Banner by Bkwurm1
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me…
Chapter Eight
“So? How is it?” Bart prodded.
“It’s good,” Chloe grunted.
“No. I mean, is it tender enough? Did I put too much rosemary? Some people are like ‘ew, I hate rosemary,’ but I feel like, when it’s in a roast, it just blends in with other spices and…”
“It’s very good,” Chloe sighed impatiently, then gripped his hand on the table next to her. It wasn’t Bart’s fault she was frustrated. “You’re turning into a gourmet.”
“Well, when you eat as much as I do…” Bart chuckled. “But I promise, I’ll still sneak you some squeeze cheese and chocolate if you get the major food groups in you first. Doctor H. doesn’t have to know everything.”
“Well, as long as there’s still some squeeze cheese in my life,” she said, tossing him a smile. No. She wasn’t angry with Bart. Dinah might be the closer target, with all she’d said to Clark. She had it wrong. Chloe had long since given up on the idea of being with Clark. That was silly, high school stuff. There were more important things to focus on. Then again, maybe that was all Dinah could gather from what she saw. She’d set Dinah straight tomorrow. Not tonight. She wasn’t sure she had the energy to explain her relationship with Clark to Dinah tonight. Sometimes, she could hardly explain it to herself. From the outside, it must look an awful lot like she had feelings for him. And she did. But they were just… friendly. It was about his future, even. They were damned near coworkers. It was nearly professional. Speaking of that…
“So you guys are expanding patrols to other states.”
Bart shrugged. “Well, we always were, with each of us playing in our home towns, but we’re branching out a little. Trying to widen the reach.”
“I heard Clark’s in New York tonight,” trying to think of that and nothing else about Clark. Dinah was right about one thing. It hurt, the way he avoided her, but maybe that’s the way it had to be after all that happened. Maybe the professional side of their relationship was all that was left for them.
“… so it’s really just a test run,” Bart was saying. “He’s usually on this tri-state area and I usually take Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and, of course, Keystone City. Hometown and all that.” He thumped his chest. “But things don’t get going there till after ten eastern, so I take the late night shift. But we’re going to try me out around Ohio towns next. It’s easier with me and Clark, being able to get somewhere. But we do what we can. Oliver takes a week in Star City when he has business. Dinah covers LA sometimes. But not tonight. I think Vic’s having her cover Metropolis while Clark’s in New York, so….”
“It sounds like a lot of work,” she cut in, exhausted just hearing about it.
“We definitely need more man-power. But Jones is thinking of pulling a few, even with his time on the force. It’s a shame we can’t use Vic in the field.”
“Why not?”
“We need him on Watchtower. He’s the only one of us with tech know-how.”
“Well, I could…”
“I know. We were considering that when you… Well… things changed.” He leaned over and patted her stomach. “With the little monster here.”
That wasn’t the first time he’d used that nickname and she was not a fan. Chloe batted his hand away. “That’s not funny.”
“Sure it is. Speaking of him, I’d like to try some Mexican tomorrow. See how the little monster handles his spice.”
Chloe pushed her plate away. “How can you joke about this?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to keep at it until I get what I want.”
Chloe turned to him, annoyed.
“Just a little smile. Tiniest one’ll do.”
“Would you settle for me not dumping a plate in your lap?”
“I guess I’ll have to.” Bart chuckled. “You know, it’s not like I joke because I don’t know how serious all this is. It is mind-numbingly, soul-crushingly serious around here almost all the damned time. You have to laugh at it once in a while, Chloe,” he finished more seriously. “Because it’s not all bad. Even the little monster… not all bad.”
Chloe shook her head. “Really? Because I can’t find one good thing about this…”
“No. I mean that kid, whatever else is going on with it, is one-half Sullivan, so it can’t be all bad.”
“Bart, I don’t want to talk about…”
“Well, you have to. Or at least let me,” he cut in. “Now, the way I see it, we got Davis -- half beast, half man. But you, my lovely, are all woman. So this kid's only a quarter beast. It’s got a shot.”
“So it'll only grow up to kill a quarter of the world?”
“Or no one at all. You don’t know.” He covered her hand. “Hey, it's half Chloe Sullivan. And I think that's a part that's worth saving.”
She gripped his hand back and tried to give him that smile he was looking for. She almost did. “I’d rather just talk about the patrols right now. I don’t see any reason why I can’t man the controls. It’s mostly a lot of sitting around.”
Bart chuckled. “Yeah. You’re getting pretty good at that.”
“Shut up.” She did smile, then, but it dropped when she saw Clark step in.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said. “Watchtower duties might not be physical, but it’s high stress and not something you should be doing in your… condition,” he finished awkwardly.
Chloe slipped her hand from Bart’s. “I don’t think that’s up to you.”
“It’s just an opinion.”
Bart pushed back his chair. “You’re back so soon?”
“We had some trouble with the GPS signals. Vic’s going to tweak it and we’ll try again tomorrow,” he said, his eyes still on Chloe. “But Victor wants you to gear up. He thinks Philadelphia might have some action tonight.”
“I’m on it,” Bart said before disappearing.
Chloe stared at Clark across the empty chair left upended in Bart’s wake. “So were you listening in on all that?”
“I wasn’t,” he said, staring at the floor. “ I just heard about Watchtower and I just think it’s a lot for you to handle when you have… other things to deal with.”
She stood and gathered her plate and cup. “And I just think you can let me judge what I can and can’t handle,” she said as she moved into the kitchen. She felt him behind her as she put her dish in the industrial sized sink. “Why the sudden interest?”
“I just think…”
“You just think…” She let out an annoyed huff of a laugh before she turned to him. “This just suddenly came upon you. This wouldn’t have anything to do with what Dinah said, would it?”
He gave her a half-smile. “Now who’s listening in?”
“I didn’t mean to hear it,” she said, flushing as she turned back to the sink, rinsing her leftovers down the disposal. “But she has it wrong. I don’t… I don’t have…” God! She had no idea how to finish that sentence. “I’m getting by just fine,” she said more evenly. “I don’t want you guilted into dealing with me when you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to. I just…” He reached over her shoulder and turned off the faucet before stepping back. “I’m just having trouble adjusting to this. This now,” he finished softly. “I don’t know how to feel about it.”
“You think I do?” She whirled on him. “You think this was the plan? Dinah may have gotten some things wrong, but she was right about one thing…”
“I know,” he said gently. “Because I was listening. I just hated that I had to hear it instead of… say it.” He stared at the floor between them. “Nothing against Bart, but… I should be the one that does that.”
“Does what?”
He met her eyes. “I should be here, should have been here this whole time. I’m so sorry.”
Her anger melted, damn his big, sad eyes. “Clark…”
“No. I once told you I’d be your own personal bomb squad and I... I don’t think of you as a… fallen woman or anything like that. I mean, it’s not… what I thought you would… I never thought you would…” He huffed and paced away. “I’m not saying this right. But I just don’t know what to do with this. But I know… Chloe, I do know staying away was wrong in every way. Because that was supposed to be me back there.” He gestured vaguely to the commissary. “I should be the one that makes you feel better at the end of a bad day. And I haven’t been doing that for you. With all you’ve given up for me…”
Chloe shook her head. “Clark, I always told you -- everything I lost, it was worth it. How many times did you save the day? Just being a part of that is…”
“I didn’t save it alone.” He moved closer and held her gaze. “Never. You were always there. And I didn’t know how much I needed you there till you left. It was a little harder without you, a little colder.” He stepped closer and she couldn’t help thinking of all those other things Dinah said, the ones she was determined to set her straight on.
She turned back to the sink, decided she really needed to wash her dish right this second. “Well, my research skills are pretty handy, even if I do say it myself, so…”
“I’m not talking about you researching. It’s how we would talk. After every bad day, there you were. Even when you lost everything, you always propped me up first, told me it would be okay.”
She started to put her dishes in the drain board, then decided she’d just dry them, needing something, anything, to do. “Well, you know. That’s what friends…"
“That’s more than friendship. I don’t know what to call it, but friendship isn’t enough. At the end of every messed up day, I had you to help me feel good about what I did, even when I didn't want to. I had you to tell me I was doing my best, that I would be something great someday, that I'd save us all. And I needed that then and I know you need it now.”
“Well, my day wasn’t so bad,” she said lightly, trying her damnedest not to cry into the dish towel. “I mean, I’m mostly okay. Did some shopping.”
“You got your hair done, too,” he said softly.
Her hand went absently to it. “Well, that was mostly Dinah. She made me get my nails done and some clothes for when… Well, you know.”
“For the…” he swallowed so hard she could hear it, “the baby?”
She wiped her own tears off the plate. “No, just me,” she said as evenly as she could, “for later. Then we went for coffee… Well, I had tea. That’s one the hardest things about this. Barely any coffee and you know how I…”
“Chloe?”
“Yeah?”
“I think that plate’s dry by now.” He reached around her and set it aside.
And she turned into him, burrowing into his chest as she sobbed.
“I know,” he said, though she’d said nothing. His hand moved up and down her back.
“What am I going to do?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. We’ll get through it.”
“I don’t want to just get through it.” She drew back, sniffling. “I feel like I’ve been sleepwalking through every day, just trying to get through it. I need to think about it, but I can’t think about it, so maybe I… I just need something to do because I can’t stop and think about it because every time I think about it, I just want to scream.”
“Okay, then.” He gripped her arms, thumbs rubbing lightly. “Do you want me to take you somewhere you can scream all you want? The Grand Canyon or…”
“No,” she whimpered. “I mean, Dinah’s been reading these books and screaming can upset the baby and…” She broke off, sobbing. “And I just called it a baby. And ‘it’. See, that’s the problem. I feel guilty if I think it’s an ‘it’ and like I’m being naïve if I call him a baby and… I don’t know how to feel, Clark. And I feel like I could deal with this if I just knew what I was dealing with and… I can’t even think straight. I’m talking in circles and…”
He pulled her in again. “Chloe, you don’t have to have everything figured out right this second.”
“I’m not used to this, Clark. I’m used to good and bad. Black and white. One or the other. But this whole year’s been nothing but gray and now… now I’ve got the capper of an alien baby…”
“It’s only a possible alien…”
“With an absentee father,” she finished miserably.
Clark drew back. “Would that help? Finding Davis? Is that what you want to…”
“No. I don’t know. Maybe…” She shook her head. “No. I’m not sure having him around would do anything but confuse things more.”
Something that looked like relief flashed briefly in his eyes as he pulled her back in. “Just tell me what you need. I’ll do it.”
She leaned her forehead against his chest and let out a watery laugh. “Just like a man. You’re probably looking for some fix-all so I stop blubbering all over you.”
“You can cry all you want,” he cut in softly. “This jacket’s stain-resistant.”
She laughed again, through her tears. “No wonder you love your stupid jackets so much.”
“Well, they can take a beating.” He took a deep breath.
She took it with him, drying up a little. Because this was nice. This was something she’d gotten used to over the years and had really missed these last weeks and – God! – for so long before this. Clark folded around her, big hands splayed on her back, chin resting on top of her head. It was and would always remain the safest she’d ever felt. She took another deep breath and he joined her, breath stirring her hair.
“Feel any better?” he whispered.
Yes. “I don’t know,” she said instead, not wanting him to let her go just yet. In the midst of all the confusion, this was something familiar and warm and safe… until it wasn’t. Familiar, that is.
His head moved just a fraction and she felt his lips barely brush her hairline. It didn’t feel altogether safe, either, though it did feel warm. She felt warm all over. She was trying to decide if it was an accident when he was suddenly across the kitchen.
“Always something,” he breathed, leaning against the stainless steel island.
“Wha…”
“Oliver’s coming,” he said more clearly, then looked around the kitchen almost frantically until his eyes lit on Bart’s dinner, still sitting in pots and pans on the island. “You know, I should take care of this, so it doesn’t…”
“There you are,” Oliver said loudly, sailing in. “Finally.”
“We weren’t hiding or anything,” Clark said quickly, opening and closing cabinet doors. “Does Bart have any tin foil in here? I need to put this away.”
“Hey, that looks good,” Oliver moved up to the counter, rubbing his hands. “I can put it away in five minutes or less. Anyway, I’ve been looking for you two and, apparently, I’m not the only one.”
Chloe shook herself and handed him her plate. “Meaning?”
Oliver plucked a new potato out of a bowl. “I’ll give you a hint. She’s red-headed, but morally gray. She’s…”
“Tess, I know,” Clark sneered, closing a drawer and leaning against it. “She showed up at the farm. And the answer is no.”
Ollie chuckled. “Well, I figured. Just had to check.”
Chloe looked between them. “No to what?”
“The Planet. You were right to walk away from it. I think we both had enough of working for the enemy,” Clark said, finally meeting her eyes again.
Chloe held up a hand, finally shaky off the hazy moment. “Wait a minute. Did Tess offer you a job again?”
“Not just Clark,” Oliver said, making himself a heaping plate.
Chloe sighed. “Well, I’ve been here before. You can tell her I still don’t hack for…”
“Not that,” Oliver cut in. “She seems to want to right the horrible injustice of Lex firing you from The Planet. She really piled it on.”
Chloe gripped the sink behind her, trying to figure out how to react to that. Like everything else in her life right now, the prevailing feeling was confusion. “How does she even know I’m around?” she said, settling on that question first.
“How does Tess ever know anything?” Oliver said as he chewed.
“Whatever she knows, it’s too much, like always,” Clark grunted.
“Anyway, she said she wants a meeting with you. I said I’d pass it along.” Oliver shrugged. “Done. Now we just ignore and hope she lets it go.”
“No.” Chloe loosened her grip on the sink, standing straighter. “I want to meet with her.”
Oliver dropped his fork.
Clark stepped forward. “Chloe…”
“If Tess is pushing to find me, she’ll end up doing it. I don’t think we want her dropping in here.” She shook her head. “More than that, I can’t… I can’t stay holed up here forever.”
Clark stared at her. “Are you seriously considering working for Tess?”
“No. I’ve seriously decided to meet with her. The rest… I don’t know.”
“The answer is no,” Clark said levelly.
“Your answer may be. But I think I should see what she wants before…”
“What she claims to want,” Clark broke in. “You know what she’s like.”
“Which is exactly why I need to get this over with,” she said, irritated now. “It’s not like she’ll give up. If I meet with her, I can at least get an idea of…”
“You know what?” Clark threw up his hands. “That’s up to you. I’m done. I don’t want any more games with Tess.”
Chloe lifted her chin. “It’s just a meeting, Clark.”
“I’m serious, Chloe. If you want to do this, I’m not supporting it.”
*********************
“I mean it,” Clark said from behind her at the coffee cart. “I don’t want to hear it when Tess starts spying on your every move. You’re on your own.”
“You keep saying that.” Chloe took her change and her stupid tea and turned to him. “But here you are.”
“I’m just here to… make sure you don’t apply.”
“Hey, I’m not just applying,” she said as she marched through the lobby. And up the stairs, not down, which was strange. Her clothes felt strange, too, but not in a bad way. As much as she liked a nice, sleek, pencil skirt, there was something to be said for one with an elastic waist. “I’ve been headhunted and am granting an interview, which kind of gives me an advantage.”
He was hot on her heels. “So you are thinking of…”
“I’m only thinking of it. I haven’t decided one way or the other,” she said wearily.
“Last night, you said it was only the meeting and…”
“Last night was last night.” There was something about this morning that changed her. She felt… eager to get up and barely even annoyed to find Dinah hovering over her when she opened her eyes. Dinah had been so excited to dress her in business casual that Chloe didn’t have the heart to chew her out for her little yelling session with Clark. Then again, maybe she wouldn’t bother. As much as Dinah had things wrong, it had done some good. Here Clark was, protecting her. It felt so nice, she didn’t have the heart to tell Clark she didn’t need protecting. “There’s an offer on the table and I’m going to consider it from all possible angles. But the income wouldn’t hurt.”
“There’s plenty of money in your bank account.”
She turned to him on the landing. “Too much money and none of it mine.”
“It is yours.”
“It’s Oliver’s and I’m not accepting it.”
“It’s… hazard pay from… from your services rendered with…”
“My god, do all of you have this rehearsed?” She moved to the elevators. “I don’t care what you call it, I’m not accepting it. I’m going to earn my way.”
He moved in after her. “Well, consider it an advance on watchtower shifts,” he hissed, although the elevator was empty.
“I thought you didn’t want me to pull watchtower duty.” She pressed the nine button.
“Better than this,” he grumbled.
“Besides, I’m not accepting money for watchtower shifts. I’m considering my room and board pay enough… while I’m there.”
“While you’re…”
“Besides, do you get paid, Clark?”
“You know, Bart gets living expenses for out of town work and Victor gets compensated for time upgrading the tech and…”
“Do you get paid?” she repeated.
“I have a source of income. I have a farm and…”
“So why are you here in a suit?”
“Because you insisted on taking this interview,” he said tightly.
“Nice tie, by the way.”
“Oliver lent me…” He stopped on a huff. “And what do you mean, while you’re there?”
“I’m not staying in that cell forever.”
“It’s not a cell,” he mumbled. “It’s a spacious living quarters. Everyone else makes do when they’re in town.”
“Everyone else has another home to go to. It’s a room with a half-bath. My college dorm was bigger,” she said as to doors slid open.
“If you need more space, headquarters can be…”
“Would you keep your voice down?” she hissed as they moved out. “I don’t think Tess needs to know any more about our business.”
“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be here,” he whispered.
She ignored him and moved to the reception desk. “Chloe Sullivan to see Tess Mercer.”
“Yes, she’s been expecting you. She just stepped out for a minute.” The brunette swiveled her chair to Clark. “And you are…”
“Clark Kent,” he muttered.
“She’s not expecting him,” Chloe sighed. “But I’d guess she’d like to see him, too.”
“You’d be right,” a measured voice said from behind them.
Chloe turned to see Tess, all cool smiles and sleek lines, as always, moving out of the bullpen.
“Just not at the moment.” Tess moved past them, heels clacking on the polished floor. “But I’ll see if I can squeeze him in. Karen, could you get Mr. Kent a coffee while he waits?”
Chloe glanced at Clark. He didn’t like that, though it was hard to tell as he’d had the same mutinous look on his face all morning.
“Miss Sullivan?” Tess was holding open her office door. “After you.”
Chloe looked back to Clark, trying to give him a bracing smile. She wasn’t sure what the expression on her face actually was.
It didn’t help that Tess laughed when she took her seat behind the desk. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”
“I’m not so sure I won’t be,” she said honestly, setting her tea on the side table and tightly folding her shaking hands in her lap as she took a seat. And that wasn’t just breakfast talking. Now that she was deep in it, it was very discomfiting, being in this building again. It held the best and worst moments of her life. Even this very office held memories both terrible and wonderful. From Lex yelling about his right to spy on her to Pauline Kahn shaking her hand and welcoming her to her dream job.
When Lex took it over, it had turned into a nightmare. What the hell was she doing here?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Tess said.
“I doubt that.”
“I’m not Lex, you know.”
“Well, apart from the hair, it’s hard to tell you two apart. Such a creative definition of ethics.”
Tess raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you came at all, if that’s what you think.”
“I wasn’t sure what to think, which is exactly why I came. The last I knew of you, you’d sent an assortment of powered individuals after me.”
“So we’re going to be honest. How refreshing.” Tess smiled and leaned forward. “If you know that, then you also know I didn’t send them after you, not specifically.”
“Still, I don’t think you cared much if I got caught in the crossfire.”
“There were bigger things at work. You know that as well as I do. I was doing what I thought I had to do to contain a threat with the limited resources I had and...”
“That’s not how I saw it. You were manipulating an already volatile situation…”
“And I paid for that,” Tess cut in hotly. “That assortment of powered individuals, as you call them, nearly killed me.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
Tess shook her head. “No more than I would for you. Take a look at this last year, Chloe, and tell me you didn’t fuck up, too, running off with the cornfield killer…”
“I was trying to keep people safe.”
“And what the hell was I doing? I was thrown into this with no preparation and I was floundering to figure out what the hell to do with this world of crystals and monsters and our mysterious friend out there.”
Chloe heard a muffled thump from beyond the door and knew that Clark was listening to every word. “Calm down,” she said under her breath, hoping he’d hear it.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. I’m just thinking out loud,” Chloe said evenly, “wondering why you want us here as I’m positive you know more than you should.”
“More than I wanted to,” Tess said. “Trust me on that.”
She didn’t. “Then maybe you know that Clark isn’t a threat to the world. He isn’t something for you to control and toy with…”
“I’m not toying with anyone. I know all I need to about Clark. I offered him his job back and he refused. The fact that he showed up here has nothing to do with me. The offer stands for him and for you. Take it or leave it.” She stood. “I didn’t bring you here to argue about the past. I want to talk about the future.”
“You think I have a future with a Luthorcorp-owned…”
“Don’t forget Queen Industries,” Tess cut in, moving to her sideboard. “They’re on the letterhead, too. Coffee?”
“Thanks. I have tea already.”
“Well, that doesn’t match up with your files.”
“Considering your files on me were put together by Lex, most of it won’t match up with the truth.”
Tess laughed as she poured. “You know, we never got to have a long talk, you and me. You’re quick. I kind of like it.” She turned and met Chloe’s eyes. “All the more reason to have you on staff.”
Chloe gave her a tight smile. “Are you really going to pretend that’s your reason?”
Tess sighed and sipped at her coffee, perching on the edge of her desk. “Regardless of how you feel about what I did then, these last months speak for themselves. I don’t want to continue Luthorcorp’s tradition of tossing money into the black hole of research with nothing to sell. Others can play with the mysteries of the universe. I’m more interested in turning a profit these days. I’m taking this paper seriously. Circulation is up, agenda is down. ”
The funny thing was, everything she’d said sounded like the truth, yet there was something hollow about it, as if she’d left a few blanks. “If the paper’s doing so well, then I wonder why you need me.”
“I’m not saying I do. But it’s not doing as well as it could. The Inquisitor and The Star seem to take turns outselling us every week. I need staff and I’d much rather they have experience. Despite your hiatus, you have it in spades and Clark…” She shrugged. “Well, he makes up for it in… special talents.”
“Talents which he doesn’t abuse for his own gain,” Chloe said with narrowed eyes.
“Yes. He’s a goddamned saint. I know that by now.” Tess set down her coffee impatiently. “Jesus! You were fired on shaky grounds, from what I know, and I’m giving you a chance to prove that. And you can tell Clark that it’s not often I give a second chance to employees who just stop showing up to work,” she said loudly toward the door before lowering her voice. “But I know there have been extenuating circumstances for the both of you. I’m offering you a job, plain and simple. If you don’t want it, then stop wasting my time.” She moved to the door.
“I do want it,” Chloe found herself saying, standing and turning to her.
“Fine. And you can tell Clark…” Tess trailed off, meeting her eyes. “You do?”
Chloe held her stare. “This was a great paper once.” And she’d left it in Lex’s grip. She should have fought for it and she didn’t. Would she be fighting Tess now? Maybe. As much as she found truth in Tess’ words, there were still those troubling blank spaces. Where better to fill them in than here? “I think it can be great again,” Chloe finished, leaving a few blank spaces of her very own, but that’s just how it had to be with Mercer.
Tess only nodded and moved away from the door. “You start tomorrow. Report to Karen at eight and she can show you around.”
“I think I know my way around.”
“Not on this floor,” Tess said, taking a seat behind her desk. “Send Kent in for me, would you?”
CHAPTER NINE
Still checking off my patron’s requests…
Chloe and Clark, working together at The Planet? Check!
Just so you guys know, I have finished my giant fic FINALLY and this fic is now on the front burner. So expect the updates to be closer together.
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