There Is Only One Chloe Sullivan
Title: There Is Only One Chloe Sullivan
Author: latetothepartyhp
Rating: PG
Genre: future-fic drama
Spoilers: through Pandora
Warnings: some language; Chlark interaction with a strong whiff of Chlollie in the background
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and am not making any money off this story.
Summary: Chloe takes up journalism again and Clark is worried.
"There is nothing in the story about Zod being an alien."
"It's still a bad idea. Luthorcorp built those towers. You print this and Tess will never leave you alone."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "I can handle Tess."
"So now you have your little crossbow you think nothing can touch you?"
She started. "Clark, was that - sarcasm?"
"What?"
"What you just said -- were you being sarcastic? You haven't been sarcastic since -- freshman year, maybe?"
What was wrong with the woman's priorities? She was going over Niagara in a barrel and she was calling him on his sarcasm? He tried a different tactic.
"Chloe, if you publish this you will be black-listed. You're going to re-start and end your career with one story."
She gave him a pitying look. "They've got this new-fangled contraption now, they call it the 'Internet'. You don't need to submit anything to an editor for approval - you just type it in and bam! The whole world can read it!"
Who's sarcastic now?
"Would you just sit down for a minute? What are you doing, anyway?"
"Hard copies. I've got three sets of hard copies Ollie's sending out for storage. Three different locations. Plus I'll have flash drives stashed in various places. He'll be picking them up in -- soon. Crap."
He fell quiet. Oliver thought this was a good idea. Oliver was helping her. Oliver was going to get her killed.
"I don't think Oliver's what you'd call objective when it comes to Tess and Luthorcorp."
"Well that makes two of us. No point in being 'fair and balanced' about a genocidal maniac. And I'll be honest -- the only reason I wrote around the alien stuff rather than include it was because I didn't want the story dismissed as some kind of X-Styles craziness. People need to know what happened."
"But you don't need to be the one who tells them! Let me do it!"
"Excuse me?" When he saw the Kalashnikovs in Chloe's eyes he realized he'd said exactly the wrong thing. "This is my story Clark. Mine. I collected the research, I wrote it, I figured out how to leave out all the bits that might lead people to ask questions about you. Me. Don't even think you can take this from me. You have your own angle on it? Fine. Write it. But you, unlike me, do still actually work for Tess, so you, unlike me, are going to have to figure out the ethics of finding another venue for it, because the Daily Planet wouldn't know truth anymore if it walked in off the street and applied for a recently vacated position."
"That is not fair! And it's not the point of this discussion, either. You are going to get yourself hurt -- you never think about that, do you? You just rush off with Davis or Ollie to fix some problem that's none of your business in the first place and you never, never think about what could happen. I've been digging you out of graves and pulling you out of morgue drawers for so long you think it's normal. Someday I will not be able to run between you and the bullet!"
"None of my business? Impending apocalypse is none of my business? That's everyone's business. The only difference between me and Jane Public is that I knew it was impending and I tried to stop it. And yes, it was dangerous; why do you think I spent all that time learning how to shoot? I'm not going to sit quietly in a corner knitting while the world ends because it's 'not my business' or I might get broke. I'm tired of living my life based on threats and other people's worries."
"Since when have you cared about other people's worries?"
"Since when have you been worried? Since Jimmy's funeral you've acted more concerned about my interference than my safety."
"That's not true - "
"Well what is the truth then? You've had no time for me in over a year and now suddenly you're my dad. Except my dad knows how to be supportive."
"Maybe you could have learned something from him!"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
He had no idea, except with her lately it was always an argument. Go back in time and save Jimmy. Don't make friends with Zod. Couldn't she ever once let him deal with a situation his way? "You never want to let me handle anything. You just go and get yourself involved and then -- "
"Ollie and I stop a permanent solar eclipse?"
"No!" Well, yes. Kind of. Friendship with Zod had turned out to mean Zod's way or the highway. Which he was totally not doing himself, right now. And why the hell did she always have to bring Ollie into it? It wasn't like he, Clark, hadn't had to swoop in and save the day. Per usual. "You never communicate! I just end up reacting all the time trying to keep you from dying! Makes it hard to focus on preventing anything."
"Satellite signals can bounce in all directions. After you announced your little plan for bromance, we couldn't get anything else from you about it for months."
"Because I didn't want you to get hurt! Could you for once have taken the hint? Did I need to rent a billboard?"
Her mouth twitched. Was she laughing at him?
"This isn't funny!"
The twitch turned into a giggle.
"I never realized how cute you are when you get mad."
Cute? He was not cute. Jimmy Olsen was cute. Of course, she had married Jimmy Olsen, so probably she liked “cute”. And that was not the point!
“This is serious. This is a big, serious, dangerous story. I just wish -- ”
“Wish what?”
That you would stop being so stubborn. That you would stop laying your head on the damn chopping block. That you would let me take care of --
“Clark, I can't deal with the puppy eyes. I appreciate your concern, I do. But I've let myself be scared too many times. I let Lionel scare me, and Lex, and every time I did I covered up the truth and bad things happened. If I let Tess scare me -- “
It was her turn to stop then. She was looking away, but he could see her eyes were shiny. When she spoke again, her voice shook. “I have to do this. If I die, I don't want to die a coward, having done nothing.”
How could she say that? Is that what she thought? “You've done so much though. Don't ever say you've done nothing.”
And then she was smiling at him through those big shiny eyes and God, he was going to let her do this. A year of trying to shut himself off from her and she could still get him to do anything. Let her do anything. She was the only one who could do that to him. He was such a pushover. He moved toward her as if he were caught in a tractor beam. Tears had started to trickle over her cheek. He reached up --
A knock sounded. Suddenly she was moving again, hands wiping her eyes, grabbing the tape gun, waving him toward the door.
“That'll be Ollie. Could you get that? I promised him this stuff would be ready to go.”
He sighed and went to open the door. Ollie arched a brow at him.
“Nobody had ever be able to trace these boxes back to Chloe,” Clark told him.
Ollie slapped his shoulder. Lightly. “Got it covered, big guy. No point in making a contingency plan if you can't execute it come the contingency.”
Not what I was talking about, jackass. But Ollie was walking past him into the Watchtower.
“Almost done, sidekick?”
“Just a few more minutes. I got a little side-tracked.”
Ollie glanced at him. Clark gave him a tight smile. Sidekick? What the hell?
“Thanks for stopping by, Clark. We'll talk later, ok?” Chloe didn't look at him; her eyes and hands were busy with her files and tape.
Well, he could take a hint. He zipped down the fire stairs to the street. There was something going on with her, with them. Now was obviously not the time though. Right now he had to focus on deflecting attention. Right now he had a story to write.
Author: latetothepartyhp
Rating: PG
Genre: future-fic drama
Spoilers: through Pandora
Warnings: some language; Chlark interaction with a strong whiff of Chlollie in the background
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and am not making any money off this story.
Summary: Chloe takes up journalism again and Clark is worried.
"There is nothing in the story about Zod being an alien."
"It's still a bad idea. Luthorcorp built those towers. You print this and Tess will never leave you alone."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "I can handle Tess."
"So now you have your little crossbow you think nothing can touch you?"
She started. "Clark, was that - sarcasm?"
"What?"
"What you just said -- were you being sarcastic? You haven't been sarcastic since -- freshman year, maybe?"
What was wrong with the woman's priorities? She was going over Niagara in a barrel and she was calling him on his sarcasm? He tried a different tactic.
"Chloe, if you publish this you will be black-listed. You're going to re-start and end your career with one story."
She gave him a pitying look. "They've got this new-fangled contraption now, they call it the 'Internet'. You don't need to submit anything to an editor for approval - you just type it in and bam! The whole world can read it!"
Who's sarcastic now?
"Would you just sit down for a minute? What are you doing, anyway?"
"Hard copies. I've got three sets of hard copies Ollie's sending out for storage. Three different locations. Plus I'll have flash drives stashed in various places. He'll be picking them up in -- soon. Crap."
He fell quiet. Oliver thought this was a good idea. Oliver was helping her. Oliver was going to get her killed.
"I don't think Oliver's what you'd call objective when it comes to Tess and Luthorcorp."
"Well that makes two of us. No point in being 'fair and balanced' about a genocidal maniac. And I'll be honest -- the only reason I wrote around the alien stuff rather than include it was because I didn't want the story dismissed as some kind of X-Styles craziness. People need to know what happened."
"But you don't need to be the one who tells them! Let me do it!"
"Excuse me?" When he saw the Kalashnikovs in Chloe's eyes he realized he'd said exactly the wrong thing. "This is my story Clark. Mine. I collected the research, I wrote it, I figured out how to leave out all the bits that might lead people to ask questions about you. Me. Don't even think you can take this from me. You have your own angle on it? Fine. Write it. But you, unlike me, do still actually work for Tess, so you, unlike me, are going to have to figure out the ethics of finding another venue for it, because the Daily Planet wouldn't know truth anymore if it walked in off the street and applied for a recently vacated position."
"That is not fair! And it's not the point of this discussion, either. You are going to get yourself hurt -- you never think about that, do you? You just rush off with Davis or Ollie to fix some problem that's none of your business in the first place and you never, never think about what could happen. I've been digging you out of graves and pulling you out of morgue drawers for so long you think it's normal. Someday I will not be able to run between you and the bullet!"
"None of my business? Impending apocalypse is none of my business? That's everyone's business. The only difference between me and Jane Public is that I knew it was impending and I tried to stop it. And yes, it was dangerous; why do you think I spent all that time learning how to shoot? I'm not going to sit quietly in a corner knitting while the world ends because it's 'not my business' or I might get broke. I'm tired of living my life based on threats and other people's worries."
"Since when have you cared about other people's worries?"
"Since when have you been worried? Since Jimmy's funeral you've acted more concerned about my interference than my safety."
"That's not true - "
"Well what is the truth then? You've had no time for me in over a year and now suddenly you're my dad. Except my dad knows how to be supportive."
"Maybe you could have learned something from him!"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
He had no idea, except with her lately it was always an argument. Go back in time and save Jimmy. Don't make friends with Zod. Couldn't she ever once let him deal with a situation his way? "You never want to let me handle anything. You just go and get yourself involved and then -- "
"Ollie and I stop a permanent solar eclipse?"
"No!" Well, yes. Kind of. Friendship with Zod had turned out to mean Zod's way or the highway. Which he was totally not doing himself, right now. And why the hell did she always have to bring Ollie into it? It wasn't like he, Clark, hadn't had to swoop in and save the day. Per usual. "You never communicate! I just end up reacting all the time trying to keep you from dying! Makes it hard to focus on preventing anything."
"Satellite signals can bounce in all directions. After you announced your little plan for bromance, we couldn't get anything else from you about it for months."
"Because I didn't want you to get hurt! Could you for once have taken the hint? Did I need to rent a billboard?"
Her mouth twitched. Was she laughing at him?
"This isn't funny!"
The twitch turned into a giggle.
"I never realized how cute you are when you get mad."
Cute? He was not cute. Jimmy Olsen was cute. Of course, she had married Jimmy Olsen, so probably she liked “cute”. And that was not the point!
“This is serious. This is a big, serious, dangerous story. I just wish -- ”
“Wish what?”
That you would stop being so stubborn. That you would stop laying your head on the damn chopping block. That you would let me take care of --
“Clark, I can't deal with the puppy eyes. I appreciate your concern, I do. But I've let myself be scared too many times. I let Lionel scare me, and Lex, and every time I did I covered up the truth and bad things happened. If I let Tess scare me -- “
It was her turn to stop then. She was looking away, but he could see her eyes were shiny. When she spoke again, her voice shook. “I have to do this. If I die, I don't want to die a coward, having done nothing.”
How could she say that? Is that what she thought? “You've done so much though. Don't ever say you've done nothing.”
And then she was smiling at him through those big shiny eyes and God, he was going to let her do this. A year of trying to shut himself off from her and she could still get him to do anything. Let her do anything. She was the only one who could do that to him. He was such a pushover. He moved toward her as if he were caught in a tractor beam. Tears had started to trickle over her cheek. He reached up --
A knock sounded. Suddenly she was moving again, hands wiping her eyes, grabbing the tape gun, waving him toward the door.
“That'll be Ollie. Could you get that? I promised him this stuff would be ready to go.”
He sighed and went to open the door. Ollie arched a brow at him.
“Nobody had ever be able to trace these boxes back to Chloe,” Clark told him.
Ollie slapped his shoulder. Lightly. “Got it covered, big guy. No point in making a contingency plan if you can't execute it come the contingency.”
Not what I was talking about, jackass. But Ollie was walking past him into the Watchtower.
“Almost done, sidekick?”
“Just a few more minutes. I got a little side-tracked.”
Ollie glanced at him. Clark gave him a tight smile. Sidekick? What the hell?
“Thanks for stopping by, Clark. We'll talk later, ok?” Chloe didn't look at him; her eyes and hands were busy with her files and tape.
Well, he could take a hint. He zipped down the fire stairs to the street. There was something going on with her, with them. Now was obviously not the time though. Right now he had to focus on deflecting attention. Right now he had a story to write.