Five More Things That Never Happened to Chloe Sullivan

by legendarytobes

Five glimpses of alternative universes and twists and turns that never quite happened to Chloe Sullivan with a chlark twist.

Title:: Five More Things That Never Happened to Chloe Sullivan, Part Two
Author: legendarytobes
Summary: semi-sequel to "Five Things That Never Happened to Chloe Sullivan" ( /works/416711). Two of the snippets follow from that fic so it's a good idea to read that first. However, a look at a few "what-ifs" in the life of Chloe Sullivan...
Pairings: Chlark-leanings
Rating: up to PG-13

I. Passing the Torch

"It must have been so hard being so different, to have people judge you without even knowing you," Chloe said and her voice echoed between them.

Clark could barely follow her in his grief. No, Alicia had never been very stable and, yes, drugging him and trying to get her to marry her hadn't been the right way to go about doing anything. Still, she'd loved him. With all their misunderstandings, she'd gotten shot for him, died because he hadn't revealed his secret like she had hers. He kept playing the last argument over and over in his head. If he'd just admitted what he could do, tried to show that not every person with powers was crazy or dangerous...maybe she'd still be alive.

But his dad had always said.

No.

This wasn't about his father or about his mom. It was about him. At the end of the day, Clark could crush coal to diamonds or burn anything to ash with a look, he could survive explosions and, somehow, fly as fast as a jet, even if he was still working on that skill when he wasn't just "Kal-El." He could do all those things, and yet he was afraid of what would happen if everyone else found out. Hell, maybe because he could do those things, because he was so incredibly alien.

He was a coward, and as a result he'd lost the potential love of his life.

"I, thank you Chloe," he said, trying to remember how to be polite. "I just...I need a minute," his fingers trailed delicately over the thorns of the dark-petaled rose and he hoped that his friend would get the hint.

Chloe, frankly, wouldn't be Chloe if she had. "I'm sorry, you know. I didn't give her enough of a second chance after what happened last year, and then Lois and I both wanted to assume she'd hurt Lana too. It wasn't...I've spent so much time tracking down meteor freaks, even after Van Mcnulty. I just don't want you to think that I was a bigot. I don't hate people who are different. I just thought if Alicia had hurt people before that, well, maybe-"

Clark's hands clenched and he looked back at her. Words were so hard to say, it felt like it took all his powers just to breathe. "That she'd always be crazy? That she'd always hurt people. She wasn't always the best planner and she...I know what she did before Belle Reve. I'm not an idiot. But I love her."

He didn't care if the phrasing was in the present. Alicia had made him feel happy and human and special and that asshole had taken it all from him. For the first time since Phelan, Clark wished he'd just kept squeezing, that he'd gone that far.

For her.

"I know you did, um do. I know, Clark. I did this wrong," Chloe said, looking up at him while biting at her bottom lip. "I was trying to say if there's anything weighing on you, not just about Alicia in particular but about people with powers, then I'll understand."

He blinked, the realization of what she wasn't saying seeping into his mind the same way the rain was seeping into his clothes. "There's nothing to talk about."

She looked back at him and she was so still, like Chloe couldn't even decide what to do, like she knew whatever she did next would be a bomb shell to their relationship. He stood up and she followed suit, but even standing, he could feel his stomach clench. He knew every mood of Chloe Sullivan, every look and sigh. She knew something and she was going to lay it all out there.

"Clark, I know you're infected."

He barked out a laugh, shrill and wild. If he were just a mutant, things would be better. He could have gone public, could have defended Alicia better. Could have...

"I'm not infected, Chlo."

A small, shaking hand was on his shoulder. It occurred to him then that he wasn't sure which of them was more nervous. That revelation only served to make him feel worse. "Clark, Alicia showed me two days ago. She teleported me out of her car and when you caught it, we were watching behind some construction equipment. I know you're obviously strong, fast and pretty invulnerable."

Clark's stomach knotted up even tighter, but this time it was because of Alicia moreso than Chloe. She'd promised and he'd believed her. She'd been shot protecting his secret and, even if it was only Chloe who knew, Alicia had squealed and violated his trust.

"She wouldn't do that."

Chloe nodded sadly. "She did. I think she wanted me to understand, to write an article about the both of you so people could understand that the meteor fre...the infected could be totally normal like our football captain hero. I just think she wanted you not to feel so trapped."

"No, she promised," he said and the last two weeks were welling up so hard and so fast.

Fueled by anger over reason, Clark lashed out and punched through a decrepid tombstone, one back there from at least the fifties. It broke apart into chunks. Chloe's eyes widened in shock but he had to give her credit, her heart never started racign.

She trusted him too.

Alicia had, she'd been a fool.

He thought he could save people. He'd spent so long doing that, and now all he had were tombstones and Cassandra Carver's vision starting to mock him.

"Clark, it's okay. She didn't tell anyone else. She was scared and desperate and I really do believe she thought it'd free you both. I'm never going to tell anyone; you have to believe me."

Her voice was plaintive but it was his heart hammering away, his mind swirling with everything his parents had ever warned him about. If people find out about you, they'll be a lab.

And needles.

Clark swallowed hard and felt himself begin to shake. Some hero he was, some man of steel. "Chloe, you can't...you saw what they just did to her. I don't want...they'll hate me."

Chloe nodded and the look of pity she gave him-those wide tearful eyes-did little to soothe him. Reaching up, she hugged him and he let her. He didn't cry or break down more than the begging he'd already done. He just stood there for what felt like forever, letting her hold him.

She didn't even fully break away from the embrace, just pulled her head back and nodded up at him. "It's possible. People don't really have a good view of anything, not with Belle Reve out there. That's why it's between us. I won't even let your parents know I know."

He broke apart from her and started to pace. "They'll freak out."

"I said I wouldn't. All this time investigating, trying to figure the shower out, even after Van...I never really realized what was at stake that people even knowing could get you killed. Clark, I'm so sorry."

He stopped then and quirked his head at her. "You're not going to write a story?"

"Never, have you met me?"

"I...but the wall!"

"You'll never be on it, I promise. Clark, Alicia didn't mean for this to happen but she's gone now and the only other person our age who knows is me."

He nodded. Pete knew too but that made no difference. Pete hated him and was all the way over in Wichita. Another life as ruined as Alicia's almost. "Yeah."

"I'll take care of you. I...if you need someone to cover for you or throw people off track or just vent with, I promise."

Something petty and frustrated inside of him wanted to add that small jab, remind her that she could position herself to inherit something else from Alicia, although a quickie Vegas wedding was hardly Chloe's style. But that wasn't who'd Chloe'd been since her "death" in the safe house. She gave distance even after revealing that her mom was in the mental hospital and she knew what the burden of secrets and family shame could bring.

But it was more than that.

Clark was so alone and so tired of losing everyone-of Lana in love with Jason, of Lex evil and barely talking to him, of Pete gone and Alicia dead. He just wanted one person with no walls, none at all.

"Chloe, if you're going to really know me, I have to tell you one last thing."

"You're affected by red meteor rocks? I figured that out; I did the math on why you were an asshole last year in Metropolis and two years ago with the class rings. I'm a reporter after all." She was grinning back at him, trying to be playful, trying to let him know nothing had changed.

But everything had and was about to again.

"Chloe, you're going to need to sit down for this."

She frowned but leaned against a tombstone. "Hit me."

"I'm not a mutant."

"Clark, I saw."

"I'm an alien."

It was a good thing he had superspeed because he was able to catch her as she slid right off the granite.

II. Tit for Tat

Chloe liked it when Clark was confused.

That was a good thing for their relationship since he was almost always confused. Still, there was something intoxicating about Clark standing there, gaping at her powers for once. If she were being honest, it was a huge ego boost and she never knew how he'd kept his head on straight with the looks she'd given him.

Okay, not all of them.

Clark was a hopeless flier. She'd known that since Kara's arrival and even more thoroughly after aborted flying lessons. Apparently, Kara had tried again not two months ago and Clark was just as pathetic. Like it was hard.

Chloe smirked back at him and, feeling a smidge of pity, stopped levitating a few feet above the sofa's cushion. "What?"

"You too, Chlo? You're gonna rub it in for me too!"

She smiled and patted his hand. "I'm going to get you up, up and away, Clark. This is just pathetic."

"Now you do sound like Kara. Look, just because you came back from Themyscira with a massive upgrade-"

"Well, it wasn't my complete intention," she admitted, blushing down at the bracers she wore.

The bands had magical properties, blessed by her biological grandmother, and they made her bullet proof as long as she wore them. They were one of the advantages of being an Amazon, along with increased strength, speed, and flight.

Oh and this lasso she had that made people who were bound in it tell the truth. That didn't suck either, but she hadn't figured out how to use that without blowing her cover while being a lowly intern at The Metropolis Journal. Once upon a time, "Chloe Sullivan" had a career of her own, at least before Lex had fired and blacklisted her. Of course, now "Chloe Sullivan" according to the federal government, had never even existed. It was smart. She and Tess had both agreed on that because, after The Persuader, Chloe realized having someone the official story never knew could be crucial in a pinch.

She was the sneak attack.

And it had worked beyond well with the VRA a week ago.

Of course that left her readjusting not just to life back in Metropolis or the approaching Darkseid threat, oh no. It also left her trying to temper new powers she really should have spent more time practicing with her mother Diana and, also, working her way up the ladder at The Metropolis Journal as "Cassie Sandsmark."

Still, Clark really had been thrown by her change from side-kick or, Hell, from even Watchtower to full-fledged frontline heroine. He tended to rub at his eyes and, well, singe things if she were her ceremonial Amazon garb. She'd learned after the third day that Clark and her leather skirt were not friends, at least not if she still wanted the farmhouse intact. Still, he had fallen into the habit of staring at her as if she weren't quite real, and a lot of that came with intense concentration on her bracers, the daily reminder of her goddess status.

"It wasn't?" he asked, quirking his head at her.

"I didn't know I'd go and come back about as strong as you or Kara, no. I mean, I wanted to find my real family, and I knew I had to lie in wait anyway from the Fate Helmet. I didn't know that becoming a full Amazon meant, well-"

"Being Wonder Girl?" Clark asked, his tone playful.

"I wish dear old mom hadn't taken 'Woman' already. It does feel somehow sexist to be just a 'girl,'" she replied.

Clark laughed. "That sounds familiar. God, I'm glad something does."

She snorted. "I'm still me."

"But I have to call you 'Cassie,' which is a bitch to remember and you fly and I don't."

"True, and I could probably kick your ass."

Clark crossed his arms over his chest. "Now let's not get ahead of ourselves. You're as strong as like Kara or J'onn tops. There's no way you could take me in a fight."

She smirked back at him. Ooh, a sore point. "What? Are you worried, Blur?"

He donned a look she'd seen him wear so many times when he observed Lana and her flavor-of-the-week. The patented Clark Kent pout. "I'm not. You're still Chlo. I believe I could take you."

She laughed again. "Well, let's keep each other in one piece for Darkseid and the prophets, right? We'll save any sparring for after the world doesn't end."

"You're just delaying inevitable defeat."

"Besides," she continued, hovering back off her seat to spite him. "I would definitively kick your ass if you don't learn to actually fly. I have a whole advantage over you because I'm not just stuck on the ground."

"Chlo, I've tried and I suck. Kara and I tried again and I ruined the barn's roof. It was awful."

She landed again and leaned forward, putting her hand on his shoulder and telling herself that she had no business touching his cheek even if she wanted to, that it was far more than 'just' a friendly gesture. "It's time and not because I can now."

"Random."

"I know right?" she said, smiling back at him earnestly, trying to get him to understand that she had as much faith in this ability of his as he had doubts. "Kara, J'onn, and I...Hell, even Diana if we need her, we can do a lot."

"Exactly."

"But stopping The Darkness is going to take everything we have combined and part of that is making you your best. If you can fly too, then it makes us stronger and this is a battle that, I'm not going to sugar coat it, we might not all survive."

"We've come through everything before," he added, his voice quiet.

"If I remember correctly, I died at Reeve's Dam and Zod killed you. If Lois hadn't taken the blade out, you'd have stayed dead. Everything came way too close with Davis Bloome and with you getting stuck in the Phantom Zone at least for a while after Dark Thursday. We get lucky sometimes but we lose a lot too. It's why Lana's a walking Kryptonite infection and Jimmy..." she stopped then and took a deeper breath.

There was no love lost now between her and Jimmy, not that she had distance from his loss and an affair, such as it had been, with Oliver as well. In the end, he'd done horrible things to her, said awful things. Hell, stolen from her pitiful life savings. Still, his death was on her head and always would be because of terrible choices she'd made.

That kept her up nights.

Clark nodded, "Now Carter Hall too. I know. But we're still us, mostly. I can't think that one day it'd be Bart or Dinah or Ollie or Lois."

"Or me?"

"Well you're a goddess. I doubt you can die."

She frowned. "I, uh, actually had to leave before my mother and grandmother explained that to me. I know I live a lot longer, but I assume everything can have a bad day and die. You know how many times I've held your body and been convinced it was the time you wouldn't snap back?"

"Too many."

"Far too many, and now I can add you flatlining at least once when I first tried to take you out of the tubes at the VRA. The stakes are so real now, and if you learning to fly helps be the thing to stop Darkseid and keep the JLA together, that's what we have to do."

Clark was staring at her again, that look she'd only seen him give before to Lois and to Lana. She also was painfully aware of the breath on her cheeks, on how uncomfortably close his lips were to hers.

"Uh, Clark?" she asked, her voice coming out huskier than it should have. "You're invading my personal space."

"I..." and then his lips were on her in a way they hadn't even during the moment she'd shared with him on Dark Thursday.

He'd kissed back then, oh yes, but she'd had to initiate it. She'd known Clark for over a decade and he'd never kissed her first.

Never.

She pushed him back then, as much as she didn't want to, as much as she'd dreamed of something like this. God, she was so pathetic. She'd indulged herself in these thoughts far more than she'd wanted to admit while on the lam, first in Gotham and then in Themyscira. She'd tortured herself with a million scenarios to counter what the helmet had shown her, to pretend that her cousin wasn't about to have everything Chloe thought she'd ever wanted.

But this didn't feel right.

Clark reached back for her and she sped to the other side of his living room. He frowned up at her and started to stand. She shook her head and backed up against the wall.

"Chloe-"

"Cassandra."

"Not here, and you know it was never gonna stick with me no matter the alias," Clark finished standing but staying where he was. Good. Maybe some things were sinking in. If he crowded her, she'd be in Bora Bora in under thirty seconds.

"Clark, you're confused. You and Lois broke up a couple weeks ago and you were engaged and obsessed with her for like eighteen months. Right?"

"And you were gone."

"Uh-huh," she said, forcing her voice to be level and calm.

She wasn't fifteen anymore, and she wasn't confronting him over Lana. This wasn't about jealousy or teenage snits. This was about something so much bigger than that-keeping the League functional. It wouldn't survive or be in any shape to fight off Darkseid if Wonder Girl and the Blur were at each other's throats.

"Chlo, I've been thinking a lot since you got back and-"

She sighed and offered him her kindest smile. Clark had only ever had two types. The first were the unearthly gorgeous women with long hair and alliterative names that commanded the attention of billionaires. Lois and Lana. The other were girls with powers he couldn't hurt, like Alicia and Kyla. Chloe had fluked into the second category and now Clark could finally notice her.

That stung.

If he didn't want 'just Chloe,' then she wasn't interested, no matter how much the corner of her mind that was fifteen was screaming at her just to take it. He had to like her with or without the powers, and she didn't believe he did.

"Clark, look, you need a few hours to calm down or get a hold of yourself or whatever. I keep my promises and tomorrow Kara and I both, along with J'onn, will teach you to fly."

"It was going to be just us today."

She nodded and took another measured breath. "I don't think that I should be alone with you."

"Because I'm being honest with how I feel?"

"Because you're confused. You see someone you can, well, you know," she hissed, refusing to say "have sex" in front of him.

"Lois and I can do that. I'm not eighteen anymore, Chlo."

"Oh," and she worked very hard not to cry then.

Goddamn it, why did this always happen to her? Why did he have this sway over her after Jimmy and Ollie and a whole new life she'd started with her real heritage. He could always make her vulnerable and small, and she loathed it. It was none of her business about what had passed between Clark and Lois. Still it stung they had done that together. As stupid as it was, when he'd said the engagement was called off, she'd hoped he hadn't actually gone that far with her cousin even if he'd clearly had designs on that since back at a certain Scottish inn.

"Yeah, so if you think this is about compatibility or desperation or..."

"Clark, you're digging it deeper, trust me," she snapped.

"I missed you and now you're like me and it has to mean something."

She zipped back in front of him and eyed him with all the composure she could muster. "I'm an Amazon, and you're an alien."

Chloe emphasized that word and hated herself for doing it. It was low to play on his deepest insecurities, but he couldn't start obsessing on her. They were co-workers damn it. It was all they could afford to be.

Clark shrunk in on himself a bit and looked down at his boots. "I know you're not Kryptonian."

"Then I can't be the first to have said this. Surely Martha mentioned it before. You know there's no one really like you but Kara."

"Yeah after Alicia...yeah I know. Believe me I know, but we're best friends and you've known me since I was thirteen. We've been through everything together and that includes more Apocalypses than I can count and my dad...and everything!" he shouted, and the curtains shook as he did it.

"And we're friends, Clark. That's all we've ever been, and you know that better than anyone. You chose that."

"I didn't after the formal or before Zod or when you ran off with Davis. I never chose those times and, damn it, I want to choose better now."

Chloe's heart was hammering so hard in her chest and she knew he knew it, the way his head was quirked towards him. She hated that every emotion she had, as hard as she tried to suppress them, were obvious to Clark.

"I don't."

"Why?"

"Because you don't ever know what you want and because there's no way to know if I'd come back still 'just Chloe,' you would have cared as much about me. Clark, I understand that even if it's not like with Lana, even if you can...well, you've always liked girls with powers."

"But you are a girl with powers. Hell, if I remember correctly, you used to be one back when you saved my life and were dead for the better part of a day. I was an idiot not to be saying this then. I...you have to believe me."

She swallowed and planted her hand on his chest and shoved. Shocked, Clark fell back onto the sofa. "You think you love me because I'm strong and fast and invulnerable, but I'm not."

"Oh I think you're definitely strong. That's gonna bruise!"

"I'm not invulnerable, I mean. You're my Kryptonite, Clark, and if I ever let you, you'd shatter me apart for good, and I can't do that. I'm your friend and your partner and that's all I have to offer."

She was gone to Australia just for the distance before he had time to lie to her. And to himself.

III. Domestic Bliss

The first thing Clark did when he fought his way out of the Phantom Zone was rush to The Daily Planet. Despite all his fears, he'd taken Chloe's advice to heart and left her there to fight Zod. She'd almost been killed by a car crashing through the basement's windows. She would have been killed, if he hadn't caught the car himself. Then she'd planted one on him, and he'd spent his whole time meeting Raya and getting back to the portal thinking of her, of all the time he'd wasted with Lana, and of how much he wanted to kiss her again.

It confused him that the clean up had been so fast. The basement didn't look like a car had driven through it just twelve hours ago. It scared him, however, when he went to Chloe's usual desk and found that a "Marjorie Simpson" had her place, complete with bronze name plate.

"What's going on?"

The redhead sitting at Chloe's desk scowled back at him. "Do you work here?"

"No, but I was visiting my friend Chloe Sullivan."

Marjorie's eyes widened. "The Chloe Sullivan?"

Clark frowned, beyond confused. "Yeah, she's had some nice articles on parking meter hikes, sure, but she's not really ready for a fan club. I mean, I think she's great, but she's still an intern."

The woman snorted. "Where have you been? Chloe Sullivan is the star reporter here. Everyone who's anyone loves her interviews with The Green Arrow. Hell, everyone knows she's Perry's favorite."

Clark blinked back at her as if Marjorie were speaking in Swahili. "The Green who? And Perry's still on the twentieth floor. It's only been like two years since his piece on Lionel's trial."

The woman stood slowly and frowned back at him. "Are you okay? I'm not being sarcastic this time. Did you hit your head or something?"

Technically, he'd had a few phantoms slam into him before he'd managed to escape, but he didn't think they'd caused more than a few scrapes and certainly no brain damage. He couldn't exactly explain that though.

"No, I don't think so."

Marjorie was still frowning at him. Hesitantly, she handed him a copy of The Daily Planet. "You must have because, uh, kid?"

"Clark."

"Well, Clark, what year do you think it is?"

"Is this a trick question?" he asked, taking the paper from her to unfold it. "It's 2006 and..."

He trailed off there, unable to believe the date looming back at him: September 8, 2021.

Clark stumbled into the nearest desk chair, sitting down hard. "That's not possible."

Marjorie, who was doing really well considering how crazy he must have sounded, patted his shoulder and reached for her desk phone. "Kid...Clark, you're not thinking straight. Let me call Chloe and she'll be right down."

"Thanks." Was all he could say.

Chloe still felt like Chloe, after all these years the top of her head fit perfectly under his chin, and it was a relief to hold her there like that, this one anchor for all the craziness that had befallen him. When she pulled back, though, it was impossible to pretend it was still just them in the DP basement.

Her hair was long now, half way down her back and brown. Her suit was beautifully tailored and professional, no longer the modest and sometimes too low cut jackets she'd used to favor. The hardest thing to see were the slight crows feet at her eyes. She wasn't nineteen anymore.

And, as weird as it was to think about, he still was.

"Chlo?"

She sniffled and hugged him again so hard that if he'd been human, he'd have had trouble breathing. "I thought you were dead."

"I wasn't. I came back like I promised," he said, pulling her towards the copy room. At least some things stayed the same, and no one ever used it. "I don't understand. I went to the Phantom Zone, it feels like it's been about a day or maybe two, and then I come back and it's fifteen years later? That's not even possible."

"Clark," she said, not unkindly. "You do know that you're an alien who just spent his time battling an intergalactic dictator in a pocket dimension, right?"

"But it can't be fifteen years later."

"It is," she said, frowning at him and he winced. He knew Chloe's patented pity look well. She'd given it to him a lot after Lana had dumped him this winter. It often came with platitudes as weak as his father's had been. "The Manhunter explained that the Phantom Zone is an alternate reality. When I met him and explained about how you'd been here and the last time I'd seen you, you'd gone off to face Milton Fine, he assured me that banishment had probably been what happened to you."

"Wait who?"

"The Martian Manhunter. The Green Arrow found and recruited him about ten years ago for the Justice League. He worked for Jor-El before. Until that happened, Martha and I assumed you'd died."

Clark blinked back at her. He hadn't understood any of the things she'd just said. "League? The Green dude? Someone used to know Jor-El? I'm so lost here."

"Basically, The Green Arrow is a superhero."

"Like Warrior Angel? Come on, Chloe."

"Yeah, like that and he's recruited a bunch of people with abilities to help him in a group he calls The Justice League. I consult for them."

"You don't have any abilities."

"But I've been the best sidekick in town before. Eventually, we found a Martian. They'd traded and worked with Kryptonians before. J'onn knew Jor-El, and until I met him, I'd thought you'd died. After everything went to so wrong, Jor-El at the Fortress gave Martha a dagger and she and I worked together with Lionel to kill The Vessel."

"Lex?"

Chloe looked away. "It was the only option. Zod had total control of him by then and if we hadn't, then most of the human race would have died out."

"Oh," Clark didn't know what to say to that.

It hadn't been Lex's fault that Fine had lied to and manipulated him. It was really Clark's fault, the bullshit from his homeworld and his need to hide his secret outweighing the right thing to do, which would have been working with Lex. Yes, his former friend had become a darker person and done terrible things to people like Victor and A.C., but he hadn't deserved to die either.

"Wait, you and mom? Who...which one of you actually..." he looked away, blushing and unable to voice the word "murder" outloud to her.

"Lionel did it. We were the distractions. It took all of us, even Lana. She left for Paris after but eventually came back and is married to Senator Ross."

Clark blinked. "Like Pete Ross?"

"Yup. He was always into politics."

"Unreal, is mom okay?"

"She's at The Talon. I can't believe you didn't see her first. She's going to be so happy," Chloe beamed. "Do you want me to call her first? Or..."

"I got it," he said, blurring off to the coffee shop.

Clark had felt a whirlwind of a week. His mom looked so different, totally grey now and a bit stooped over with early stage osteoporosis. He didn't think the stress of losing him and his dad within six months of each other had done her a damn bit of good. She'd sold the farm and moved to the apartment above The Talon, managing and baking for it ever since. She'd held him and cried a lot, and he'd promised never to leave again. Now that everything from Krypton seemed long gone and the Justice League around for crime, there wasn't a need to get involved with craziness anymore.

Now he could just figure out how to have a regular life and let other people handle it. He owed his mom that, a chance to have as much time with him as she could after she'd lost her family for so long.

It was weirder still going to the Watchtower base in Metropolis. Victor, Bart, and A.C. had helped Oliver Queen start the League and they'd all matured. Okay, well maybe not Bart as much, but still they were heroes and had codenames and it was all sorts of intense. It was weird that there were a ton of other people there too, including a woman with powers kind of like his who was, apparently, a literal goddess and also J'onn. Clark had been told his birth father's former body guard was a shapeshifter and actually had green skin, red eyes, and stood at seven feet tall. Clark was going to take time to adjust to that one, but eventually he'd have to sit down with J'onn.

The Manhunter wanted to share a lot about Clark's birth family.

Considering that, to him, Jor-El had killed his dad not six months ago, that was on the lowest rung of Clark's priority list.

However, the weirdest thing of all was seeing Chloe again and how comfortable she was with the League. All the boys, even Oliver, took what she had to say seriously. She worked hard doing surveillance and hacking for them several nights a week after work. She might not have powers, but she had more superheroing experience than Clark could imagine.

It was all so strange. His entire life had moved forward without him, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

"You know, The Talon really is better now that your mom runs it full time," Chloe said, biting into a muffin the size of her baseball. "Are you sure the shower didn't give her mutant chef powers? These are too good to be normal."

"Don't give the shower any ideas," he replied, his tone subdued. "I miss the farm."

"She couldn't keep it up on her own, and I think it was too hard, all the reminders of you and your dad. I tried really hard, Clark. Lois and I both did. Even though Lois moved to Gotham five years ago, well, we took turns. We each made sure that between us she saw us for lunch or dinner or something three times a week. I know it wasn't the same, but we wanted her to know she still had kids."

"I appreciate that."

"And then Bart adopted himself out. She doesn't...I asked once if she wanted to work with the League or get to know the gang. She said everything cost her too much, but she loves Bart. I guess she's used to superspeed around the house and a bottomless pit appetite."

"I proimsed her, you know," he replied, biting into his brownie.

"What?"

"That I was done. I'm home, and I'll just be Clark Kent, Talon cashier until the Met U spring semester starts. It was too late for me to register now but I do want to get my degree. Um, I'm not sure in what yet, but I have a lot to make up for."

Chloe frowned. "Actually, Oliver's wanted to talk to you about joining up. J'onn made no secret of what you could do when he got to the League. I'd never say anything, but J'onn talked up 'Kal-El' a ton."

He let his eyes heat up for a minute for effect. "I'm retired."

"I know how Martha feels, I do. I mourned you too, but, I have to be honest, the stuff that followed you here from Krypton? Tip of the iceberg. There are other hostile alien races who've tried to take over Earth since then, wizards, gods...etc. It's a crazy place and someone like you could make a big difference to the League."

"I'm retired, Chlo. It broke my mom's heart and almost did kill me. I mean, this sucks, but I can adjust. What if I'd been stuck even longer than two days in the Phantom Zone? What if I'd come back to like The Planet of the Apes?"

She laughed and he licked his lips staring back at hers. Chloe might have forgotten about Dark Thursday altogether. He hadn't asked her about her romantic life since, and she hadn't offered. He'd spent most of his time with his mom and when he had seen her since the first day at the DP, it had been at The Watchtower. Considering how famous she was for covering The Green Arrow, he'd assumed she and Oliver were an item. Anyway, the best moment of his life might have felt like a week ago, but for Chloe it was way over a decade.

That hurt.

"It's not like that."

"It could have been. I could have come back and it could have been the year 3,000. I got lucky enough. I'm not giving some alien or wizard or genocidal asshat another shot."

"I wish you'd reconsider," she replied setting her muffin down. "But I understand too. No one's given more than your family."

"Thanks, Chlo," he said glancing down at her hand and freezing. "What?"

She frowned back at him and then blushed when she realized he'd spied the rings on her left hand. The rings that hadn't been there yesterday at The Tower. "Oh, I forgot. I had these out being cleaned. They were looking pretty tarnished after ten years. I just picked them up before coming here."

"You're married?"

She smiled back, but he knew her very well, knew all her moods. The kind of smiles she gave where too many teeth shone back at him meant that she was covering up her own sadness. "George is a good man. He's a cop for the Metropolis P.D. I wasn't hiding it. It hadn't come up with catching up on League business and I honestly forgot that I wasn't wearing them."

"Oh well, good, you deserve a nice guy. I think that's great."

"Yeah, and he's really great with Chris."

Clark narrowed his eyes at her and it was very hard to ask the next question, far harder than fighting Fine had ever been. "And that would be?"

Chloe shoved her hands under the table. "My son. He'll be six in November. I just...I wasn't trying to spring everything on you at once."

"You're married and have a kid and work for superheroes and are the top reporter at The Daily Planet but to me, just last week, you were still a freshman at Met U who covered pigeon population minutia in the basement."

"And was still the best sidekick in town. You always down play that part."

"I was trying to ease you more into things. You see-" Chloe didn't get much farther when a group of kids from Smallville High strolled in.

Judging by the width of their shoulders and the letterman jackets they wore, Clark figured they were football players. A few pointed and snickered at him and her together.

"Wow, cradle robbing much?"

"Ewww, is that even legal."

Clark blushed. Technically, however anyone had counted it, he'd celebrated his nineteenth birthday a bit before everything with the Phantom Zone had happened. It didn't exactly look right with a thirty-four year old, no.

Chloe turned toward them and he moved almost faster than he should have and clamped his hand over her mouth. They didn't need her to shoot her mouth off at them.

"Let it go, Chlo. I...they're kind of right."

His life settled into a rhythm after that of work at The Talon, hanging out with his mom and sometimes Bart, and avoiding Chloe Sullivan. She called daily and sent emails about as often, but for a month he'd avoided all of it, hoping that she would get the hint and stopped. She had a great life without him and, even if he wasn't a super-powered alien with all that bullshit baggage, he was also far younger than her now to others.

She didn't need to get bogged down with him again.

It would have stayed like that until one late night at The Talon when he was mopping floors and shutting the place down for the day. He was about to refill the bucket when he heard Chloe scream. He'd always been attuned to her heartbeat and her voice, something that had come when he'd first developed his superhearing and he'd never been able to explain that. That's how he found himself in her apartment in Metropolis with her son-with eyes that green and bright he was pure Sullivan-clutched to her chest. Before both of them was a massive cyborg, something outwardly inhuman in a way Victor wasn't, with titanium exoskeleton and wires everywhere.

"Watchtower, you've messed with me for the last time."

Clark positioned himself between Chloe and her son and the robot. "I don't know who you are or why you want her."

"She's the mastermind for the Justice League. Take her out and my life gets easier," the machine turned to him and gave a rictus grin. "You're new. Are you a Titan's recruit?"

"Huh?"

Chloe rolled her eyes and spoke low under her breath so only he'd hear. "I'll explain later, just distract him."

"My pleasure," Clark said, ramming into the can-opener and wishing that he hadn't. He felt it instantly with the contact, the cramps and boiling blood that came only from Kryptonite. "Ugh, didn't miss this," he groaned, trying to roll away.

His foe reached back and prepared to punch Clark in the chest. He scrambled as hard as he could but wasn't making much ground. A blow like that would probably shatter his sternum and...

There was a huge flash of light and the robot started arcing sparks all over. In a few seconds, it was crumpled in a heap beside him, smoking fiercely.

"The Hell?"

Chloe leaned down to help him to his feet. As he walked to the far corner of the living room, she used a screwdriver to undo the bot's power source, a battery composed of green K. "I had a neural circuit scrambler in my office in case of something like this."

"As you do," Clark snarked.

"I just needed the time to grab it. Uh, Clark, Metallo or what's left of him. He's a big pain in all our asses and a charter member of the Legion of Doom."

"Is there like a flow chart for this or Cliff's Notes?"

"I thought you were retired," she said, shoving the Kryptonite into a lead box. "So, now that you're okay, could you get this to The Tower. I can't explain this to George."

He did as he was asked, making sure to be back in record time. That intrigued him. Apparently St. George must not be but so great or she'd have told him about her secret identity. "He doesn't know."

Chloe sighed and led her son to the sofa. He was quiet and stayed curled tightly against her lap. "No. The League...it's private."

"But you love him."

"I do, but he wouldn't understand. Saving people is what I do."

"Why, you're normal."

"Because you did it first, and if I didn't have you then I still had your mission. Whether you ever work for us or not, I will be saving people."

Clark sighed and sat down on the sofa's far end, on the other side of Chloe's...of Christopher. "Does he know?"

"Yeah, he does. I...once before I had my identity compromised and a certain clown from Gotham took us both hostage for a bit. Arrow got us back, and I made him promise not to tell George."

"Hey buddy," Clark said, focusing on her son. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "I knew mommy would think of a plan. I don't know you. Are you a Teen Titan?"

"Seriously I need notes, Chlo," he huffed. "No, I'm...well...I'm a long story. I was your mom's best friend for a long time."

His eyes widened as he shook his head. "But mom's old!"

"I said I was complicated. At least that much hasn't changed."

"Cool, so you're a superhero though, right?"

"I'm actually retired."

"You saved us," Christopher pointed out.

Out of the mouths of babes.

"Maybe, I'm not completely retired. I'm not sure yet."

"Neat, you have great powers," he replied, before curling back against Chloe.

"So," she said, arching an eyebrow at him. "Does this mean your game?"

"No, it means if you get in trouble, I've got your back. As long as you insist on doing dangerous stuff for the League, then I'll keep my eye and ear out for you. That's it."

"So if I patrolled, you'd be obligated to follow me?"

"Uh, yeah."

"And if there's an apocalypse and I'm in the middle of it, you wouldn't want me on my own, would you?"

"You're blackmailing me, aren't you?"

She nodded and reached over to squeeze his hand. "And how. But you're wrong, Clark."

"Okay, extortion. You know I can't let you get hurt so I'll follow you around."

"No, I mean about'was' my best friend. We're best friends now and always, fifteen years doesn't change anything."

Clark sighed and patted Christopher's shoulder and eyed her wedding ring. "No, Chlo, it changes everything."

IV. Beauty is Truth, Truth beauty...

She sighed and kept her head focused on her work. Chloe knew better by now. Clark visited her every day at seven p.m. like clockwork. The fact she'd told him time and time again over the last three months that she wasn't interested didn't stop him.

Shaking her head, Chloe shut her laptop. Her online course work from Gotham University could wait. Bastard Clark knew that too.

"Hey, so how was your day?" he asked, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

Once, in high school, she'd have killed for Clark Kent to show up nightly in her bedroom. She should have been careful with what she wished for or at least been more specific. She'd wanted Clark to be into her romantically, for him being in her bedroom to be something more intimate. The last thing Chloe wanted was for Clark to be her one friend left after her accident with the Veritas serum. He'd saved her life and restarted her heart and, while the initial madness the mutation had given her had abated-she no longer felt that drive to ruin people, to elicit painful truths from them.

It didn't mean that she couldn't, just that she didn't want the ability at all.

People figured out quickly after everything with Fitz as well as with their underground teacher about what she could. It had been a blessing really at the end of it all, that she and her dad had to go into witness protection and she could start life again in Gotham. She'd managed to get through senior year by being quiet, something new for her. She talked as little to people as she could, unless they were her dad or Clark. It was why she was going to online class for college and was pursing creative writing instead of journalism.

She no longer wanted anyone's secrets.

Her dad, well, her ability had gotten every uncomfortable truth out of him their summer alone in the safehouse. It was raw and hard, especially hearing about her mom's real reason for living, but Gabe Sullivan was safe to be around because there was nothing left he could hide from her.

Clark was different.

When wasn't he?

Clark was the only person she'd ever met who wasn't vulnerable to her curse. No matter what she asked him or how she said it, he was an enigmatic as he'd ever been. It was all the proof she'd ever needed to confirm that he wasn't normal, never had been. Of course she wasn't either. It was odd; she didn't even care anymore about the exact reason for his differences.

He knew hers.

Hell, most of Smallville knew hers.

All she knew was that Clark had some level of immunity or invulnerability to her powers and, she presumed, those of other mutants and dangers that could hurt a typical person. He was also incredibly fast and had keenly sensitive hearing. That, well, that had come a bit later. She'd had an exceptionally shitty day at Gotham High. For a history project she'd been forced to do a family history interview with a girl next to her. Like always, the girl had revealed more than she'd wanted and had spent the rest of the day glaring at Chloe.

Glares that had escalated by the day's end to laughing and pointing from other students as well.

She'd cried for an hour and looked up from her bed to find Clark just standing in her room like that was normal, like Gotham wasn't a thousand miles from Smallville and it wasn't impossible for Clark to be there.

Of course, it wasn't possible to get anyone to tell you their deepest secrets just by asking them.

She'd had to readjust even for her what was or wasn't real.

So Clark came and they talked. He told her about school and the college, about his internship this year at the Planet, and she shared about her classes and the novel she'd started outlining. Sometimes they watched movies or TV, sometimes they talked about nothing important at all. It was the only time of her day she could relax. Because he was immune, she didn't have to worry about accidentally asking the wrong question, about prying too much out of him. She wasn't a freak around him.

Because, they were both freaks around each other.

It just laid out there, naked between them. He knew she had an unusual gift of gab, to say the least, and she knew he was fast, immune, and could hear her from Smallville. She was beginning to think he wasn't even a Smallville meteor mutant either. She'd never said that to him, but there was at least one classmate she'd used her mojo on whom she knew for a fact was infected. The meteor freaks weren't exempt from her powers.

So that meant Clark was something else.

Big freaking deal.

He could be a Conehead or a Vulcan for all she cared. He was the only person she could really talk to, whatever the reason, and sometimes she was grateful for that.

Lately, she hadn't been.

She was jealous, ragingly so. It wasn't mature, but it was no less true. It had been okay his first two years as a DP intern. She didn't begrudge him his parking meter stories and kitten show articles on page fifty. Once he got a promotion this year to the third floor and city hall under a full-time staffer, that's when things started to hurt.

It was her fault. She'd done this to herself, poking her nose in a lab she didn't belong in. She'd lost the Planet for herself, twice over really, between her stunt with Lionel and her freak power. Chloe'd never been as noble as she'd wished she could be. Clark was moving up in the only career she'd ever truly wanted and it hurt to try and smile and encourage him.

"Chlo, I know you said not to come and I did wait a week. Last time we fought and it sucked," he said, offering her a lopsided grin. "I miss you."

"You don't have to. I'm sure you have tons of co-workers at The Planet and friends at Met U."

"Actually, I really don't."

"Of course you do."

He snorted. "When have I ever had a ton of friends?"

"Pete and me, Lana and Lex. That's like four!"

"And Pete move to Wichita and Lana to Paris our senior year. Lex ended up moving full time to the penthouse to run LuthorCorp with his dad in jail."

She frowned back at him. "Yeah, and I was in Gotham and, sure, you visited me but there was no way I'm your only friend."

"Sometimes the photography intern, Jimmy Olsen?"

She blanched. Chloe knew Jimmy in the Biblical sense. God, how she wished any other person on the planet had been her first. Maybe any of them would have called her back. "I don't know him."

Clark scowled back at her. "You're lying."

"Am not."

"Your heart speeds up when you lie," he said, touching his left ear.

Things had changed a lot between them. They never really talked about their powers. He'd given up on pep talks to her and platitudes about her learning control. She couldn't control it; all she could do was keep her mouth shut. She didn't press him because what he'd been willing to show her since she'd moved to Gotham was beyond generous based on the way he'd always lied to her and Lana and Lex before. It sat naked between them, and he rarely explained how he did what he did, just let her know that he could do them.

She knew he heard impossibly well and he knew she understood that. Clark had just never copped to it.

"Okay so Jimmy and I know each other, please don't make me explain how. It's lame. Anyway," she segued, hoping he'd drop it. "That's at The DP. Surely you have friends at college. Met U's huge."

He shook his head her and, well, blurred would be the best word for it. Rationally, Chloe knew what he'd actually done was run incredibly fast and returned to his spot on her bed. While he'd been gone he'd managed to grab a crowbar.

She frowned. "Thanks for the floor show? You don't have to...I mean, we both know I know that you don't exactly drive here daily, okay?"

"Yeah, and maybe I don't give enough."

"Right because even when I'm an embittered asshat and jealous about your life, you still send me cards and emails and visit me anyway so it's not just me and dad. You give all the time, Clark. Maybe too much. If you don't have other friends at college, it's probably because you're spending too much time with me."

He shrugged and her jaw dropped open in amazement when he bent the crowbar for her. "You know I'm fast and can hear a lot. Obviously you know I'm different in a big way since you can't, uh-"

"Get you to tell me anything."

"Yeah. Well I have a lot more about me that I want you to know."

"So you're strong?" He nodded and to her amazement started to hover a few feet off her bed. Incredulous, she stood up and ran her hands all over him, looking for wires that weren't there. It was that insane even for an ex-Smallville resident and mutant, herself. "Whoa, you can fly?"

"No," he replied, and his cheeks were fire hydrant red. "I can float. I figure I could fly but I don't know how to make me any good at it. Mostly I float in my sleep. I haven't needed a bed since freshman year and I have to have a single at college because this? People would notice."

"I guess that's why you never went Greek, huh?"

"Yeah, definitely," he said, his tone more subdued than before. He landed for her and stared down at his hands. "There's a lot of other stuff-X-ray vision, I can shoot lasers basically from my eyes, and when I breathe now I can blow objects for miles. I had this weird flu thing, long story, and when I sneezed, I blew the door off the barn for seven miles."

"When was that?" she asked, still trying to process the impossible laundry list of abilities Clark was finally owning up to.

"Three weeks ago. I'm still getting the hang of it. I realized I can make it super cold though so it's better for drinks than ice cubes," despite himself he looked up at her and beamed. "It's pretty cool."

She hugged him and smiled back. "You can show me if you want. You never have to, but if you ever want to show me something cool you can. You know what I can do and it's the anti-exciting."

"Chloe, do you know why I'm telling you all this?"

"Because you think that telling me all your secrets can fix our relationship. You didn't do anything wrong. I did. I can't be mature about you. As your friend, I'm super proud of you and the career you have, but so much of me misses being a reporter every single day. I should be bigger about this, but I'm not. I...this is weird but no matter how many abilities you have...and apparently it's all of them."

"I don't have all of them. It's not like I can stop time or have telekinesis or something."

"Are you sure you won't ever get those?"

"Well, no, but I don't currently have all of them," he said, smiling back at her.

"Anyway, maybe you were born this way or the shower did a number on you back in '89 or whatever and you had powers first but my one ability is the worst. It's this wall between me and everyone but you and dad and that's cause dad no longer can have any secrets from me."

"Chlo, trust me, you don't know anything about being different."

"Oh, I do."

"You're still human."

"Yeah, so are you. I mean the meteor rocks didn't make us monsters, exactly."

He sighed and took her hands in his, and she marveled at how gentle his touch was, especially after she'd seen him bend iron like it was nothing. "I wasn't affected by the meteor shower; I was the meteor shower."

Chloe considered that and frowned back at him. "Oh God, my powers are starting to work on you too, aren't they?"

"No, I wanted to tell you the truth. I know you won't tell anyone, not even my parents, that I let you know."

"I never talk to anyone, some trust."

"You could tell your dad."

"He'd think I was nuts, but you've never offered it before. Quick, what's your top sexual fantasy!"

"Are you serious?" he huffed, dropping her hands. "You can't make me say anything I don't want. That hasn't changed."

"Good cause I realized how dumb a question that was. The last thing I really wanted was a you and Lana scenario."

He smiled again. "Who says it would have been her?"

"Lana is beautiful and was the love of your life for like a decade since you were five. Anyway, so not the point. I just...why today?"

"Because you think you're the only one who's incredibly lonely and isolated, who's powers scare them and set them apart. I don't come here because I feel sorry for you."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I really don't. Not to sound like my dad, but you did make your own bed, Chlo."

"Believe me. I know," she said, shivering. "So you don't feel sorry for me?"

"No, I like being here because I can be me with you. I know I didn't tell you the full alien stuff till today, but I liked that if I did something weird-"

"Like run half way across the country?"

"Yeah, that when I do that, you don't even ask. We can be weird together. I...we don't have to talk about it...but it's not like this giant wall either. Other people, even as nice as Jimmy can be to me at least, well, they'd never get it."

"Yeah, but you can leave the house."

"You could too."

"I try. God, you know I try, but eventually I do have to talk to people and then they say things they don't want to and realize there's something off about me. I can't be a reporter."

"Maybe not that, but maybe you could work for the DP."

"Clark, I can't. That's the biggest paper in the country! Soon, I'd mess up and people would figure out about me."

He snorted. "Like me being first contact but also working on the City Hall beat? Chlo, maybe you can't be the one out in the field interviewing people, especially since you can't help that people have to answer you."

"But?"

"Maybe you can work anyway. Perry's on the editing staff, recent promotion, and he's asked about you."

"Did you tell him?"

He squeezed her shoulder. "Of course not. It's your secret to share."

"Like yours was."

"And now you get that."

"It cost enough to understand it," she muttered. "If I can't talk to people, how can I work for the DP?"

"I can talk to people. I can be the guy in the field and you can do the research and the edits. I know you always read my stuff and correct it."

"I don't always-"

"I haven't shared a piece with you yet where you haven't commented how to structure a better lead-in."

"I don't know."

"Perry knows about me."

She gaped at him. "You didn't seriously give him an interview back during his X-Styles phase?"

"No, but he's smart and he remembered how weird I was. He took me aside one day after I was an hour late to work to send me home to change. I, uh, might have had some bullet holes in my shirt from stopping a robber in midtown."

She blinked dumbly back at him. "So bullet proof too?"

"I said invulnerable."

"I thought just to mind mojo. I didn't know that you were so thick-skinned!"

Clark sighed. "I'm a lot of things, none of them normal, and Perry gets that and covers for me. I...if we explained, he'd put in a good word for you. Aren't you tired of doing everything from one room?"

"Of course, but I...what I do violates people. I don't want to hurt them."

Clark smiled, and it was one of the saddest things she'd ever seen. He didn't say anything but stared at the vanilla-scented candle on his desk, the flame that sprung up seemed to come from nowhere until she saw his eyes had changed color to burnt orange.

He'd done that with a look.

"I know more about that than you can even imagine. I've got your back, okay? And you can have mine, deal?"

"I've been away from the world a long time..."

"Then it's been far more boring without you in it," he countered. "Let me be your tour guide back."

She nodded and kissed his cheek. It was quick and sweet. They were just friends, after all. "Is it ironic?"

"What?" he asked and was he blushing?

Smoking cool.

"That you, Mr. Kent, are the most human person I know, and you're definitely the only person I'd trust to lead me back into the world."

"Thanks, Chlo, you mean more to me than you know, too."

V. Radio Silence

"Chloe, please, you can't ignore me forever."

She turned down the volume as low as she could on Superman's feed. He could never be out of contact with Watchtower, and the bastard was using that technicality to his full advantage. If he were Impulse or Arrow, sure, then they could confiscate his commlink for abuse. But not him. He, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and J'onn for first line. They couldn't afford to be unable to contact any of them.

Ever.

So that meant that for the last week, since she'd asked him not to come to see her, he'd been begging every hour, on the hour, for her to talk to him. It was enough to make a girl-come-cyber security system wish she could sleep.

And wasn't that the problem? Most days, Chloe focused on making the best of her unprecedented situation. Her life before hadn't exactly been going gangbusters. She was a terrible counselor, had been blackmailed from every paper in the state, and was in the middle of marrying a man she never would have said yes too without the alien computer eating through her brain.

Now?

Well she might literally be Watchtower, but she had a lot going for her. "Elizabeth Cochran" wrote regular op-eds for The Planet and Gotham Gazette, and, for what it was worth, she'd finished Met U via online classes two years after her accident. Besides, all of her best friends had always been League regulars. It wasn't like she didn't speak with her friends every day or, what was that other thing?

Right, help save the planet on a weekly basis.

She had friends, a career and a mission.

That was more than she'd had before her accident, at least in a lot of ways.

So what if she couldn't sleep or breathe or feel anything? She had her mind in one piece and all of her memories. That was the most important thing to her. Of course, she hated what had happened to her. Of course, if she dwelled on it, she'd go crazy. Of course, she'd trade everything she'd done for the world since her techno-exorcism by the Legion for being able to touch someone.

To kiss.

But there wasn't any way to fix her. Thoughts like that...they led nowhere. She had to focus on what she had, and Clark should realize that was the only way she could survive. What right did he have to offer her everything she'd ever wanted when she couldn't even enjoy it. God, she'd known her best friend had a martyr complex, but if his guilt over her condition was going to lead to this...he needed to hang it up.

Like now.

"Chlo, come on. I know you can hear me. This is beyond immature."

She mimicked letting out a sigh, breaking her resolve for the first time in seven days. It was for effect, most things about the interactions she could make were now. Oddly, that gave her pause. A lot of things Clark did were for show too. She'd talked with J'onn about it before. Clark liked eating and sleeping, but he didn't have to do it. He wasn't completely wrong abotu the way they could complement each other, as fucked up as they were. They were both completely inhuman in their own ways.

"Clark, you have to stop this. I'm good at blocking out distractions."

"I'm glad that's how you think of me," he huffed and he could channel his own high school cattiness better than she realized. "I'm not a distraction."

"There's a typhoon in Taipei, and I'm helping Aquaman and Arrow work clean-up. Everyone needs the eyes and ears of Big Sister."

"And yesterday there was a mud slide in California and the day before that an earthquake outside of Santiago. Yes, I get it, we're always busy. It never stopped you before."

"From?"

"Talking to me."

She did her version of a sigh again, as if Clark would take the hint. "We need a break. I hoped when I asked you not to come to, well, me that you'd understand that the commlink is for emergencies only."

"First," he said, still rather whiny for his Man of Steel persona. "You are not the Watchtower."

"Actually, that's both my codename and where I live."

"But you're not just a machine, Chlo, no matter what Brainiac and the Legion did to you. Don't even joke about that."

"And it's not a joke. I'm busy saving the world, and I don't do that well with you bugging me every hour."

"I knew you could hear me."

"Of course, and that was low to take advantage of this link I am not allowed to stop between us."

"It's also low to ignore the man who loves you."

"Don't."

"Chlo-"

She cut the feed herself. Bruce would have to yell at her later. Clark heard better than a beagle. If they needed him, he'd hear. Hell, Bart could get him in a flash. She was done with this.

Bruce was kind enough to give her twelve hours before he spoke with her. It was humbling in a way that he chose to do it in person. She was used to voice to voice or even over video chat; it wasn't like she had a face for them to see. Huh, now that was a thought. She wasn't even one hundred percent sure that Bruce knew what she'd once looked like. It was likely at some point Clark or Oliver had shown newer members, but there was actually no guarantee The Batman knew anything about her beyond the Watchtower interface and the myriad of monitors at her bank.

"Watchtower."

"Batman."

"You know," he said, sitting down at one of the chairs at her console. "We can't have you and Superman fighting."

"We're not fighting. I'm not speaking with him. Fighting implies there's still at least some dysfunctional communication. He wouldn't respect boundaries. I tried. After a week, I had to shut him off to do my job."

Bruce frowned and shocked her further by taking off his cowl. "Chloe, may we speak candidly."

"Batz, you never call me that."

"I prefer professionalism, but I'm willing to try other options when we have our most powerful member and our hub in such disarray."

"Alright, at least I'm intrigued."

"I know I'm new to all of this."

"You've been League for three years."

"No, I mean to you and Clark, and the rollercoaster you've been on. I've heard pieces from Arrow and Canary, but when things started breaking down this week, I spoke at length with Impulse."

She was glad for her computerized status in that moment. Otherwise, she would have been blushing brightly. "Bart's been a friend since high school, but I don't think he'd give you the best opinion. He's always nursed a bit of a crush on me."

To be fair, she liked Bart back. Not the way she wished she could be with Clark; there were not romantic feelings for Bart Allen and there never would be. He was, however, her favorite Leaguer after Clark and he also spent more shifts than he had to hanging out with her. She couldn't enjoy his spicey Mexican food, but they watched a lot of terrible telenovelas together. He made her time more bearable and she appreciated that.

She did not appreciate him talking to The Batman about Clark's hangups.

At all.

"Yes, and maybe that's why he came to me."

"Oh I thought Bart-"

"No, Chloe, he came to me because he was worried. Obviously, you don't show distress like most of us."

"Yeah, having no actual face or tear ducts factors into that. I'm fine. Clark said something stupid. He won't let me have a few days to myself, but we'll get over it and he'll be back to getting ham and swiss crumbs in me next month, no worries."

"You'd think for someone with no expressions, you'd be a better liar."

"I'm a fantastic liar. I covered for Clark and the Justice Bros long before there ever was a real League."

"Then you're terrible about hiding your actual feelings. Bart could tell first, just by your tone-so to speak-with him over the commlink. You didn't even tell him what happened, but I can guess."

"Because you're the Great Detective or whatever," she griped, wishing she had arms to throw things at his smug expression.

"Because I'm not a fool. If you think I'm the only one who's noticed, you'd be wrong. Diana, J'onn and Bart all have to. I'm surprised we noticed it before you did."

"What?"

"He's in love with you."

"He feels responsible for what happened to me, no matter the choices I made to land me there. Besides, I spoke with Imra last time the Legion was in town. They'd have flat out murdered me if he hadn't stopped them. Some kind of life is better than none at all. His guilt has eaten at him until he thinks he loves me."

"He does love you."

"Bruce, no offensive, but you're a functional psychopath. I mean, it's great for us you play for our side, but we both know you're not exactly a counselor either."

"But I know what it is to love someone so dearly and lose her, to give anything to have her back."

"Rachel."

"Yes," he said, his voice quiet and measured. "You're not actually dead, Chloe. I won't sugar coat it."

"When would you ever?"

"Point, but while you're something unique, you're still here. Your soul, your mind...the things he loves best about you never went anywhere. If this was all I had left of Rachel? Well, I'd be here just as often as he is."

"But I'm not really here-here. Clark deserves better."

"Maybe that's his choice to make."

"And what would we do?" she shouted, mentally wincing at the reverb she was creating. Bruce's ears would ring from that whether he admitted it or not. "I'm a dead end. I can't touch him or kiss him or...there's no picket fence for me."

"Would there have been for Clark no matter whom he dated? J'onn says he's not even sure if Kryptonians and humans can have children."

"Well you know you can't have them with a computer," she paused and when she spoke again, she had no idea why she was being so open with Bruce. Maybe she was just tired of cutting everything off, or maybe she just missed Clark and something about the Dark Knight was reminiscent of him. "He told me when he was here last that we're perfect for each other, that he was a man who could never really touch a woman-"

"I wouldn't necessarily say that."

"He can crush coal into diamonds, have you ever seen that?"

"I hadn't. I didn't know."

"Yeah, so some things make his concentration slip, when he has such an emotional reaction..."

Bruce did wince then. "Those logistics had occurred to me. I see."

"So, yeah, it's pathetic, isn't it? He's a guy who can't touch anyone and I can't be touched, not really."

"If Clark feels about you, even close to how I felt for Rachel, then the fact you survived at all is still a miracle to him."

"Oh."

"You flickered back at ISIS and it hadn't felt that long to you, but for Clark that was a month of thinking you were dead. I've lived it. I'm still living it. An embrace is nice."

"So's sex," she snarked back.

"But don't doubt that he loves you, and that you have a chance a lot of us would kill for, even if it's imperfect."

She flickered, turned a few of the monitors to snow, as close as a reaction as she could have. "I won't bind him to me."

Bruce laughed, a hollow, haunted sound. "Watchtower, it's far too late for that."