Chapter 9
Back at the house, Clark went to stoke the fire while Chloe hung up her jacket. She wandered into the laundry room to check on the washing machine. Clark found her as she was transferring the sheets and blankets to the dryer. "Saving on quarters again?" He helpfully pulled a pillowcase and a matching sheet out of the machine, but paused before they made it in the dryer. "These are mine." He commented. Then comprehension dawned. His eyes darted to Chloe's.
Chloe shrugged. "I had the time so I tossed in a load."
He finished emptying the washer, set the timer on the dryer and caught her hand as she turned to go. "Like I said, no one knows me better." He gave her hand a fleeting squeeze and went back to the living room. Chloe leaned against the humming dryer to collect herself. Clark didn't know what he was doing to her with the hand- holding and the brief touches.
After taking a minute to steady her nerves, she rejoined him by the fire and grabbed a slice of pizza, reheated via a burst of power from Clark's eyes. She picked off a pepperoni slice and popped it in her mouth and started filling him in on Lois's memories of the future. They had Clone Clark's account when he tapped into Lois's mind as well as the more hazy presentation from Tess's viewings recorded right to the hard drive. "Everything he told us matches the grainier depiction that was also recorded. I don't think he held back any details, though there were a couple I could have done without."
"For example?"
Chloe scrunched up her face. "You're not going to like it."
"You can tell me."
"Apparently, your clone in that timeline spent his time pining over the missing Lois and when they were reunited they…he…um. Let's just say they were united in the most ancient sense."
Clark frowned but otherwise took the news much better than Chloe expected. He only asked one question. "But now Lois doesn't even remember doing that?"
"No." Clark nodded and exhaled, relief written on his face. Chloe decided Lois not knowing would be easier on Clark and explained further. "She came back from the future remembering the events as only flashes and nightmares and then after Tess kidnapped her and hooked her up to a kryptonite modified brain scanner, the process redacted her memory."
Clark nodded again as another piece of the puzzle slide into place and summed everything up. "So she didn't remember the events but she remembered the feelings and now after Tess's experiment, she no longer has those same intense feelings either. Lois said as much."
"I'm sure her real feelings have remained the same."
Clark smiled smugly. "Yeah, I think you are probably right." Chloe jumped up and put some space between her and Clark. She hated being right. Being right sucked. Clark smiling over Lois still being gaga over him sucked. Not being able to scream this very instant sucked. Not being able to think of one adjective stronger than sucked, sucked. This is what happens when the writer inside goes on semi-permanent hiatus.
"Chloe, is something wrong?" Clark twisted around and asked over the back of the couch.
"Everything is fine. I just wanted to get, um, some water." She ran the cold water tap and opened a cupboard for a glass." Stick to business, stick to business. She resumed her narrative. "After viewing Lois's memories, your clone said Zod blamed the reason he felt compelled to take over the world on Clark, for not joining Zod's army. Kind of in a show of power."
"And that's when I knocked on Zod's door."
"Right, and got a prodigal son kind of welcome. Remember how Zod was fond of the 'kneel for him' crap, well Kal-El got the full treatment."
"He required my clone to kneel before him?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "Zod required all his followers to kneel before Kal-El."
Even from across the room Chloe could tell that disturbed Clark. Before he turned back around, she saw his forehead etch with heavy creases. She filled her glass and turned off the faucet, staying silent so Clark would have a chance to process. She headed back into the living room, but instead of returning to sit on the couch next to Clark, she perched on the coffee table in front of him. He was leaning forward, staring into the fire with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands hanging in between. "Could he have been right? I mean my clone. Could my befriending Zod keep him from exercising power over of all of the earth?"
Chloe answered gently. "I'd like to believe there is redemption for everyone, but I can't fool myself." Her throat felt tight. "Sometimes it's too late for saving." Was she still talking about Zod? Mentally she shook her head and got back on topic, still speaking slowly and evenly. "I don't know what would motivate Zod to honestly reform, but I do know he has already gotten permits to begin building the tower that transforms our regular sunlight to red. He appears to have started planning world domination with or without you."
Clark nodded. "How did I, the emissary, find Zod?"
"I got his location from a source in Tess's operation. Tess revealed that Zod believed the Blur was really Jor-El, hording the power for himself. She kidnapped Jor-El and sold him a cockeyed plan about pretending to be the Blur to protect you. She gave him a GPS rigged outfit and then let Zod steal her prisoner out from under her. I think she just wanted to know where Zod was hiding out. He's hold up in a warehouse on the edge of Granville."
Clark let out a long breath. "And in a day or so, he expects me to hand him control of a dozen satellites as a sign of faith."
Chloe bit her lip and shook her head. "I can't do it Clark. I can't risk giving him what he wants."
Clark looked up at her. "What if you gave him what he wants, command control of the satellites, but set up some kind of secret override or failsafe?"
She shook her head again. "No, I don't have that kind of skill. With the setup at Watchtower I can hack just about anything, but the math and programming code that would need to be written for a satellite orbiting in space…," Chloe trailed off still shaking her head. "To do what you are asking is beyond me."
"Then maybe we need to bring someone in. What about Victor Stone? Do you know where he is?"
Chloe nodded. "Our Cyborg is currently matriculating at Stanford University, making use of their cutting edge robotics and AI research facilities. He's a start, but even he wouldn't be able to do it in time."
"I have someone else in mind too."
Chloe stood and went to grab her cell phone off the dinning room table. "Well, I'll call Victor now, with the time difference, he should still be up."
"Is it safe to use a cell phone?"
Chloe dramatically clasped the phone to her breast. "You don't know how it warms my heart to hear you ask that question." She grinned. "But yes, I have this phone encrypted and rerouted through Watchtower; it's safe. I did the same thing for your phone and the rest of our little bunch, though right now you are the only one who knows about my initiative. Speaking of which." She looked around the room. "Remind me to take the cameras for the farm offline."
Clark sat up straight. "You have the farm under surveillance?"
She shrugged. "It started innocently enough. The place was sitting empty. For some reason though, I never turned them off when 'Clark Kent' returned to the living. Good thing I didn't or I never would have found the portal key."
Clark darted his eyes around the room, picking out the hidden cameras. "You didn't watch him did you?"
"Yes Clark, I installed a shower camera and sold the footage to '," she answered deadpan before scowling. "No of course not. I just let the cameras run and collected the information directly to the hard drive. I'm not some kind of stalker."
"I didn't mean that."
She stuck her hands on her hips. "If you want, you can vaporize the equipment right now."
Clark jumped off the couch and was in front of her in an instant. His hands lightly grasped her shoulders and then as he spoke, he slid his hands gently up and down her arms, in a soothing motion. "Chloe, I trust you." She sniffed and looked away. "I do. You know I do." She reluctantly turned back to hear his explanation. "I just didn't like the idea of you…I don't know what exactly." He shook his head. "Let's just say that as time went by, I wasn't completely unhappy about the rift between you and the clone." Chloe tilted her head, not quite understanding. Clark made sure he held her gaze before finishing. "I was glad that what you and I have is still just between us."
Sometimes Clark's eyes seemed impossibly green. They were her kryptonite. One look from him and she was ready to forgive him for anything and melt into his arms…which usually was a problem since he didn't want her to melt into his arms. This time, something was different. Maybe he stood just a little bit closer. Maybe his casual touch on her arms felt more like a caress. Maybe he spent a moment too long looking at her mouth. Her instincts were telling her that Clark was talking about something bigger than friendship…but her experience told her to flush her instincts down the drain.
She ignored the invitation in Clark's eyes. "Believe me, there was no buddying up with that guy. I might as well have been hired help." She fought back the frown that wanted relentlessly to pull the corners of her mouth down. She didn't have a reason to be unhappy anymore. She worked up a smile and stepped deftly out of Clark's reach, busying herself with her phone. "I'll call Victor before it gets too late." While the phone rang, she returned to sit on the sofa, needing to get away from him before she did something stupid.
Victor answered and provided the distraction for which she was looking. Chloe efficiently explained what they needed, got the address where Clark would pick him up in the morning, thanked him and said goodbye. She ended the call and set her phone on the coffee table before glancing over at Clark. He hadn't moved while she was on the phone. He looked…frustrated? Chloe dismissed the idea. She must be misreading him. Stick to business, stick to business.
"Victor's in. Now whom else did you have in mind? A.C. is hopeless, Bart too impatient, Oliver and Canary are proficient on the computer, but neither are what I'd call great."
"You're in contact with everyone on the team?"
"Yes, though contact is the key word, team not so much. Oliver's in Metropolis and back in fighting form. The others forms are fine, but they are pretty scattered across the country."
"The person I had in mind lives locally and is a detective on the Metropolis police force. J'onn J'onzz."
"The Martian Manhunter?"
Clark nodded and joined her on the couch. "His civilization was far more advanced than Earth. I got the impression he learned astrophysics the way we learned our ABC's and I know he's good on the computer. He set up his own life story the same way you set up Kara's."
"Ok, do you want to call him?"
Clark shook his head. "Despite being stuck in human form, Detective J'onn J'onzz doesn't need much, if any, sleep. I'll contact him tonight when I go on patrol."
Chloe tucked up her legs on the couch and twisted to the side to face Clark. "You're going out tonight? You should track down Oliver. I think he was your number one confidant these days despite what Lois might think about her calls from the Blur."
"Lois got calls from the Blur?"
"You look surprised, but didn't you start that little tradition long before the clone showed up?"
"Twice. I called her twice. Once while you were missing so she knew someone was on the case and before that, I only called to stop her reckless pursuit of the Blur. That was after the full page ads, the skywriting, and the imaginary pleather shoe hero." He shook his head.
A wan smile flashed on Chloe's face, "Stiletto, yeah, I remember."
"She wasn't going to stop, so I called her. The way Lois was going, she was going to get killed or get someone killed."
Chloe flinched and on her lap squeezed her hands together into fists in order to keep them from shaking. Named after Lois's shoe fetish, her cousin's made up squeaky heroine would have been comical if Bruno Manheim hadn't taken Stiletto as a serious threat. Why did Lois have to have had asked Jimmy to do a cover shoot for the Daily Planet? The page four article wasn't enough. Lois wanted front page.
Jimmy had the serious bad luck to be working at the Ace of Clubs, Bruno's temporary front for his gang's counterfeit scheme. He'd grabbed Jimmy, beat him up, and then found shots on his camera of Lois yucking it up, superhero style, along side images from the disastrous Sullivan/Olsen wedding.
Two and two equaled four and a thug arrived at the Talon, ready to slit Chloe's throat as a message for Stiletto. For once, Davis and Doomsday acted in full accord and what was left of AJ Powell, the name she found on the driver's license, was a soupy mix of chunks that fit sloppily in two medium size plastic bags. The rest of him vanished. Had Doomsday devoured him?
"Chloe, what's wrong?"
She blinked and realized she's been staring dully at Clark for too long. Was something wrong? Yes and no. A J's blood haunted her, but she'd be more concerned if his death didn't.
"Someone did die Clark." The words were out of her mouth before she realized she planned of sharing and the rest of the story rushed out unemotionally.
Clark didn't say anything for a moment and then spoke quietly. "Chloe, there are a million things I want to say, questions about why you didn't tell me and what made you think you couldn't, but you made me promise to wait until tomorrow before we tackle the big stuff."
Chloe flinched and pushed the night out of her mind. "You're right, I shouldn't have brought it now. In fact, we probably should table the whole subject until we have this Zod issue under control."
"That's not what I agreed to." He told her firmly. "There are things that I need to say, questions that I need answered. I'm not going to make the same mistakes and put saying things off until it is too late to say them."
Sorrow fell over her like a blanket. She hung her head and stared at her hands clenched in her lap. "Sometimes there is nothing that can be said."
"I don't believe that and I don't think you believe that either."
She looked up and then off to the side. "I don't what I believe anymore." She told him miserably. "Half the time I don't even know who I am."
Clark switched positions and moved from next to her on the couch to in front of her on the low coffee table. He lifted one of her tense hands and rubbed it until she relaxed her fingers enough so he could thread his fingers through hers, then used his other hand to cup the side of her face and gently turn her head back toward him. "I don't believe that either. You've always known who you are."
A half-smile twisted her face. "Well, what I thought and what the universe keeps telling me doesn't quite line up."
"Are you sure?" He gazed up at her, searching her face and using his thumb to trace the triangle pattern of the three tiny moles on her left cheek. The intensity in his eyes frightened her. She refused to analyze what was racing through her mind and fell back on his promise.
"I thought we were going to save the heavy stuff for tomorrow?"
He studied her for another moment before dropping his hand from her face and nodding. "Ok. I let it go for now. We'll come back to it later." He squeezed her hand. "I can wait." Chloe peered at him. Something about his words seemed vaguely familiar. He then dropped her hand and stood up, changing the subject. "I should make contact with J'onzz and make sure he is on board. Why don't you meet us at Watchtower in the morning?"
"Why wait? It's only a little after eleven."
"Chloe, you should get your rest. I know you don't take care of yourself the way you should."
She stood up too. "Please, I'm fine.
"You should take the opportunity and get some sleep. Victor won't be in until morning."
"I'm not tired and I'd like to get a jump on looking for the Orb. I have a ton of data to sort." Clark was getting a stubborn look on his face. "Look, I'll drive in, work for a couple hours and crash there 'til morning. I do it all the time." She could do stubborn with the best of them.
"Fine, but you don't need to drive, I'll take you." He said and started walking toward the door.
Chloe trailed behind. "Wait, what if I need to go somewhere? I don't want to be stranded."
"You can use my truck. I have to pick it up in Metropolis anyway." He paused and turned around, looking sheepish. "You wouldn't happen to know where it is?"
