Chlark Fanfic: Crisis, Chapter 18

[babydee1]

Some more Crisis, peeps.  Enjoy! :-)



Title: Crisis
Author: BabyDee
Pairing: Chlark/Kaloe
Rating: NC-17 (this chapter PG-13)
Warnings: None
Timeline: Season 2-3 (Exodus – Exile; Clark’s RedK Summer)
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: A violent encounter between Chloe and Clark threatens to destroy their friendship forever.
Feedback: …is love. :)  


Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.

Chapter 18


“Here I am!” Lana announced happily as she appeared over the steps and into the loft. “Good to see you again, Clark.” 

Clark watched her as she approached, holding her schoolbooks in one hand and a small basket of muffins in the other.

“Hi Lana,” he greeted carefully, not quite able to say it was good to see her back. “You look nice,” he ventured instead. 

She gave a delicate little laugh. “What, this old thing?” she said, indicating her pale pink dress. “I just had it lying around. Or at least, that’s the excuse I’m sticking to.”

He forced a smile to his lips, though it didn’t reach his eyes. Once upon a time he’d have given anything to have moments like this with Lana. It all seemed so long ago now.

“I got you these,” she said, holding out the muffin basket. “Sustenance for while we study. I didn’t know your favourite, so I just got an assorted range of flavours…”

“White chocolate chip,” he said softly, a faraway look in his eyes. “That’s my favourite.”

“Oh darn, that’s the one flavour we didn’t have today,” she pouted. “We don’t get them in often, because not too many people buy them.”

Actually she wasn’t too far off the mark. He was pretty sure he was the only person who bought them. But that wasn’t entirely true, he thought with a wistful smile. There was someone else who bought them, and used to leave them in his desk and hall locker with cute little notes attached.

But not anymore. She’d replaced muffins and cupcakes with chunks of kryptonite instead.

“Clark, hello?” he heard Lana calling as if from afar. “Are you listening to me?”

He blinked and focused. Lana’s dark eyes regarded him curiously. “You zoned out there for a second.  Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I just…” he scratched his head and gave her another fake smile. “You were saying?”

She smiled and walked over to the loft window. “Just that it was pretty quiet around here without you, and…well, to be honest I haven’t been around as much lately,” she admitted. “With you out of town, I spent more time at Aunt Nell’s place, and less at Chloe’s.”

 

She sat down heavily and grimaced. “And with the way things are now, I don’t think I’ll be staying there much longer.”

Clark frowned. “Why? Have Chloe and her Dad asked you to leave?”

She stared up at him. “Gabe Sullivan’s been let go from his job at Luthorcorp, Clark.”

 

“What?” he exclaimed.

 

“Lionel fired him this afternoon, didn’t Chloe tell you?”

“Oh my God,” he said hollowly. “But…why?”

Lana shrugged. “He has no idea. Everything was fine this morning, and he said there’s been no disciplinaries associated with him since he started there.”

“Then it makes no sense,” he said, his heart sinking. “What about Chloe, is she okay?”

Lana shook her head. “She’s taking it really bad, Clark. She’s a wreck, she hasn’t stopped crying. Her Dad told her not to worry, that he’d get another job soon enough, but she’s completely inconsolable.”

Clark felt full of remorse. This was the last think Chloe needed, not with everything else she was dealing with.

“I have to do something,” he mused out loud.

“Well…you don’t have to do it right away, do you?” she asked coyly as she stood. “Because I was hoping we could talk.”

Clark swallowed. “I thought you wanted to study,” he said as she stepped closer to him and took his hand in hers.

She gave a shy smile. “I work with figures every day, Clark. I don’t need help with my calculus, I just…wanted to see you. Spend some time with you.”

Her hand squeezed his and she pressed the other one to his chest. Startled, he took a step back in an attempt to put some distance between them.

“Lana-”

“I’ve been thinking about that day, Clark,” she whispered, closing in on his personal space again. “A lot.”

He frowned in puzzlement. “What day?”

She gave him a condescending smile. “The day you rode off to Metropolis, silly,” she replied. “I wonder how different things would have been if I’d had the courage to go to the City with you.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” he said grimly.

“But I wish I had,” she whispered, tightening her fingers around his again. “I should have gone with you. We were on the brink of something wonderful, but I was too scared to take the next step.”

 

She reached up and stroked his cheek.  “But I’m not scared anymore. You’re here, and now we can be together like we’ve always wanted.”

Clark took a deep breath. “Lana, I…”he sighed. “Lana, please sit down.”

“You say that like you’re about to deliver bad news,” she said shakily as she sat back down on the couch.

He sat beside her and took her hand. “That’s because I am,” he admitted. “I’m sorry, Lana…but I’ve had a change of heart.”

Lana’s eyes widened and she blinked rapidly. “A change of heart?” she echoed blankly. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to be with you,” he said quietly.

 

Lana’s pretty eyes widened in shock and she blinked several times.

“I don’t understand,” she finally whispered, bewildered. “You kissed me, you said you wanted to be with me…”

“A lot has changed since then,” he said gently.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” she said numbly. “Clark, you said you loved me…”

“I know,” he replied, feeling guilty. “I thought I did…but now I know I don’t.”

“But you asked me to run away with you!” she cried, her eyes filling with tears.

He sighed. “I wasn’t thinking straight,” he said quietly.  “I’m sorry that I hurt you.”

“We could try, though,” she said earnestly, her tears falling down her cheeks. “We could start again, start afresh-”

“I don’t want to give you false hope, Lana,” he replied honestly. “You and me…that’s not what I want.”

Lana’s pretty face crumpled and she sobbed into her hands. Clark felt bad for upsetting her, but it had to be done. Better to be firm and nip it in the bud now, before her feelings had a chance to develop any further.

“Is there someone else?” she asked tearfully, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

He stiffened.  “It’s not about that-”

“There must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be so quick to break up with me,” she replied quickly. “Who is she, Clark? Someone I know? Some floozy you met in Metropolis?”

“Lana, please don’t do this,” he begged.

“You’re telling me I don’t have a chance with you, Clark. I need to know why,” she said stubbornly. “Who is she?”

He took a deep breath and answered. “It’s Chloe.”

***

“What’s with the frown, Baby Girl?” Pete asked as he sat opposite her in the Torch.

Chloe frowned and folded her arms across her chest. “There’s something wrong with this layout,” she replied, referring to the mock-ups she’d just arranged. “I don’t like it.”

“Why not?” asked Pete, jumping off the edge of the desk and coming to stand beside her. “What’s the problem?”

She shrugged and scratched her head. “I don’t know.  It looks okay, I guess, but at the same time it’s…not all there.” She lifted from the board and held it aloft. “It just isn’t sitting right,” she finally decided after a while.

“Kind of like you and Clark right now, don’t you think?”

 

At the mention of Clark’s name, she scowled.  “What’s Clark got to do with this?” she asked in a hard voice.

 

“Everything, I would think.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” she challenged. 

Pete laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to lie to me, Chloe. I know about what happened between you and Clark.”

Chloe stiffened and her fingers felt numb on the mock-up board.  “He told you?”

“He didn’t have to; I figured it out.”

Slowly she set the board down on the stand and just stared at nothing in particular.

“I didn’t want anyone to know,” she said quietly.

“It was only a matter of time,” he replied gently.  “It’s obvious that you and Clark haven’t been okay with each other for a while now.”

“He hurt me,” she whispered, staring at the ground. “I never thought he could ever…” she stopped and gulped in deep breaths of air, determined not to break down in tears.

“For what it’s worth, I’ve given him a piece of my mind; told him he was a bastard to do what he did,” Pete replied.

“How could he do that to me?” she said in a small voice. “He’s destroyed me, Pete. I hate him, more than I’ve ever hated anyone.”

“Is that why you’re torturing him with greenK?” he asked curiously.

Chloe scowled. “It’s no more than what he deserves,” she said in low voice. “He’s getting off lightly, believe me.”

“Look, he was totally wrong to do what he did, I’m not disputing that,” Pete said carefully. “But Chloe…kryptonite?  You’re going too far with this. You’re hurting him-”

“He hurt me first!” she raged. “And how dare you take his side after what he did to me!”

“I’m not taking his side, Chloe, I’m taking yours,” he pointed out. “You may not realise it, but this whole revenge trip is destroying you. It’s eating into your soul.”

“It’s not revenge, Pete,” she grated as she strode past him. “It’s justice. You and I know he deserves far worse.”

“But you're torturing him!”

She shrugged. “It's just a little twinge every now and then. He can handle it.”

“Handle it?” he echoed in disbelief.  “Chloe, do you know what that stuff does to him?”

 

“Do I care?” she shot back. 

 

Pete sighed.   “Have you tried talking to him since…?”

“Oh, we talked,” she said derisively. “Believe me, we talked, and he was brutally honest about it.”

“So he admitted it outright?”

She nodded.  “Definitively, even though I desperately wanted to hear otherwise.”

“I'm sorry, Chloe,” he said quietly. “I know how much you wanted things to be different between you.”

“It's not your fault,” she replied.  “You’re not the one that wronged me, Pete.”

“If it's any consolation, he said he was sorry and that he really messed up.  He’s desperate to mend fences with you-”

“Oh yeah, sure,” she scoffed. “He’s sorry.  Yeah, he was banging about that the other day, too; kept saying 'sorry'. Well, 'sorry' is a grossly disproportionate atonement for what he did to me.”

“That may be, but mental and physical torture is also grossly disproportionate punishment for what he did to you,” Pete pointed out.

Chloe gaped at him in surprise. “I can't believe you just said that.”

Pete rubbed a hand over his hair and sighed. “Look, I know sleeping with you to make Lana jealous wasn't the wisest thing to do, but you're making a bad situation even worse by hurting Clark,” he explained. “And it's not just the physical pain, Chloe. You're messing with his mind, he's terrified of you right now...”

Pete's words faded into as haze as she realised he wasn't aware of the fact that Clark had raped her. As he said earlier, he had drawn his own conclusions. And Clark had either misunderstood, or been too much of a coward to tell Pete the truth. She suspected the latter. 

She shook her head and closed her eyes, her nails biting into her palms as she clenched her fists in anger.   

“You know what? I don't want to talk about this right now,” she interrupted quickly.

Pete softened. “I understand, Chloe. But…just promise me that you won't hurt Clark anymore.”

She shook her head. “Can't do that.”

He sighed. “Look, Clark's not the brightest bulb in the socket, never has been,” he continued. “But he knows he screwed up big time, and he's sorry. You've gotten your revenge-”

“Justice.”

He went on.  “...and now the scores are even. Let this be the end of it.”

She shook her head.  “No.  Never," she said stubbornly.  "We will never be even.  Clark betrayed me, betrayed my trust.  He pretended to be my friend for years, but it was all a lie.  And if he could do that to me...?”  She stopped and took a deep breath.  "I can't trust anyone ever again." 

“Chloe don't let this one thing define you, or the people around you," he argued, but she wasn't in the mood for rationalisation.
 
"How could I not, Pete?" she exclaimed.  "I trusted him, more than anyone!  How can I ever let my guard down with another human being again?"
 
Pete came to stand behind her and she felt his hand squeeze her shoulder. "For what it's worth," he whispered, "I would never do that to you.”

Chloe stiffened.  Something in his tone of voice and in his touch made her the hairs on her neck stand up on end. 
 
“Pete,” she said in a warning tone.

“Just hear me out,” he pleaded. “Please.”

 

She swallowed nervously as Pete took a deep breath.  “Listen…I know you still have feelings for Clark…” he began. 

She knew where this was going.  “Pete, don't do this...” she begged.

He ignored her and kept going.  “...but after what's happened, I was hoping that you could at least open your heart to the possibility of loving someone else,” he went on desperately.  “Loving me.”

***

Chapter 19…