Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rating: T
Notes: I felt Lois and Chloe's reunion deserved a solo chapter. Directly back to action and the present (December 2020) in Chapter 3.
OOOOO
Chapter 2 "Face it. Obliterate it."
30th August, 2020. Metropolis. Ament street.
Katherine Tracy lived in Ament street, Metropolis. She was a 76 year-old lady blessed with an active mind and a capable body enabling her to live on her own. She woke up with the sun and faced every day with a positive attitude. She loved walking. Every Wednesday she religiously went to a hotel nearby where she played bridge with her friends and shared past memories. Then, she would go back home, spend some quiet moments alone and, relaxed and happy, go to sleep. Miss Tracy did not consider herself, nor she was, a nosy person.
Hers was a very quiet building, so that 30th of August, when she heard a door open and then a loud thud on the floor on the apartment in front of hers, she looked, worried that Miss Sullivan had hurt herself. Chloe Sullivan, her new neighbor, a lovely young woman, poor dear having lost a leg in a car accident.
The noise seemed to have come from a box that now lay on the floor, a box that had been carried by the woman standing in front of her, and from Chloe's face, a rare mixture of surprise, insecurity and recognition, the visitor seemed to be someone who she knew of old.
If there was something Mrs. Tracy had learnt over her long life, that was to read people. And the young woman was feeling a whole array of emotions. None of them was fear.
Katharine Tracy did not consider herself a nosy woman. Honoring that virtue, she left the door and smiling, returned to her quiet life.
OOO
The box slipped through Lois' fingers and landed with a thud.
None of them cared.
Lois looked as lost as she felt, probably like the blonde sitting on a wheelchair in front of her, still holding the door as if paralyzed. "I…" She tried to say something, but the words stuck. Not even her eyes knew what to do, traveling from Chloe's eyes to the chair, then her shaking hands, then her eyes again. The pit of her stomach had knots that were made of knots that had knots themselves. And not a damn word to say.
Chloe's hand was still firmly wrapped around the doorknob, looking like groping for a way to stop shaking and failing epically at it. Where were all the mind recesses that awoke the primeval instincts and that would surely help her react? Lois wondered, because she was getting a big nothing, and that was not like her.
All she could do was fasten her eyes on Chloe's and beg for something to happen soon.
It did. Chloe changed places with her lack of initiative and launched a whispered plea. "Please, say something."
It helped bringing her back. "I…I just-" But still the damn words would not come out. Lois mentally cursed herself.
And she must have looked pathetically helpless, because Chloe, in all her one-legged shaking self, rose from the chair using the doorknob to steady herself, or at least try, because the door's hinges decided to abide to physics laws and move the door as Chloe unconsciously pushed it, making her lose balance and stumbling forth, almost meeting the floor in the process. Almost. Before she could realize, Lois found herself holding and supporting Chloe, who was looking back at her with surprised big round green eyes and an unreadable face with too many emotions to discern one. And the words finally came. "Hey. Don't scare me like that."
And the dam of emotions broke.
OOO
Chloe let the world blur away and closed her eyes to lose herself in the body holding her protectively, the younger cousin taking over the stoic persona after so many years in hiding. Chloe took the leap and jumped, preparing herself for the wreckage she could very well find bursting on her face when she faced Lois. Reluctantly abandoning that little warm spot, and with a tinge of fear, she attempted to look.
Meeting a pair of hazel and slightly red eyes staring back at her. Damned her if she was going to let them crash. Not without trying. Chloe hugged Lois as hard as she could and let it all out. "I am so sorry, so, so sorry." If she had really smothered them she deserved any blow Lois found fit to give her with all her might.
She got a hug instead.
OOO
Lois returned the embrace and felt Chloe releasing a long sigh of relief as she kissed her on the top of her head. The simple affectionate gesture came as natural as it had always been, and the words were no longer lumps in her throat, but a soothing sound whispered to… God, to Chloe. Alive. Here. With me. "It's ok, sweetie. It's ok." More than a decade ceased to weigh on her heart, as if it had never existed. The feeling was weird, but welcomed with open arms. Her lips curved upwards. She was real, she was there and she wouldn't let her go away again. They remained like that for a long moment, silently rocking, Lois making sure Chloe wouldn't fall.
There was a lot of talking and dealing ahead, but first she wanted to let herself feel and know that Chloe was there.
She hugged her a little tighter.
"Lo?"
Perhaps it wouldn't be her the one to decide when to start talking after all.
OOO
Chloe didn't move her head from where it was resting, and a small smile appeared despite the outcome of what she was about to say. "Now that I know you don't want to kill me… I wouldn't mind my feisty cousin back." The smack on the back of her neck came instantly. "Ouch." Yes, she could still read Lois like an open book. Meeting her gaze, she saw her cousin's raised eyebrows and couldn't help her own bemused face. Carefully peeling the sentimental layer away, Chloe had stopped groping for that side of her cousin, directly going for the real thing, the whole package. And there she was, in all her Lois glory, staring at her and ready to make things normal between them.
OOO
Indeed, it had been Chloe.
"You asked for it. Now get back to that chair, you're heavy." Lois helped her back on the wheelchair and went to grab the box, leaving it by the entrance before closing the door and walking inside. "I hope they didn't break," she muttered to herself.
"I… I was going to make a tea, umm… it is … would you like some? I mean, you can, right? It's not like you-"
"Please don't tell me you're gonna start too, Chloe." She saw her cousin smiling. That sweet curling of the lips that reached her eyes which Lois had missed so much.
"I'll try…"
"...but you don't promise anything," said Lois rolling her eyes eliciting a chuckle from Chloe. "Yeah, yeah, it's the League's theme this summer, it seems."
"Make it the next nine month's theme," said Chloe as she steered the chair to the kitchen.
Lois followed her as she inspected her surroundings with casual curiosity. "Nice house," she commented. It still felt weird to be talking to her like that, but the conversation had to go somewhere.
OOO
Chloe hesitated. She didn't really want to get in the 'hows' and 'whens' with Lois right now. They would talk, definitely. But…Oh well. "Ollie found it." Maybe it was the perfect time to get it all out, for both of them.
OOO
Lois observed her moving around the kitchen without problem. "You manage well," she observed.
Chloe's answer was perfectly neutral. "Years of practice, I guess. You get used to it; and I can still walk, so I consider myself a lucky one."
"With a stupidly stoic-" The words fell from her mouth before she realized she had said them.
The tea pot whistled.
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"I will not regret my decision." She said it gently, but without a trace of doubt in her tone. They shared a look, and her voice softened a little more. "I can't."
Chloe left the tea pot on the table, ideas of a hot drink forgotten. From the corner of the eye she could see Lois sitting down, and she turned the chair to look at her.
"It could've been avoided."
It was not a reproach, Chloe knew. Still, it hurt. "Jimmy died, Lois. Because of me. And you were missing. If you had been gone too…"
OOO
Chloe knew she was angry, but Lois felt she didn't quite understand why. "Chloe, it's not that you left us behind." A pair of hiked up blond eyebrows looked at her. "At least not entirely," she corrected. "It's the fact that you severed ties and unilaterally decided to go away on your own. Alone, without your family and friends. We would've helped you."
"I know you would have, Lois. And probably die in the process," insisted Chloe stubbornly. "One death was enough burden on my shoulders, I couldn't carry another one." She sighed tiredly. "I do not expect you to understand, Lo, but what's done it's done, and if I were given the option again, I'd still do what I thought was the best way to protect the ones I love." She stood against Lois' look, resolved to make her point. "Lois, I racked my brains, literally, before making that decision. Don't question it." Please.
Lois' eyes met the floor, and her voice came out almost shy. "And the dead scene, was it really necessary?" She was angry at Chloe for that, she realized, with a bit of shame, because deep inside, however wrong she thought it was, it had been a selfless act. One she knew she didn't have the guts to make. She would've told herself there had to be another way, even if it took her time. Even if in the process she didn't find it. Chloe had just told her the idea didn't come out of the blue. Well, it's Chloe, of course she thought about it. But it sucked, because that choice had hurt them both. Chloe had probably spent countless sleepless nights thinking on that day and how much she had hurt Lois, and how it had hurt her to do that. Damn life.
"Would you have believed it if you didn't see for yourself?"
Silence. "No."
"Would you have stuck your butt in Metropolis without looking for me if I had told you I was leaving and why I was leaving?"
Truth? "I would've bound you to your hospital bed until I talked it out of you. And then I would've kicked Ollie's ass for listening to you." Definitely. Using handcuffs.
Chloe gave her a sad smile. "Sometimes I wish I had told you. I knew you'd do that."
Lois' tone gentled. "I hate to think you've been alone all this time, Chlo. It sucks."
"It's over now," she reassured. "And I would really like to start looking forward." Smiling, Chloe extended her arm and put her hand on Lois' belly, grinning when Lois' hand covered it. "Because the future's looking pretty sweet right now."
"Yeah, look at that." She chuckled. "This is something you don't see every day, isn't it?"
"Lois Lane and a baby in the same sentence and body? You bet."
Lois' eyes traveled to her belly again. The notion of it still amazed her. She smiled. "Well, it looks like it will happen. And I still can't believe it."
"Believe it, Lo." She gently pressed her hand on Lois' belly. "It is happening."
Silently, Lois agreed. "Two weeks. And for all he could see, it will probably be a normal pregnancy. You know, whatever unknown, we'll see when it happens."
"Scared?"
"A little." Yeah, sure. "A lot." She chuckled nervously, and found once again Chloe's hand as a source of calm. "But excited too. And happy. Not very about the hormonal changes, that one's going to be a bitch. But overall…" She fished for a word.
Chloe provided the perfect one. "Whoa."
"Yeah, that's right. We're stuck in 'whoa'. Still hard to believe."
"I'm glad to be around for this one."
"I'm glad you are." Then she turned a little more serious. "And I hope you don't vanish on thin air now."
"'Now?'?," she asked correctly interpreting Lois. "I'm not sure I liked the sound of that implication."
"You won't. Lex had surveillance in our house."
"What?"
"He knows about the pregnancy."
"Bu- wh-… How?"
"It's Lex, Chloe. But he is in jail now, so don't go bananas about this, ok? Please?" Look who's talking, Lane.
"Does Clark know?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"And Chris?"
Oh boy. "That kid has proclaimed himself my guardian and protector. If Clark told me he was his biological son I wouldn't be a bit surprised."
Chloe smiled. "He's really cute."
"That he is. Um… did they tell you about his back-story?"
"Yes."
"And you're ok with it?"
"There is no way I can't be ok with it." Chloe made sure there was no trace of hesitation in that statement, and cemented the assertion with one of her Sullivan smiles. "I look forward to getting to know him."
Lois breathed. It felt so good to feel this way again. Like her family was back together. There were some more conversations ahead, for sure, but this moment was as perfect as it could get. Shoving Lex aside in her mind, he resolved to stay in that comfortable place. "By the way, did you finally get your vinyl player?"
"You remember that?"
"So, you got it?"
"No. I guess a part of me still felt I was not at home."
"Maybe it's about time you get it. It's going to suck not having one."
Chloe arched an eyebrow in question, followed by Lois' teasing. "Come, let's see if I didn't break them when I dropped the box."
OOO
Later, much later, Lois got home. She left the shoes on the entrance, and went to the bathroom. On her way, she saw Chris sleeping on the coach and opted not to wake him up with a goodnight kiss. He was a light sleeper and she really didn't want him to wake up.
Later, ready for bed, she found Clark waiting for her, awake and smiling.
"Hey."
He always did that, Lois reflected. He had probably heard her coming before she even entered the building, but somehow knew when she liked a little time alone, gathering her thoughts of the day while she undressed and prepared to go to bed. Maybe it was her heartbeat pattern, she mused. Clark seemed to have a PhD on her heart rate. He simply waited, gave her time and then shifted enough to provide her with a cozy warm spot on their bed, normally ending up enveloped in his arms.
Lois leaned on the frame thinking of that. "You waited."
Clark propped himself on one elbow. "In between waiting here and getting there myself, I thought this was the safest one."
"My thoughtful farm boy," said Lois.
"I take it this smile means it went well."
"Let's get to bed and I'll tell you how well it went."
OOOOO
Music: Better than Ezra "Breathless" (Chloe and Lois together); Lamb "What sound" (Lois/Clark). As soon as I complete planning the soundtrack I'll let you know.
Hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for the reviews, alerts and favorites!