Chlark Fanfic: No Compromise, Chapter 3

[babydee1]

Thanks for the awesome banner, ctbn60! :-)  

Title:              No Compromise
Author:          BabyDee1
Pairing:          Chlark
Rating:           PG-13
Warnings:     None 
Timeline:      Follows Season 10’s Masquerade with reference to Collateral
Disclaimer:   All known characters belong to the CW & DC comics. 
Summary:     After Chloe resists all Desaad’s temptations, she finally admits to the truth of what’s in her heart. 
Feedback:      …makes me squee. :-) 

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

Chapter 3

“Clark…take my hand.  Do you trust me?”

A deep frown etched his brow and even as he tentatively reached for her, confusion and hope warred in his eyes. 

Then just before their fingers touched, he withdrew his hand and stared bleakly at the ground. 

“I can’t,” he said in a solemn whisper.  “I’m sorry.” 

***

“Did you bring the flashlights?” she queried. 

Clark picked up two large silver flashlights from the back of the truck and handed one to Chloe with a grin.  “They don’t call me Boy Scout fer nuthin’,” he said with a smirk, and she rolled her eyes and smiled. 

“Okay, Boy Scout, let’s roll.” 

To her surprise he took her hand as they walked into the darkness of the caves.  Ever since he had started dating Lois, his displays of affection towards her had vanished into the ether with immediate effect.  She honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d hugged her, save for the one embrace she’d pretty much had to steal off him in cyberspace.  And even then, when she’d asked him to take her hand and beseeched him to trust her, he’d reached for her and then backed away, breaking her heart like he always did. 

She set her mouth in a grim line as they walked along and tried to ignore the warmth of his hand in hers.  Oliver was right.  Clark would never love her like she wanted him to, but despite the truth in that, she didn’t regret breaking up with Oliver.  Even though it had hurt both of them, it had been the right decision to make, something she’d known was inevitable once Desaad had forced her to face her true feelings.  Oliver was the one thing in her visions that she hadn’t wanted; the one thing she hadn’t even been tempted to want, and the one thing in her heart that she had willingly turned away from.  As for everything else…

She gently extricated her right hand from Clark’s left one and transferred the flashlight from her left hand to her right just as Clark tried to reach for her again.  He gave her an odd glance but said nothing, and she returned to her lonely thoughts. 

Desaad had picked his temptations well.  She wanted Clark; she always would.  She envied Lois for snagging the Daily Planet reporter life and the man she’d always thought would be hers; and yes, given the chance she would have loved to get both back.  She took pride in her place as a hero, and would do whatever it took to protect the ones she loved. 

The one thing she had willingly turned down…had been Oliver.  And deep down, she knew that what she felt for him paled in comparison to the flame in her heart that burned for Clark; a flame that despite a year of painful separation and incredible strain, could never be extinguished.  She could finally admit that to herself that with Oliver she had settled for what she could get.  But she never would again, no matter the heartache it might cost her.  As Oliver had rightly said, no compromise.    

“Why didn’t you come with Lois?” she asked suddenly.   

“She, uh…” he paused, clearly having been caught off-guard.  “She had to be somewhere,” he finished vaguely. 

“And you thought I didn’t?” she challenged. 

“No, I just thought…” 

“You just thought I sit around all day twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my phone to ring with your caller ID on display,” she snarked.  “Business as usual, huh?”

He shook his head.  “You know that’s not true.”

“That’s always been true, Clark.  But for future reference, if it isn’t anything life-threatening or super-technical, you’re probably better off calling your fiancée,” she said sweetly and headed further into the caves. 

Now that she’d accepted her weaknesses, she was more than a little irritated at herself for having being so accommodating all those years.  Maybe if she’d stood her ground with Clark a little bit more and not been so accessible all the damn time…

“What I thought,” he said quietly behind her, “…is that I’ve hardly seen you since you got back, and I don’t know how long you’re going to stay or when you might take off again; so I’ll spend some time with you while I can.”

“Well then, why didn’t you just say so?” she shot back, walking so briskly that she bumped into a wall and dropped her flashlight.  “Damn it,” she muttered as she bent to pick it up.  “What exactly are we doing here, anyway?”

“I stashed a Kryptonian artefact in the cave walls years ago,” he replied.  “I need to retrieve it.”

Her eyes widened.  “Oh, no,” she said shaking her head.  “Kryptonian artefacts always spell trouble.  What do you need it for now?”

He shrugged.  “I need to give it to someone.”

“Just this once, isn’t it something we can do without?” she wheedled.  “Kryptonian doohickeys are usually more harm than good…unless you’re absolutely sure it’s something that will help us in the fight against Darkseid---”  she stopped mid-sentence and blinked, surprised to see that he was openly grinning at her.  “Clark, what are you smiling at?” 

He pointed his flashlight in her direction.  “You.”

“Why?” she asked, puzzled.  “My rant amuses you, for some reason?”

“He shone his flashlight at the ceiling to illuminate the cave and then pointed with his other hand at the wall behind her.  “That’s exactly where you were standing all those years ago, when you got bit,” he replied.  “By the parasite.”

“Oh, that,” she said as realisation dawned.  “That was…what, 9th Grade?  It was so long ago, I can’t even remember what happened.” 

He grinned sheepishly.  “Actually, you had no memory of anything that happened whilst it was in your system,” he explained. 

She frowned.  “But you do?”

“I wasn’t bitten,” he explained.  “I said that I was, but that was just to cover my tracks, because you didn’t know my secret then.  But Pete did, and he’d been infected, so he slipped me a RedK rock…”

“And the rest is history,” she mused.  “Or not, since I have no recollection of it.  Ah, well.” She walked away from the wall and Clark quickly followed her. 

“Aren’t you curious as to what you got up to when you were on a high?” he queried. 

She shrugged.  “It doesn’t matter now, does it?  We survived, life went on…end of story.” 

She got to the opposite side of the cave and climbed up one of the short ledges when she got there.  “So where exactly did you stash this artefact?”

Clark followed her.  “You called Dr Frederick Walden a cunning linguist, and then you told him to kiss your ass.”

Chloe gaped.  “I did not!” she said indignantly. 

“You most certainly did, you were standing right there,” he smirked, shining the torch at the cave painting of Numan’s Mate just above her head.

“I would never say that to anyone, much less to a famed hieroglyphical archaeologist!” she insisted. 

“Oh, you said and did a lot of stuff you don’t usually say and do,” he said slyly.  “But I won’t bother filling you in since you’re not interested in the past…we survived, life went on…” 

Chloe gave a resigned sigh.  “Okay, spit it out,” she said dryly.  “Since you so obviously want to make this trip down Memory Lane.” And she was also now insanely curious about those few missing hours, and was desperate to know what else she may have done. 

Clark grinned, clearly relishing the moment and started ticking items off his finger.  “Well let’s see…you kissed Steven Cross in the Torch…”

“I never!” she gasped.

“You told Lex to invest in a good toupee…”

“You’re kidding!  Although I admit I’ve always thought that, but…” she blinked and shook her head.  “Wow.  Anything else?”  

He smiled.  “I told you my secret, and you promptly jumped off the top railing of the barn.”  He paused.  “I caught you, of course.  And you called me your hero.”

She waited for him to continue.  “That’s it?” she said when he fell silent. 

He swallowed.  “Well…you also went joyriding with me and Pete, and…” he paused again. 

“…and what?” she pressed.  “What else?”

“You and I…we made out in the back seat of Pete’s car.  And in the Talon.”

***

At those words, her shocked expression disappeared and was immediately replaced with a harsh scowl.

“Not funny, Clark.”

“It wasn’t,” he said, a strange dreamy look on his face.  “It was…kinda sexy, actually…”

“You know, this is a very weird conversation for you to have with the cousin of the woman you’re about to marry,” she said stonily.  “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I can only assume you’re already mourning your pending lost bachelorhood.  Have you gotten cold feet, or something?” 

He took a deep breath.  “Chloe…”

“Look, let’s just forget this conversation ever happened, pick up your artefact and leave,” she said sharply.  The last thing she needed to be reminded of was a time when she dreamed of herself and Clark having a future together. 

“Are you upset that we kissed?”

“Okay, why are you bringing this up now?” she asked, getting seriously rattled.  “Are you getting some perverse delight in stirring up old wounds?  What, did you think I’d be happy to know that I threw myself at you when I was pretty much drugged?”

“You didn’t throw yourself at me, we sort of…went for each other,” he corrected.  “It was mutual.”

“Yeah, so mutual that you not only kept it from me for a decade, you also decided not to bother with a repeat performance!” she raged.  “Was I that bad a kisser, Clark?”

“You weren’t bad at all, you were awesome!” he argued. 

“Well, I’m happy I was able to hold your attention for five minutes until you hurried back to the first available brunette with the initials LL,” she shot back.  “Now for the last time, can we please change the subject?”

“Fine,” he said crossly.  “Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“I don’t want to talk about anything!” she cried, waving the flashlight frantically.  “I didn’t come here to talk, Clark.  You said you needed my help, though for the life of me I can’t see why.  So the sooner you get what you came here for, the sooner we can leave, and I can get back to living my life!”

Clark turned away and walked stiffly to one of the furthest corners of the cave.  She watched while shone the light on an unmarked section of the wall and then held his hand over it patiently.  After a few minutes the wall opened and he reached in and pulled something out, and the wall slid back into place, concealing the secret chamber. 

Clark made his way back to where she was standing.  As he walked she shone her light on the contents of his hand and blinked.  He was holding what looked like a silver bracelet set with a large turquoise stone.

“What is that?” she asked with a frown.  “Kryptonian jewellery?”

“It’s a bracelet,” he explained quietly. 

“And you needed me to witness this, why?”

He gulped.  “It’s destined for my Soulmate; the True One in my life.”

Rub it in some more, why doncha? she thought bitterly. 

“Well, lucky Lois,” she muttered snarkily, edging past him.  “I can’t believe you dragged me out here to go ring-shopping for your future wife.”   

Just as she got to the exit, Clark supersped to her side and grabbed her hand. 

“Chloe,” he began nervously. “You…you know when something happens, and suddenly you’re afraid that you can never go back?”

Instantly she stilled, his words making the hairs on her neck stand up on end.   

“What do you mean?” she whispered.  

“Like when you get these flashes going through your mind, flashes that you never expected,” he went on, sounding urgent.  “Flashes of---” 

“You and I?” she finished hollowly, her heart hammering so hard against her ribs she was worried she might burst a blood vessel. 

He smiled, oblivious to her mounting distress.  “Exactly,” he said, and his fingers tightened around hers.  “Chloe…the thing is…” he paused and swallowed, and then finished with the words that gave her a serious case of déjà vu.

“What if we missed our chance?”

***

Chapter 4…