Chlark Fanfic: Crisis, Chapter 39
May. 4th, 2013 01:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
babydee1Back again with some more Crisis! In which there is some unlikely progress with Chloe and Clark’s strained relationship.
I should also let you know that we’re now one chapter away from the end of the first half of the story (~gasp!~); all things being equal, I hope to get Chapter 40 posted within the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy! :-)
Title: Crisis
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
babydee1
Pairing: Chlark/Kaloe
Rating: NC-17 for disturbing themes
Warnings: ***Angst***
Timeline: Season 2-3 (Exodus – Exile; Clark’s RedK Summer & beyond)
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics
Summary: A violent encounter between Chloe and Clark threatens to destroy their friendship forever.
Feedback: …would be appreciated. :)
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 39
Her first night at the Kent Farm was surprisingly okay. Not as restful as she’d have hoped, but certainly not as restless as it would have been if she didn’t have a replica of her old bedroom to sleep in, for which she was extremely grateful.
She was woken early by the crowing of the rooster, followed by the lowing of the cows ready to be milked. She yawned and got out of bed, then cautiously stepped out into the hallway, half-expecting to encounter at least one member of the Kent family en route to the bathroom. But the hallway was empty; it then occurred to her that as farmers, they’d have been up before the crack of dawn and busy at work.
She blinked and rubbed her bleary eyes, acutely aware that what was to her an insanely inhumane hour to be awake was actually what they’d refer to as a lie-in.
She slipped her arms into her robe and belted it tightly around herself as she headed down the hall towards the bathroom. Might as well take advantage of the empty house while she still could.
By the time she was showered and dressed, the warm smells of hearty breakfast food filled the air, making her stomach rumbled hungrily. The last few days had been intense, and she hadn’t really felt much like eating knowing that she’d been about to say goodbye to her father. Last night’s dinner had been stilted at best, so now she was more than ready to attend to the needs that her body demanded.
“Good morning, Chloe,” Martha greeted from the kitchen as she got to the bottom of the stairs. “Please take a seat. I wasn’t sure what you’d like for breakfast, so help yourself to a selection of everything.”
“Good morning, Mrs Kent,” she responded as she sat at the table. “Where are Clark and Mr Kent?”
“They’ll be along shortly,” Martha replied.
Chloe nodded and took her seat at the table as requested. Sure enough, they both returned to the homestead within the next five minutes and headed upstairs to shower and change before coming down for breakfast.
She noticed that there’d been no dilly-dallying in the bathroom; something she needed to remember for the coming months. If she wanted a long, leisurely soak in the tub, it would have to be at weekends and in the evenings, probably after everyone else had retired for the night.
***
“I’ve drawn up a schedule of chores for you; it’s on the fridge,” Martha said as she cleared the table. “You can take it with you, if you like; familiarise yourself with it on the way to school.”
“Thanks, Mrs Kent,” she replied. She reached for the empty dishes. “Can I help you with those?”
Martha waved her away. “No, sweetheart, I’ll be fine. I know you have school in the mornings, and unlike Clark, you don’t have the advantage of superspeed to power you along,” she replied, and headed into the kitchen. “You’re on the rota for the dishes for the evening meal, among other things.”
“Oh, I see.” Her brow creased in a worried frown as she raised the magnet and studied the list off the fridge. Waking up early was going to be difficult enough, but throw chores in as well, and she was beginning to think that maybe her decision to live on the farm wasn’t exactly the best of choices.
She glanced further down at the list, and heaved a sigh of relief. Apart from one fortnightly Saturday shift mucking out the stalls, her other farmyard chores weren’t so bad. She was mainly scheduled to work around the homestead; light work like feeding the chickens and gathering eggs. Other things were chores she was already used to doing at home; tidying her room, vacuuming, dusting, washing dinner dishes, and cleaning the bathroom once a month.
“If you need any help with any of those, just let me know,” Clark suddenly whispered beside her. “I know this must all be a bit daunting for you.”
“It’s not that bad, actually,” she replied. “But I noticed there was no milking on my rota, and I was actually quite looking forward to that.”
“We have an automated milking machine, but Mom can teach you how to milk a cow if you’re interested,” Clark offered.
Martha Kent emerged from the kitchen. “Sure, Chloe, I’d be happy to show you how. Just let me know when you’re ready.” She glanced at her watch. “Right, you two best be on your way now, or you’ll be late for school.”
***
Martha Kent watched with a frown as her son and Chloe walked down the drive towards the main road. Despite the apparent normalcy of the sight of them walking together, she could still sense the tension between them. Truth be told, there was still a part of her that was worried about having them all under the same roof. It was early days yet, and whilst Day One had seemingly worked out, the close proximity could still end up being detrimental for all of them in the long run.
Her husband joined her at the window and put an arm around her waist. “What are you thinking, honey?” he asked quietly.
She sighed, her eyes still on the two walking figures as they turned the corner and disappeared from view.
“I’m just wondering if they’ll both ever be the same again,” she finally responded. “What do you think?”
Jonathan took his time before replying.
“After everything that’s happened between them, I don’t think they’ll never be the same,” he answered honestly. “But I think they’ll be okay.”
She nodded, but the doubt in her heart still remained. “It’ll take miracle for them to completely trust each other again,” she said.
Her husband smiled and gave her fingers an affectionate squeeze. “Well, it just so happens that I’m a praying man who believes in miracles; so I’ll pray for a miracle every day.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she gave him a sad smile. “I just really want them to get through this,” she sniffed, her voice breaking. “It’s so terrible, everything that’s happened…they both deserve to be happy.”
Jonathan gathered her into his arms and she felt his warm lips press a kiss to the top of her head.
“They’ll be okay, honey,” he whispered. “They have to be.”
***
They walked along the road for about five minutes before Chloe broke the silence.
“Why didn’t you explain to your father about the redK?” she asked suddenly.
He stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“He told you off for putting on that ring,” she said. “Said it was a stupid idea.”
“He was right,” he replied curtly. “I never should have put it on, knowing what it makes me capable of doing.”
“True; but if you hadn’t put it on, we wouldn’t have had that breakthrough,” she pointed out. “You could have explained to him that it gave you to courage to speak honestly with me.”
“I suppose I could, but I didn’t see the point,” he replied. “RedK makes me do bad things, and I never should have used it.”
“And you probably wouldn’t have had to if you had the courage to stand up to your father in the first place,” she argued, watching intently for Clark’s reaction.
His lips thinned and his fist tightened around the strap of his backpack. “It’s rude to speak back to people who are older than you.”
“It’s not wrong to defend yourself!”
“He’s my father, Chloe. I can’t—” he paused and sighed. “I don’t like to upset him or let him down.”
“You’re his son, Clark. He understands that kids often make mistakes, but as long as you learn from them, then it’s okay. He was a teenager once, after all; he’d have gone through exactly the same thing with your grandfather.”
“My grandfather never had to deal with a son who had freakish alien powers,” he pointed out glumly.
Chloe frowned. “Something tells me you never disagree with your dad.”
Silence. “Not often,” he finally admitted.
“So you just blindly go along with everything he says, whether or not you believe he’s right?” she challenged.
“Chloe, they’re my parents. They’ve spent their entire lives protecting me from people like Lionel Luthor, and it’s worked so far,” he said tightly. “I trust that they know what’s best for me, and I owe it to them to be a child they can be proud of.”
“Why?” she asked. “Because they adopted you?”
“Because they saved me from what could have been a life of unimaginable terror, and they did it at the expense of their own lives,” he replied, his eyes sad and full of regret. “They sacrificed everything for me, Chloe; even their own child.”
“That was a tragic accident, Clark; one they wouldn’t want you blaming yourself for,” she said quietly.
He didn’t answer, and they walked further along the road in silence for a few hundred yards before she spoke again.
“Clark…I know you want to be the perfect child, but that doesn’t equate to blindly doing everything they say,” she said softly. “A little rebellion is good for the soul. You’re becoming a man, and you need to make your own decisions sometimes.”
“Like the decision to destroy the ship, which cost the life of my baby brother or sister?” he shot back.
She shook her head. “You didn’t mean for that to happen; you were trying to help.”
“I made a bad decision, and the cost to my family was unimaginable,” he said flatly. “And then I made it worse by putting on that ring and running away. I ended up hurting you, and a lot of other people, quite badly. No good came from that decision, no matter how you try and justify it.”
She took a deep breath. “Clark, I’m not defending what you did to me; but running away and lashing out was a knee-jerk reaction to your grief,” she said. “You were in pain, and you wanted others to feel what you were feeling. Didn’t I do the same to you, when I tried to drown you?”
His face creased in a puzzled frown, and she continued. “I saw you laughing and smiling, Clark. In my mind you didn’t deserve to be happy because you’d hurt me,” she said. “I couldn’t tell anyone what was going on with me, and because I’d bottled all that up for so long, it came out in the worst possible way. And that’s what you’re doing now, with your parents — biting your tongue and keeping quiet when you should be challenging them.”
Clark opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the school bus trundled past them and slowed to a stop just ahead.
She glanced at her watch, and sighed. “We need to get on that bus, but we’ll continue this discussion later, okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
They hurried up the road and climbed aboard. As the bus pulled away from the kerb, she sat back in her seat and smiled to herself.
Her little talk with Clark had been totally unplanned, but strangely liberating. Maybe the therapy that Jonathan had suggested for them would be a good idea, after all.
***
Chapter 40…
I should also let you know that we’re now one chapter away from the end of the first half of the story (~gasp!~); all things being equal, I hope to get Chapter 40 posted within the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy! :-)
Title: Crisis
Author:
babydee1Pairing: Chlark/Kaloe
Rating: NC-17 for disturbing themes
Warnings: ***Angst***
Timeline: Season 2-3 (Exodus – Exile; Clark’s RedK Summer & beyond)
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics
Summary: A violent encounter between Chloe and Clark threatens to destroy their friendship forever.
Feedback: …would be appreciated. :)
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 39
Her first night at the Kent Farm was surprisingly okay. Not as restful as she’d have hoped, but certainly not as restless as it would have been if she didn’t have a replica of her old bedroom to sleep in, for which she was extremely grateful.
She was woken early by the crowing of the rooster, followed by the lowing of the cows ready to be milked. She yawned and got out of bed, then cautiously stepped out into the hallway, half-expecting to encounter at least one member of the Kent family en route to the bathroom. But the hallway was empty; it then occurred to her that as farmers, they’d have been up before the crack of dawn and busy at work.
She blinked and rubbed her bleary eyes, acutely aware that what was to her an insanely inhumane hour to be awake was actually what they’d refer to as a lie-in.
She slipped her arms into her robe and belted it tightly around herself as she headed down the hall towards the bathroom. Might as well take advantage of the empty house while she still could.
By the time she was showered and dressed, the warm smells of hearty breakfast food filled the air, making her stomach rumbled hungrily. The last few days had been intense, and she hadn’t really felt much like eating knowing that she’d been about to say goodbye to her father. Last night’s dinner had been stilted at best, so now she was more than ready to attend to the needs that her body demanded.
“Good morning, Chloe,” Martha greeted from the kitchen as she got to the bottom of the stairs. “Please take a seat. I wasn’t sure what you’d like for breakfast, so help yourself to a selection of everything.”
“Good morning, Mrs Kent,” she responded as she sat at the table. “Where are Clark and Mr Kent?”
“They’ll be along shortly,” Martha replied.
Chloe nodded and took her seat at the table as requested. Sure enough, they both returned to the homestead within the next five minutes and headed upstairs to shower and change before coming down for breakfast.
She noticed that there’d been no dilly-dallying in the bathroom; something she needed to remember for the coming months. If she wanted a long, leisurely soak in the tub, it would have to be at weekends and in the evenings, probably after everyone else had retired for the night.
***
“I’ve drawn up a schedule of chores for you; it’s on the fridge,” Martha said as she cleared the table. “You can take it with you, if you like; familiarise yourself with it on the way to school.”
“Thanks, Mrs Kent,” she replied. She reached for the empty dishes. “Can I help you with those?”
Martha waved her away. “No, sweetheart, I’ll be fine. I know you have school in the mornings, and unlike Clark, you don’t have the advantage of superspeed to power you along,” she replied, and headed into the kitchen. “You’re on the rota for the dishes for the evening meal, among other things.”
“Oh, I see.” Her brow creased in a worried frown as she raised the magnet and studied the list off the fridge. Waking up early was going to be difficult enough, but throw chores in as well, and she was beginning to think that maybe her decision to live on the farm wasn’t exactly the best of choices.
She glanced further down at the list, and heaved a sigh of relief. Apart from one fortnightly Saturday shift mucking out the stalls, her other farmyard chores weren’t so bad. She was mainly scheduled to work around the homestead; light work like feeding the chickens and gathering eggs. Other things were chores she was already used to doing at home; tidying her room, vacuuming, dusting, washing dinner dishes, and cleaning the bathroom once a month.
“If you need any help with any of those, just let me know,” Clark suddenly whispered beside her. “I know this must all be a bit daunting for you.”
“It’s not that bad, actually,” she replied. “But I noticed there was no milking on my rota, and I was actually quite looking forward to that.”
“We have an automated milking machine, but Mom can teach you how to milk a cow if you’re interested,” Clark offered.
Martha Kent emerged from the kitchen. “Sure, Chloe, I’d be happy to show you how. Just let me know when you’re ready.” She glanced at her watch. “Right, you two best be on your way now, or you’ll be late for school.”
***
Martha Kent watched with a frown as her son and Chloe walked down the drive towards the main road. Despite the apparent normalcy of the sight of them walking together, she could still sense the tension between them. Truth be told, there was still a part of her that was worried about having them all under the same roof. It was early days yet, and whilst Day One had seemingly worked out, the close proximity could still end up being detrimental for all of them in the long run.
Her husband joined her at the window and put an arm around her waist. “What are you thinking, honey?” he asked quietly.
She sighed, her eyes still on the two walking figures as they turned the corner and disappeared from view.
“I’m just wondering if they’ll both ever be the same again,” she finally responded. “What do you think?”
Jonathan took his time before replying.
“After everything that’s happened between them, I don’t think they’ll never be the same,” he answered honestly. “But I think they’ll be okay.”
She nodded, but the doubt in her heart still remained. “It’ll take miracle for them to completely trust each other again,” she said.
Her husband smiled and gave her fingers an affectionate squeeze. “Well, it just so happens that I’m a praying man who believes in miracles; so I’ll pray for a miracle every day.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she gave him a sad smile. “I just really want them to get through this,” she sniffed, her voice breaking. “It’s so terrible, everything that’s happened…they both deserve to be happy.”
Jonathan gathered her into his arms and she felt his warm lips press a kiss to the top of her head.
“They’ll be okay, honey,” he whispered. “They have to be.”
***
They walked along the road for about five minutes before Chloe broke the silence.
“Why didn’t you explain to your father about the redK?” she asked suddenly.
He stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“He told you off for putting on that ring,” she said. “Said it was a stupid idea.”
“He was right,” he replied curtly. “I never should have put it on, knowing what it makes me capable of doing.”
“True; but if you hadn’t put it on, we wouldn’t have had that breakthrough,” she pointed out. “You could have explained to him that it gave you to courage to speak honestly with me.”
“I suppose I could, but I didn’t see the point,” he replied. “RedK makes me do bad things, and I never should have used it.”
“And you probably wouldn’t have had to if you had the courage to stand up to your father in the first place,” she argued, watching intently for Clark’s reaction.
His lips thinned and his fist tightened around the strap of his backpack. “It’s rude to speak back to people who are older than you.”
“It’s not wrong to defend yourself!”
“He’s my father, Chloe. I can’t—” he paused and sighed. “I don’t like to upset him or let him down.”
“You’re his son, Clark. He understands that kids often make mistakes, but as long as you learn from them, then it’s okay. He was a teenager once, after all; he’d have gone through exactly the same thing with your grandfather.”
“My grandfather never had to deal with a son who had freakish alien powers,” he pointed out glumly.
Chloe frowned. “Something tells me you never disagree with your dad.”
Silence. “Not often,” he finally admitted.
“So you just blindly go along with everything he says, whether or not you believe he’s right?” she challenged.
“Chloe, they’re my parents. They’ve spent their entire lives protecting me from people like Lionel Luthor, and it’s worked so far,” he said tightly. “I trust that they know what’s best for me, and I owe it to them to be a child they can be proud of.”
“Why?” she asked. “Because they adopted you?”
“Because they saved me from what could have been a life of unimaginable terror, and they did it at the expense of their own lives,” he replied, his eyes sad and full of regret. “They sacrificed everything for me, Chloe; even their own child.”
“That was a tragic accident, Clark; one they wouldn’t want you blaming yourself for,” she said quietly.
He didn’t answer, and they walked further along the road in silence for a few hundred yards before she spoke again.
“Clark…I know you want to be the perfect child, but that doesn’t equate to blindly doing everything they say,” she said softly. “A little rebellion is good for the soul. You’re becoming a man, and you need to make your own decisions sometimes.”
“Like the decision to destroy the ship, which cost the life of my baby brother or sister?” he shot back.
She shook her head. “You didn’t mean for that to happen; you were trying to help.”
“I made a bad decision, and the cost to my family was unimaginable,” he said flatly. “And then I made it worse by putting on that ring and running away. I ended up hurting you, and a lot of other people, quite badly. No good came from that decision, no matter how you try and justify it.”
She took a deep breath. “Clark, I’m not defending what you did to me; but running away and lashing out was a knee-jerk reaction to your grief,” she said. “You were in pain, and you wanted others to feel what you were feeling. Didn’t I do the same to you, when I tried to drown you?”
His face creased in a puzzled frown, and she continued. “I saw you laughing and smiling, Clark. In my mind you didn’t deserve to be happy because you’d hurt me,” she said. “I couldn’t tell anyone what was going on with me, and because I’d bottled all that up for so long, it came out in the worst possible way. And that’s what you’re doing now, with your parents — biting your tongue and keeping quiet when you should be challenging them.”
Clark opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the school bus trundled past them and slowed to a stop just ahead.
She glanced at her watch, and sighed. “We need to get on that bus, but we’ll continue this discussion later, okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
They hurried up the road and climbed aboard. As the bus pulled away from the kerb, she sat back in her seat and smiled to herself.
Her little talk with Clark had been totally unplanned, but strangely liberating. Maybe the therapy that Jonathan had suggested for them would be a good idea, after all.
***
Chapter 40…
