Chlark Fanfic: No Compromise
Hi, everyone! I've been on a bit of a Chlarky roll lately, haven't I? Well - here's some more if you're interested! Written for the Winter 2011 secret_chlark Challenge for h2osprincess. She wanted:
1 - Nod to current or former Chlollie [√]
2 - A good dose of Clark penance [√]
3 - I'm a sucker for a happy Chlark ending [√]
She did not want:
1 - Chlark baby (I like the concept, but would like to see them get together without that easy plot device) [√]
2 - Moon-eyed Chloe (after all Clark's done to her, I would respect her less for jumping into his arms at the first opportunity) [√]
3 - An uncharacteristically smart Lois [well…she *does* have a few lines, but they’re all common sense. ;-)]
Okay, I *think* I delivered. I hope you like it! :-\
Banner by the amazingly brilliant ctbn60. Thank you so much, Carol - you’re an absolute star! :-)
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. :-)
Chapter 1
“Chloe…you know when something happens, and suddenly you’re afraid that you can never go back? When you get these flashes going through your mind, flashes that you never expected…flashes of you and I?”
Chloe frowned and tilted her head, confused at his current line of questioning. “As in…?” she prompted.
To her surprise, he sidled up close to her and rested one hand on her waist. “What if we missed our chance?”
His voice was smooth and had dropped an octave, and her heart instantly picked up pace. She’d asked herself the very same question a thousand times, but she’d long since given up hope of ever hearing it from Clark’s lips.. If he was saying what she thought he was saying…
“What are you talking about, Clark?” she asked, her voice breathy and uncertain.
He leaned forward, so close that she could feel his breath on her lips, and said two words she’d longed to hear for over a decade.
“One kiss.”
***
One kiss…
Chloe Sullivan turned the words over and over in her head as she sat in the Watchtower thumbing through her old yearbook, finally landing on the centrespread that featured pictures of herself and Clark in every year that they had spent in Smallville High School. It was a cruel reminder of everything she’d hoped for since the first day she’d laid eyes on him.
It was no surprise then, that Clark’s kiss had been the first temptation. Which happened to coincide with the day of her first anniversary with Oliver - the anniversary she’d completely forgotten about.
She was still trying not to feel guilty about that. After all, their relationship wasn’t something she’d been proud of at the start, and even though things had deepened between them as time had gone on, recent events had forced her to admit to herself that a year later, her sentiments hadn’t really changed on that front. Just yesterday Oliver had challenged her reluctance to label him as her boyfriend, and she hadn’t had an answer for him. It hardly screamed Epic Love.
She frowned, picking up a few loose photos and skimming through them even as she turned the page on the yearbook to the ‘Most Likely’ section, a page she’d revisited several times over the years. As expected there she was; an excited, happy and fulfilled smile on her face as she posed with a half-completed article on her Torch computer. Chloe Sullivan, it declared boldly in yellow print, the caption beneath her image reading Most Likely to Succeed.
…Or not, she thought wryly, wondering if she ought to pencil that in beneath the mocking declaration. Her life certainly hadn’t gone as she’d planned.
Her vision blurred as she stared at the page and she blinked rapidly, her jaw indvertently hardening as she tried to ignore the sharp stab of pain that lanced her heart. Up until the last 24 hours, looking at this page would have simply produced a dull ache that she’d have effectively ignored. Now…
She stared at the pages again and gave a deep sigh. This had been her second big temptation, the Daily Planet carrot. And on and on it had gone, test after painful test until she strongly considered giving in to one of them simply to make the pain of recollection stop.
She shook her head sadly. Desaad didn’t fight fair. But his trials and temptations had made one thing abundantly clear: she’d been lying to herself for years. Seeing these images of herself as she once was had brought home to her just how far she now was from the woman she’d expected to become.
The woman she still yearned to become.
“You alright?”
Chloe glanced up and saw Oliver watching her intently from the top of the Watchtower spiral staircase. She straightened and glanced at all the monitors bearing x-rays of her blemish-free skull, and smiled.
“I escaped the villain of the piece with nary a mark on my bones,” she remarked, with more than a little satisfaction.
Oliver smiled and nodded proudly. “I’d expect nothing less.”
She returned his smile, and then glanced back down at her yearbook. The sharp stab of pain returned, and her smile faded slightly. Some of the sparkle must have left her eyes as well, because Oliver instantly noticed the change in her demeanour.
“You know, the whole ‘woman who doesn’t exist’ thing gets a little less mysterious when your looks coming into play, doesn’t it?” he remarked, glancing down at the images as he slowly approached.
She made a wry face at the damning pictures. “Yeah, they’re kind of a…breadcrumb…”
“Meaning what?” he asked, taking the seat opposite her and linking his hands. “You feeling a little lost, Chloe?”
Quite the contrary, in fact. She had been lost, for years; but the bitter tests she’d recently been put through had shed some much-needed moonlight on her darkened path, and like Gretel she could now see her way all too clearly.
“I have been so many things over the years,” she began. “Doe-eyed sleuth, Intrepid Reporter, Watchtower…” her nose wrinkled almost distastefully at that last one, through no conscious thought of her own.
“Business-suited Cybersaviour…” Oliver added, and she laughed.
“It worked, right?”
He smiled and nodded. “Yeah.”
Her own smile slipped as she continued. “I’ve always wound up defining myself by some group or cause or…other person,” she admitted reluctantly. “I’m…I haven’t felt like Chloe - well, Chloe 1.0 anyway, since…” she paused and stared at her promising Pulitzer Prize picture, and her features softened. “Well, her,” she finally said softly.
“And then I erased it all, I gave it all away…” She stopped and lifted her gaze to meet Oliver’s.
“I think that’s why I’ve been struggling to define myself against you,” she said candidly, suddenly feeling fearful and hesitant. “I’m…afraid that I’m going to lose the last little bit of me that I have left.”
Oliver shook his head. “No matter what happens, I know who you are,” he said reassuringly.
Chloe took a deep breath and gave him a sad smile. “I know. And that is why I have never questioned the love I feel for you.” She paused. “Until now.”
Oliver frowned and blinked rapidly. “I’m…I’m sorry?”
“It’s not healthy, is it?” she went on. “To just accept things blindly because it seems like a good idea at the time, or to justify anything that’s…well, to put it bluntly, a step or two away from our own expectations…”
“Chloe, what are you saying?”
“…I mean, when we know something is substandard, is it really wrong to be completely honest with ourselves?” she continued. “Why are we so terrified of what goes on in our own heads?”
“Okay Chloe, you’re beginning to scare me a little now,” he said warily, a worried look in his earnest brown eyes. “Is…is something bothering you?”
She took a deep breath and mentally said a prayer for strength before continuing. “I’ve…been in denial, for a long time,” she said lowly. “And for years, I buried my head in the sand and just papered over the cracks when they began to appear, but ever since yesterday…”
Oliver sighed and took her hand. “Is that what this is all about?” he said, relieved. “Desaad’s tests? Chloe, you’re fine, you beat him. Look, your scans are all clear…”
“He showed me, Oliver,” she said quietly. “All the things I ever wanted, ever dreamed of having or being…he confronted me with them.”
He patted her hand reassuringly. “Chloe, they were just visions, that’s all…”
“Visions that cut straight to the heart of the matter,” she said with a rueful smile. “And boy, did they ever. Desaad knew what was in my heart, I couldn’t hide it from him. And I’m…I’m done trying to hide it from myself.”
“So what if he tempted you with things you secretly want?” Oliver whispered. “We all have our flaws, things we secretly yearn for. It doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“Doesn’t it?” she said. “Well, you might think differently soon, because I have something I need to tell you…and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
Something in her tone must have alerted him to her intentions, because he stilled and regarded her with a narrow-eyed stare.
“Are you breaking up with me, Chloe?” he asked bluntly.
Chloe closed her eyes and lowered her head. There was no easy way to rip off a band-aid, but it had to be done.
“Yes, Oliver. I am.”
***
Chapter 2...