Fic: Grey Ghost(2/7)
Fic: Grey Ghost(2/7)
Series: Special Projects
Summary: A drowning in a dry swimming pool draw the crew to Long Beach. Did we mention that the pool was on a haunted cruise ship?
Author: pen37
Beta: Clarksmuse
Fandoms: Smallville/Supernatural
Characters: Chloe, Sam, Dean
Pairing:Chloe/Dean
Rating: pg-13
This is a part of the Special Projects series. You can find the rest of the series here.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
A/N: I've never been really happy with this story. But then I re-wrote this chapter. I'm a lot happier with it now.
Dean looked around the five-by six room that they'd rented with a frown of distaste. Spartan didn't begin to cover it. Their amenities were reduced to a set of bunk beds, a sink and a porthole. If they wanted a shower, they had to go down the hall to the communal bathroom and wait their turn.
It reminded him of the dorm that they'd fast-talked their way into that time that they were hunting the Hookman. Of course, that room had a desk for studying, dumb-ass pledges who were trying to paint themselves purple and giggly, busty sorority sisters who were always looking for a good time. Which had been awesome.
Not here though. As a hotel, The Queen Mary was a lot more upscale than the places they were used to staying. So as a result, the three of them were sharing one room in fourth-class.
He sighed as he kicked his duffel underneath the bottom bunk. It really sucked to have a label put on him like that - fourth class. As if there were people better than them just by virtue of the fact that they had more money.
Before his thoughts could storm down that old pathway again, the door opened and a metallic-sounding thud echoed through the room. Dean looked up to see Sam hunched over in the entrance, holding his head.
"Dude, you okay?” He got up and helped his brother into the room.
“I hit my head,” the taller brother moaned. Dean looked up to see the low-hanging metal door-frame. It wasn't exactly out of his line of sight. How had dorkus maximus missed that?
“Well, you know. Steerage just wasn't built for you tall freaks,” he joked as he pushed Sam down onto the bottom bunk and cradled the back of his noggin so that he didn't bump his head on the upper one as well. “And by the way, Kate Winslet: if this thing sinks then you're going to have to find your own door.”
Sam pursed his lips into a bitchface, and glared up at Dean. “I was kind of preoccupied with the coroner's report.”
“What did it say?” Dean asked.
“Acute pulmonary edema,” Sam said. “According to the Long Beach Medical Examiner, the girl's lungs filled with fluid due to a sudden increase in blood pressure.”
Off Dean's confused look, Sam held his hands out to explain. “The girl was down in a dusty storage room with her class. She and a couple of friends decided to slip off and go up to the swimming pool and have a look around. They ran, her heart rate increased. She wasn't used to the exercise and her blood pressure went up. The increased blood pressure forced fluid into her lungs and she drowned.”
“Lying on the deck of a dry swimming pool,” Dean said. “That's irony for you.”
Sam nodded.
“So how does this make it one of our cases?”
“I'm not sure,” Sam shrugged. “I've just got a weird feeling about this one.”
“Weird feeling?” Dean raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. “Like a Zelda Rubinstein-type weird feeling?”
“Yeah, maybe.” Sam said. “I just think there's more to it than just an out-of-shape teenager having a bad reaction.”
“Okay,” Dean nodded. “So when Chloe gets back, we'll go poke around.”
“Well the EMF meter isn't going to be much help,”Sam said. “This place is so hot with spectral activity that the thing's useless.”
“Sounds like you get to go all Ghost Whisperer on us, J-Love Hewett,” Dean said.
“Speaking of Chloe --she said yes, yet?”
“If she had, I would have her in front of a priest so fast it would make your head spin.” Dean sighed as he sat next to Sam and put his face in his hands. “I've asked her every damn day since Taos. And every damn day she says the same thing: ask me later. Which is par for the course. She fought me on dating. She fought me on getting into bed. Now she's fighting me on this.”
“Dude - you know she loves you, don't you?”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the news flash, Oprah.”
“I could talk to her.” Sam shook his head. “She might open up to me - considering that I'm not the one she's sleeping with.”
Dean hesitated. A hopeful look crossed his face. Then he seemed to close himself off. “Have fun with that.”
“Dean,” Sam pursed his lips, and looked at his brother with watery eyes.
“Oh don't go emo on me,” Dean scoffed. “I'm not in the mood. I'm going to go check out that pool.”
“Be careful,”Sam said. “We still haven't figured out exactly how you've changed.”
“Well, I've got a lot of stamina,” Dean smirked.
Sam shook his head. “I know. And judging by the looks on their faces, your neighbors at our last hotel really know.”
Dean looked down and grinned. “Heh. Can't help it if she's a screamer.”
Sam winced, and then stood up. “I'm just going to . . . yeah.” He pointed to the exit, and then hastily shuffled from the room. Dean grinned again as he got up, and headed out himself.
* * *
From the topmost deck of the ship, Chloe could see a wedding taking place out on the promenade deck. She leaned on her elbows, arms resting lightly on the top rail and hands folded in front of her, and watched the bride and groom exchange vows.
It looked like a fairy tale come true. The bride's veil fluttered in the breeze as she held the groom's hands and stared up at him with a look of love and devotion.
Chloe had seen a lot of weddings in her life. Ironically, most of them had involved Lex Luthor.
In a way, Chloe had always felt sorry for Lex. True, most of the time he seemed calculating in a way that made her skin crawl. But there were times (at each of his weddings and early in his friendship with Clark) that she'd seen that lost little boy who desperately wanted affection, friendship and a sense of belonging.
If ever Lex could have been saved, his salvation would have been in finding those things. But it seemed that over the years what wasn't killed by being a Luthor was slowly poisoned by that longing for things that people like Clark and Lana couldn't give him.
She knew enough to know that a wedding wasn't the end of a story, with happily ever after tacked on. It was actually the beginning. And what came after was usually messy. She could look at her parents to see that.
Thinking of her parents gave her the sudden urge to call her dad. Before she could change her mind, she picked up her phone and dialed his number.
“Hello Chlo-bug,” Gabe Sullivan's tired voice sounded down the line.
“Hi dad,” Chloe smiled at his familiar, warm toned voice. “How are you?”
“Sleepy. You know it's the middle of the night over here?”
“Sorry,” she winced. “I should have called Lois instead.”
“Where are you?”
“Long Beach California. I'm on a haunted cruise ship.”
“No kidding,” Gabe chuckled. “Go stand out on the nose and yell about how you're the king of the world.”
“I would, but I might disrupt a wedding.”
“It'd be worth it,” he said.
“Dad?” Chloe chewed on her lip as she debated how to ask him the things she needed to know.
“Uh oh. Is this a waffle talk?”
Chloe sighed. She shrugged her shoulders, and then remembered that he couldn't see her anyway. “I don't know. You mind if I ask you something?”
“You've always been able to ask me anything, Pumpkin. You've just not always been good at asking.”
She inhaled deeply, and then plunged onward. “Why didn't you and mom get a divorce when she left?”
“You're not asking the easy questions today, are you Chlo-bug?”
“I just . . . I've always known that you love her that much,” Chloe said. “I used to wonder how she could have left a man like you. So I used to think it was me.”
“It wasn't you, Chloe.” Gabe said. “You're the best thing that Moira and I ever did. We both love you so much.”
“I know that now,” she said as she shifted uncomfortably. “But try telling that to a twelve year old.”
Gabe's tired sigh sounded like it was about so much more than the fact that it was the middle of the night in France. “Okay, setting aside religious reasons, because we both know that neither one of us is as faithful as we should be.”
“By all means,” Chloe said.
“The first thing you need to know about your dad and mom: We got married with the intention of staying married. That's the way it worked for us. Marriage is a huge step Chloe. And one that Moira and I didn't take lightly. Yes, I could have divorced her when she institutionalized herself. But I promised her that I would stand by her all the time. Not just when it was easy. That's what marriage is.”
“But what if you found someone else?”
“I didn't look,” Gabe said simply. “I made my choice a long time ago, Chloe. It's your mother, or no one.”
“Doesn't it get lonely?” Chloe asked.
“I raised a daughter, and built a lot of factories,” Gabe's voice sounded mater-of-fact. “And now I'm chasing hunters and ghosts and demons all over France. Who has time to get lonely?"
Chloe laughed at that.
“So why the twenty questions, Chlo-bug?”
“Dean and Sam asked me to get married.” Chloe blurted abruptly.
There was a long silence on the other end of the line.
“Dad?”
“Sorry, Chlo-bug, I think my hair just went prematurely grey,” Gabe said. “And I'm hoping we've got a bad connection. It sounded like you said Dean and Sam asked you to get married.”
“Sorta,” Chloe winced.
“Honey, if you want to start a harem, you're not supposed to tell your old man.” Gabe said. “That's the sort of thing that shortens my life span.”
“It's not like that, Dad.” Chloe laughed. “Dean just proposed to me. And Sam happened to be there. So he felt like he had to step up and argue for the defense.”
“He's the one who went to Stanford.” Gabe said.
“How do you know that?” Chloe asked.
“Lois provided me with a background check on both boys.”
“She did, huh?” Chloe clenched her jaw.
“Gotta say - you neglected to tell me a couple of things about Dean.” Gabe said.
“Remind me to thank Lois,” Chloe said. Lois was officially dead. And not even Superman could save her.
“Relax, Pumpkin,” Gabe said. “I had a talk with Clark, and he assured me that Dean is a good guy. Besides, it's not like he'll be the first con-person in the family.”
“Thank God for Lucy,” Chloe muttered.
“So do I get an invite to the wedding, or are you just going to let me know when I have a new set of sons-n-law?”
“You're not going to let me live down this whole verbal slippage when it comes to Sam, are you?”
“You're the one marrying the whole family, Chlo-bug. I just think it's funny.”
“And you have a twisted sense of humor, Dad.”
“As they say in France: Le Pot, meet Le Kettle.”
“I don't know,” she sighed. “It's . . . I'm not sure if I ever want to get married. It's not like the examples of marriage I've had have been sterling. You and mom, Uncle Sam and Aunt Elly, Lex Luthor.”
“Your Grammy and Grampy. Johnathan and Martha Kent. Lois and Clark.” Her dad countered.
Chloe blinked at that. “I didn't think about that.” She said quietly. “Dean would be surprised that you're taking up for him.”
“Oh don't get me wrong, Chlo-bug. I'm in complete denial of your relationship.”
“You do know we share a bedroom, don't you Dad?” she grinned.
“And you guys sit up every night and play checkers.” By the sound of his voice, Chloe judged that he was nodding for emphasis.
“Trivial Pursuit,” Chloe said with a grin. Then she sighed again as she let her worries spill out of her. “I'm scared daddy. I want it to be like Grammy and Grampy. But what if it's not? What if it's like you and mom? What if I lose him or. . . .” She raked her fingers through her hair in frustration as what was really bothering her came pouring out. “Daddy, what if we can't have kids?”
“God I wish I was there to hug you,” Gabe said quietly. “This is really bugging you, isn't it?”
“I . . . He's never said it. But he wants a family so badly. When he holds me at night, he rubs that spot right under my navel. I don't think he even realizes that he's doing it.” She turned her face to the sky in a vain effort to hold back the tears. “And I've been to see so many doctors since we found out that I was a mutant. No one can figure out if I can have kids or not.”
Gabe sighed. “Have you discussed any of this with him?”
“No,” she said meekly.
“I didn't think so,” Gabe chuckled lightly. “I love you so much, but you've always had this talent for making a mountain out of a molehill. I think you get that from your mom.”
“I do not!” Chloe said.
“Really? This coming from a girl who thought that the world would end because Clark Kent didn't notice her.”
“I wasn't that bad,” Chloe protested.
“Nightly for the first two years you knew him. Did I mention that?” Gabe chuckled. “Thankfully, you toned it down when Lana moved in.”
“Okay, maybe I was a little dramatic.” Chloe said as she played her fingers over the cracking varnish of the rail.
“So now that we've had the father-daughter long-distance bonding moment, do you feel better, Chlo-bug?” he asked
“Yeah,” she said. “A little.”
“What are you going to do?"
“I'll let you know when I've made up my mind.”
“Spoken like the daughter of Moira Lane-Sullivan.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Bye dad.”
“Bye Chlo-bug.”