroom she toyed with the thought of letting Tony go alone to the party Bruce Wayne was throwing. It would be definitely better than having to go dress-shopping tomorrow, and she really didn’t feel like meeting another rich, carefree guy. Snuggling up in her warm bed, Chloe fell asleep instantly.
AN: Chapter 2 finally finished!!! Yeay!!!! *happy-dance*
Ok… so I hope this chapter will be liked… I know it is a little boring… I only wanted this chapter to contain her thoughts about rich guys… as well as explaining the fact that she won’t figure out that Bruce is Batman. … Obviously if she never stayed in Smallville or Metropolis and never met and worked with Oliver, she just won’t jump to those conclusions on her own. But then later I added the phone call… as a plus…
I always liked Gabe as a character in fan fictions, so that was really the reason why I added him here. And AC and Tempest Key really was inspired by a side project… ermmm… I don’t know how much you know about Aquaman… but I am referring to ‘Aquaman, the TV program’. I realise that it never got past the pilot… but I rather liked it after watching it. So if you don’t know it I suggest looking it up on wikipedia… or looking for it on you!tube.
Note that Chloe who is around Batman is a different Chloe than Chloe who is around others…