Chlark Fanfic: Agenda, Chapter 12
Dec. 9th, 2011 04:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
babydee1I love this runner. Chloe looks so tiny next to them!!! :-)
Runner by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
smallvillebbanglong Fanfic challenge. Many thanks totwinsarein for all her tireless organisation and support!
Beta’ed bylegendarytobes& The Fallen Sky at KSite.
Art bysylvanelfmistre& go_clo.
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 12
“Okay, so we’re down to the big two now, Gabby.”
Gabby nodded. “Superspeed and flight.”
“That’s right. We’ll tackle superspeed first.”
“Already on it,” she replied and bounced up and down lightly on her feet.
Clark smiled indulgently. “You can warm up if you want to, but it really isn’t necessary,” he said. “Like all of your other abilities, it’ll come naturally.”
They were wearing tracksuits and standing in the middle of a long, deserted road on the outskirts of Smallville. Clark had taken Gabby back there because he knew the roads would be free enough for her to speed along and, where necessary, dart between the occasional passing car.
“First thing to remember is when you’re in superspeed, the world is standing still around you,” he said. “Cars that are going a hundred miles an hour are frozen, raindrops are suspended in mid-air…you are literally slicing through the wind. It’s the most amazing feeling.”
Gabby closed her eyes and nodded.
“So imagine the impact you’d make if you hit someone coming in at that speed,” he finished soberly, making her eyes snap open. “It’s supremely important to pull up just as you’re about to stop. Apart from the potential danger of breaking every bone in someone’s body, you really don’t want to do that to your shoes. Coming in hot wreaks havoc on the footwear; I’ve totalled enough pairs to know.”
She nodded, duly subdued. “Got it.”
“So…you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
He smiled. “Let’s go, then. Just start with a light jog by the side of the road, and gradually increase your speed. As you get faster and the world around you starts to slow down, you can actually go in the road and weave in between any obstacles.”
“You make it sound so easy,” she grumbled as they jogged along.
“You make my job really easy,” he said with a grin. “My parents discovered I had superspeed during a family day out when I was about four. We were playing hide and seek, and then next thing they knew, I zapped out of sight I found myself halfway across the county.”
“My grandparents sound like wonderful people,” she said wistfully. “I wish I could have known them.”
“Once you’ve mastered your superspeed, we’ll go visit my mom in Washington,” he promised.
“Yay! I can’t wait to meet her.”
They jogged along in silence for a few minutes.
“Ready to go faster?” he asked, and she nodded, increasing her speed slightly, then even more until he was certain they were rivalling Olympic 100-metre gold record speeds.
“It’s weird…but we’ve been running for fifteen minutes, and I don’t feel tired,” she noticed.
He nodded. “Wise observation. Kryptonian cells regenerate under a yellow sun regardless of physical energy exertion. So theoretically we shouldn’t need food, water or air to survive since the sun itself is our sustenance.” He frowned, and then chuckled. “But then again, you are half-human, so chances are you’ll be pretty hungry by the time we’re done.”
“In that case, let’s go faster before I break for lunch,” she chirped, and shot forward.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed. “Is this fast, or is this fast?”
“You need to go faster,” he urged, running beside her. “You’re going faster than an express train right now, which means you can still be seen. Hit the accelerator. Now.”
She nodded, took a deep breath, then shot forward in a burst of speed so fast she almost left him behind. He kept up with her, staying slightly in her wake as she went faster and faster, accelerating until there was an audible bang.
“Was that---?”
“The sound barrier,” he said, profoundly pleased. “Nicely done, Gabby.”
“Whoo-hoo!” she shrieked, speeding through the streets like lightning. “This is insane!”
“Just remember what I told you,” he warned. “Avoid all and any obstacles unless your aim is actually to hit them.”
“Okay,” she yelled. “How far have we run, Dad? I have no idea where we are!”
“Believe it or not, you’ve run clean through the State of Oklahoma and you’re in Amarillo, Texas,” he announced, having run the route many times himself.
“Awesome!”
“You’re doing great, honey. Just keep going!”
“I intend to-oooh!” she slammed on the breaks and came to an abrupt halt. The sudden stop raised a considerable cloud of dust and a loud hissing noise came from her trainers.
Clark slowed down and stopped beside her.
“What happened?” he queried. “You were doing so well!”
“Er – this happened!” she cried, pointing to the lake. Clark groaned and slapped his forehead.
“I should have warned you about Lake Meredith, and bodies of water in general,” he said. “At top speed, you’re actually fast enough to skim over it.”
“No way,” she breathed excitedly. “I can walk on water? That is so cool!”
“Yeah, well we’ll save that for another day when the lake isn’t in danger of being evaporated by your shoes,” he pointed out, staring at her still-smoking trainers.”
“Aw, man!” she groaned. “These were my favourite pair!”
“Well, I did warn you,” he replied with a smile. “Coming in hot ruins the footwear.”
“I can’t run back in these,” she grumbled with a pout. “Can I maybe get a lift back home?”
Clark took one look at her woebegone little face, and burst out laughing. “Alright, kiddo. Hop on.”
Gabby grinned widely and jumped on his back, and within seconds they were headed back home to Metropolis.
***
“Well, someone learned something new today,” Chloe mused as Clark walked in with Gabby on his back, and she caught sight of Gabby’s singed trainers. “How’d it go?”
“Exceptionally well, all things considered,” Clark replied with fatherly pride.
“Yeah, right up until the part where my favourite footwear went up in flames,” Gabby mumbled darkly as she dismounted, bending to remove her burnt shoes.
Chloe gave her an empathic smile. “What happened, you came in too hot?”
“We got to Lake Meredith in Texas, and she – heh – froze,” Clark chuckled as he ruffled his daughter’s hair. “But it couldn’t have gone better on the very first attempt. Well done, sweetheart.”
“I wish I could have been there,” Chloe said wistfully as she stared into her computer screen. To her surprise, Clark rested his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to whisper loudly in her ear.
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, Chloe,” he said, his voice warm against her ear. “Just say the word.”
Chloe gulped at the sexual undertones – heck, overtones in his voice and words. And clearly she wasn’t the only one that had noticed.
“I’ll just go and, er…get cleaned up for dinner,” she heard her daughter say smoothly from behind them. “See you in twenty.”
Clark waited until Gabby was out of earshot before speaking again.
“Have you given any thought to what I said a few weeks ago?” he asked, squeezing her shoulders lightly.
“I, er…” She shivered as tingles travelled down her spine. “I haven’t thought about it much,” she lied. “I just started back at the Planet, been so busy trying to get back into the swing of things there. That’s why I couldn’t go with you and Gabby today; check out this stack of reports as long as my---”
“I know you well enough to know that you babble when you’re lying, Chloe,” he said. “You’ve thought about this; about us. More than you’d care to admit.”
Chloe sighed, cursing her transparency and his obvious superpower to see right through her, even after all these years.
“Okay, maybe I have,” she admitted grudgingly. “But I’m sticking by what I said, Clark. We had a moment, but that’s all it was, and I think it’s best for everyone if we keep things as normal as possible.”
“And I told you,” he said as he straightened. “I’m not accepting that excuse from you anymore. It worked when we were fifteen and I wasn’t too sure what I wanted, but that was a long time ago. I love you, Chloe. And I believe you still love me, too.”
She swallowed as he lifted his hands away from her and headed for the door. “Ready when you are,” he said before departing from the room.
***
“So what was Dad asking you about?”
“Huh?” Chloe said, although she had a pretty good idea what her daughter wanted to know. The three of them had sat through a rather stilted dinner, and Gabby’s sharp-eyed gaze had gone from one of them to the other until Clark had finally mumbled something about going on patrol and had whooshed out into the night.
“He asked if you’d given some thought to what he said,” Gabby replied as she rinsed and dried the dish Chloe had just passed her. “What was he talking about?”
Chloe raised a sardonic brow and gave her daughter her best ‘what’s it to you?’ stare.
Gabby shrugged. “I wasn’t snooping, I just…sort of overheard. Without superhearing,” she added hastily.
Chloe took a deep breath and decided to come clean. “Your father would like us to start a relationship.”
A huge smile spread across her daughter’s face. “Cool! Way to go, Dad! So why haven’t you given him an answer?”
“Because I don’t know what that answer is, Gabby.”
“I do,” Gabby replied with a snort. “It’s a yes; any geriatric bat could see that.”
Chloe sighed. “I know you want this for us, Gabby, but things aren’t quite that simple.”
“They’re only as complicated as you’re making them, Mom,” was the blunt reply. “I mean, come on. You have a kid with the guy, for crying out loud, and you’re worrying about a piffling little date?” She shook her head and tut-tutted. “Talk about going through life back-asswards.”
“Gabby…” Chloe sighed again and rubbed her brow tiredly. “Honey…there’s so much you don’t know…”
“Yeah?” she challenged. “Well, here’s what I do know.” She blurred out of the room and returned seconds later with Chloe’s old yearbook.
“Now, I know I look like Dad,” she said as she flipped through the pages, “…but do you want to know what really clued me in to the fact that he was my father?”
She got to the page she was after, lifted the book and turned it so that Chloe could see the image Gabby was talking about.
“It was this,” her daughter said emphatically, tapping her mother’s face on the page she shared with Clark. “This smile. That look on your face, Mom…I’ve never seen you smile like that with anyone. Oh sure, you and Bruce get along real well, and you have a lot of fun with him – but I’ve never seen you look as happy as you do here.” Her voice broke and trembled with emotion. “And I really want to see you smile like that again.”
Chloe could feel tears beginning to gather behind her eyelids. “I want to, Gabby; I do,” she admitted. “But…”
“But what, Mom?” she asked quietly. “What are you do afraid of?”
“Your father and I…” she paused. “We have a history of hurting each other, emotionally. I don’t want to put you in the middle of that.”
Gabby rolled her eyes. “You’re not teenagers anymore, Mom,” she pointed out wisely. “…and Dad really wants to be with you, to make you happy; make you smile again, like you’re smiling in this picture. Just give him a chance to love you the way you’ve always wanted; the way he’s always wanted.”
Chloe stared at her daughter in surprise. Gone was the misbehaving little brat she’d brought to Metropolis a few short months ago. It was like looking at a mirror image through the looking glass.
“When did my little girl get all grown up?” Chloe asked in a quivering voice as her eyes filled with tears. “You’ve blossomed into an amazing young woman, Gabriella Marie. Your father’s been a wonderful influence on you.”
Gabby took a step towards her and laid a hand on her arm. “He has, but I have to admit that it’s all down to my mom,” she replied with a smile. “She’s my hero, and I love her to bits. I really hope to be as brave and as awesome as she is one day.”
Chloe laughed, and the tears fell down her face as she embraced her child and held her close.
The last three strained years had taken so much out of her emotionally; but for this moment only, it had been completely worth it.
***
Chapter 13…
Runner by
go_clo.Title: Agenda
Author:
babydee1Pairing: Chlark
Rating: NC-17 (mostly PG-13)
Warnings: None
Timeline: Futurefic; follows Season 8’s Injustice &
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
smallvillebbanglong Fanfic challenge. Many thanks totwinsarein 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 12
“Okay, so we’re down to the big two now, Gabby.”
Gabby nodded. “Superspeed and flight.”
“That’s right. We’ll tackle superspeed first.”
“Already on it,” she replied and bounced up and down lightly on her feet.
Clark smiled indulgently. “You can warm up if you want to, but it really isn’t necessary,” he said. “Like all of your other abilities, it’ll come naturally.”
They were wearing tracksuits and standing in the middle of a long, deserted road on the outskirts of Smallville. Clark had taken Gabby back there because he knew the roads would be free enough for her to speed along and, where necessary, dart between the occasional passing car.
“First thing to remember is when you’re in superspeed, the world is standing still around you,” he said. “Cars that are going a hundred miles an hour are frozen, raindrops are suspended in mid-air…you are literally slicing through the wind. It’s the most amazing feeling.”
Gabby closed her eyes and nodded.
“So imagine the impact you’d make if you hit someone coming in at that speed,” he finished soberly, making her eyes snap open. “It’s supremely important to pull up just as you’re about to stop. Apart from the potential danger of breaking every bone in someone’s body, you really don’t want to do that to your shoes. Coming in hot wreaks havoc on the footwear; I’ve totalled enough pairs to know.”
She nodded, duly subdued. “Got it.”
“So…you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
He smiled. “Let’s go, then. Just start with a light jog by the side of the road, and gradually increase your speed. As you get faster and the world around you starts to slow down, you can actually go in the road and weave in between any obstacles.”
“You make it sound so easy,” she grumbled as they jogged along.
“You make my job really easy,” he said with a grin. “My parents discovered I had superspeed during a family day out when I was about four. We were playing hide and seek, and then next thing they knew, I zapped out of sight I found myself halfway across the county.”
“My grandparents sound like wonderful people,” she said wistfully. “I wish I could have known them.”
“Once you’ve mastered your superspeed, we’ll go visit my mom in Washington,” he promised.
“Yay! I can’t wait to meet her.”
They jogged along in silence for a few minutes.
“Ready to go faster?” he asked, and she nodded, increasing her speed slightly, then even more until he was certain they were rivalling Olympic 100-metre gold record speeds.
“It’s weird…but we’ve been running for fifteen minutes, and I don’t feel tired,” she noticed.
He nodded. “Wise observation. Kryptonian cells regenerate under a yellow sun regardless of physical energy exertion. So theoretically we shouldn’t need food, water or air to survive since the sun itself is our sustenance.” He frowned, and then chuckled. “But then again, you are half-human, so chances are you’ll be pretty hungry by the time we’re done.”
“In that case, let’s go faster before I break for lunch,” she chirped, and shot forward.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed. “Is this fast, or is this fast?”
“You need to go faster,” he urged, running beside her. “You’re going faster than an express train right now, which means you can still be seen. Hit the accelerator. Now.”
She nodded, took a deep breath, then shot forward in a burst of speed so fast she almost left him behind. He kept up with her, staying slightly in her wake as she went faster and faster, accelerating until there was an audible bang.
“Was that---?”
“The sound barrier,” he said, profoundly pleased. “Nicely done, Gabby.”
“Whoo-hoo!” she shrieked, speeding through the streets like lightning. “This is insane!”
“Just remember what I told you,” he warned. “Avoid all and any obstacles unless your aim is actually to hit them.”
“Okay,” she yelled. “How far have we run, Dad? I have no idea where we are!”
“Believe it or not, you’ve run clean through the State of Oklahoma and you’re in Amarillo, Texas,” he announced, having run the route many times himself.
“Awesome!”
“You’re doing great, honey. Just keep going!”
“I intend to-oooh!” she slammed on the breaks and came to an abrupt halt. The sudden stop raised a considerable cloud of dust and a loud hissing noise came from her trainers.
Clark slowed down and stopped beside her.
“What happened?” he queried. “You were doing so well!”
“Er – this happened!” she cried, pointing to the lake. Clark groaned and slapped his forehead.
“I should have warned you about Lake Meredith, and bodies of water in general,” he said. “At top speed, you’re actually fast enough to skim over it.”
“No way,” she breathed excitedly. “I can walk on water? That is so cool!”
“Yeah, well we’ll save that for another day when the lake isn’t in danger of being evaporated by your shoes,” he pointed out, staring at her still-smoking trainers.”
“Aw, man!” she groaned. “These were my favourite pair!”
“Well, I did warn you,” he replied with a smile. “Coming in hot ruins the footwear.”
“I can’t run back in these,” she grumbled with a pout. “Can I maybe get a lift back home?”
Clark took one look at her woebegone little face, and burst out laughing. “Alright, kiddo. Hop on.”
Gabby grinned widely and jumped on his back, and within seconds they were headed back home to Metropolis.
***
“Well, someone learned something new today,” Chloe mused as Clark walked in with Gabby on his back, and she caught sight of Gabby’s singed trainers. “How’d it go?”
“Exceptionally well, all things considered,” Clark replied with fatherly pride.
“Yeah, right up until the part where my favourite footwear went up in flames,” Gabby mumbled darkly as she dismounted, bending to remove her burnt shoes.
Chloe gave her an empathic smile. “What happened, you came in too hot?”
“We got to Lake Meredith in Texas, and she – heh – froze,” Clark chuckled as he ruffled his daughter’s hair. “But it couldn’t have gone better on the very first attempt. Well done, sweetheart.”
“I wish I could have been there,” Chloe said wistfully as she stared into her computer screen. To her surprise, Clark rested his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to whisper loudly in her ear.
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, Chloe,” he said, his voice warm against her ear. “Just say the word.”
Chloe gulped at the sexual undertones – heck, overtones in his voice and words. And clearly she wasn’t the only one that had noticed.
“I’ll just go and, er…get cleaned up for dinner,” she heard her daughter say smoothly from behind them. “See you in twenty.”
Clark waited until Gabby was out of earshot before speaking again.
“Have you given any thought to what I said a few weeks ago?” he asked, squeezing her shoulders lightly.
“I, er…” She shivered as tingles travelled down her spine. “I haven’t thought about it much,” she lied. “I just started back at the Planet, been so busy trying to get back into the swing of things there. That’s why I couldn’t go with you and Gabby today; check out this stack of reports as long as my---”
“I know you well enough to know that you babble when you’re lying, Chloe,” he said. “You’ve thought about this; about us. More than you’d care to admit.”
Chloe sighed, cursing her transparency and his obvious superpower to see right through her, even after all these years.
“Okay, maybe I have,” she admitted grudgingly. “But I’m sticking by what I said, Clark. We had a moment, but that’s all it was, and I think it’s best for everyone if we keep things as normal as possible.”
“And I told you,” he said as he straightened. “I’m not accepting that excuse from you anymore. It worked when we were fifteen and I wasn’t too sure what I wanted, but that was a long time ago. I love you, Chloe. And I believe you still love me, too.”
She swallowed as he lifted his hands away from her and headed for the door. “Ready when you are,” he said before departing from the room.
***
“So what was Dad asking you about?”
“Huh?” Chloe said, although she had a pretty good idea what her daughter wanted to know. The three of them had sat through a rather stilted dinner, and Gabby’s sharp-eyed gaze had gone from one of them to the other until Clark had finally mumbled something about going on patrol and had whooshed out into the night.
“He asked if you’d given some thought to what he said,” Gabby replied as she rinsed and dried the dish Chloe had just passed her. “What was he talking about?”
Chloe raised a sardonic brow and gave her daughter her best ‘what’s it to you?’ stare.
Gabby shrugged. “I wasn’t snooping, I just…sort of overheard. Without superhearing,” she added hastily.
Chloe took a deep breath and decided to come clean. “Your father would like us to start a relationship.”
A huge smile spread across her daughter’s face. “Cool! Way to go, Dad! So why haven’t you given him an answer?”
“Because I don’t know what that answer is, Gabby.”
“I do,” Gabby replied with a snort. “It’s a yes; any geriatric bat could see that.”
Chloe sighed. “I know you want this for us, Gabby, but things aren’t quite that simple.”
“They’re only as complicated as you’re making them, Mom,” was the blunt reply. “I mean, come on. You have a kid with the guy, for crying out loud, and you’re worrying about a piffling little date?” She shook her head and tut-tutted. “Talk about going through life back-asswards.”
“Gabby…” Chloe sighed again and rubbed her brow tiredly. “Honey…there’s so much you don’t know…”
“Yeah?” she challenged. “Well, here’s what I do know.” She blurred out of the room and returned seconds later with Chloe’s old yearbook.
“Now, I know I look like Dad,” she said as she flipped through the pages, “…but do you want to know what really clued me in to the fact that he was my father?”
She got to the page she was after, lifted the book and turned it so that Chloe could see the image Gabby was talking about.
“It was this,” her daughter said emphatically, tapping her mother’s face on the page she shared with Clark. “This smile. That look on your face, Mom…I’ve never seen you smile like that with anyone. Oh sure, you and Bruce get along real well, and you have a lot of fun with him – but I’ve never seen you look as happy as you do here.” Her voice broke and trembled with emotion. “And I really want to see you smile like that again.”
Chloe could feel tears beginning to gather behind her eyelids. “I want to, Gabby; I do,” she admitted. “But…”
“But what, Mom?” she asked quietly. “What are you do afraid of?”
“Your father and I…” she paused. “We have a history of hurting each other, emotionally. I don’t want to put you in the middle of that.”
Gabby rolled her eyes. “You’re not teenagers anymore, Mom,” she pointed out wisely. “…and Dad really wants to be with you, to make you happy; make you smile again, like you’re smiling in this picture. Just give him a chance to love you the way you’ve always wanted; the way he’s always wanted.”
Chloe stared at her daughter in surprise. Gone was the misbehaving little brat she’d brought to Metropolis a few short months ago. It was like looking at a mirror image through the looking glass.
“When did my little girl get all grown up?” Chloe asked in a quivering voice as her eyes filled with tears. “You’ve blossomed into an amazing young woman, Gabriella Marie. Your father’s been a wonderful influence on you.”
Gabby took a step towards her and laid a hand on her arm. “He has, but I have to admit that it’s all down to my mom,” she replied with a smile. “She’s my hero, and I love her to bits. I really hope to be as brave and as awesome as she is one day.”
Chloe laughed, and the tears fell down her face as she embraced her child and held her close.
The last three strained years had taken so much out of her emotionally; but for this moment only, it had been completely worth it.
***
Chapter 13…
Tags:
