29
Chloe was torn between wanting to hug Connor close to her and never let him go and slapping him. The former instinct won out, but just barely, and only because she never believed in corporal punishment for her son or any child. She drove home, having brought her car with her to unsuccessfully storm the castle. Clark was speeding with Kon, his hand firmly grasped around their son's. No one trusted him anymore.
How could they?
His mother's son, indeed.
It took her longer than Clark and Kon's instant apparation to get home. It was ten minutes from the mansion home, ten minutes that felt like ten years. Time for her to think over what she'd done and hadn't done. The mistakes they'd made with Kon. The truths they should have told him before now, before it all exploded in rage and in confusion. She honestly didn't know how to do things differently. There had to be a limit to what you told an inquisitive three or five year old. She wished they'd explained about Lana long ago, but she'd deferred to Clark and, in typical Kent fashion, he'd insisted on ignoring her.
But they couldn't make him not Lana's.
They couldn't change her instincts, her influence, the part of her that was Kon. She loved her sweet, sensitive boy, but she'd seen it, even back when he was young and had tried stealing candy because he could. She had seen then what he could be, who he could be like. She just hadn't wanted to believe it or, at least, she thought that between the League and his family, they could prevent it.
She didn't know anymore and it scared her, both because of what Kon could be used to do and because, no matter what, he was Clark's son too and he'd live to regret his actions when the dust cleared. It was with nothing short of trepidation and exhaustion that she entered her home. She was only moderately surprised to see Kara in her patrol outfit-a dark jumpsuit with her House's sigil on the chest-and Bruce still in cape and cowl hovering over Kon in the living room.
"Kara, thank you for coming."
Kara's eyes were red and Chloe swallowed. "They put it on his wrist, Chloe."
She closed her eyes. Kara didn't have to elaborate. That fucking blue K had been used against Clark too many times. Lana thought of it like a play toy and Lex knew it as a great leveler. If they ever found out what the gold K did, it would be the end of Clark's abilities and, perhaps, considering what had happened to Dax-Ur's student, his life. "I'm sorry."
"They put it on his wrist. They held him like a prisoner again."
"Kara, it's not...you're family and I love you dearly and you can talk to Connor later but this is about him and us."
"Rao-dracu, Kon-El," she replied. "This isn't over. I'll be in the loft and so help me, if you don't come to see me after this talk, it won't be pretty."
"You'll sick Alura on me?" he snarked.
"I can think up enough chores around Watchtower for you to do in human speed to keep you busy until Doomsday. Don't press me, Kon-El. I'm responsible for Kal first and I'm fucking flu ra . Do you understand?"
"Yes, Aunt Kara."
"Good," she replied, turning to Clark. "Kal, if there's anything you need..."
"Just a little space, big cousin. I'm fine, promise."
She shook her head. "Fucking Lana."
"My sentiments but put more crudely," Bruce said.
Kara nodded and with a blur too fast for Chloe to discern was gone to the barn.
Chloe turned to Gotham's resident vigilante. "Bruce, this isn't the time."
"I've let you two run it your way. Kon's situation is more than just about your family."
She forced a smile and then grabbed Bruce by the arm. "Kitchen, now." There were a lot of people intimidated by Bruce, her husband (though not Kara) among them. That had never applied to Chloe. He didn't faze her, just annoyed her with his self righteous, know-it-all bullshit.
"Fawkes."
"Now, Batman. If you want to treat this like League business then I want a briefing first." Technically, there was nothing she could do that could force him to leave with her, but Bruce, above all things oddly, was a gentlemen and like he often did, he acquiesced to her request. It was almost comical to see the dark cape flaring behind him in the sunlit Kent kitchen.
It clashed with the gingham.
"Fawkes-"
"Take off the damn cowl. It's not like anyone here doesn't know and you're not intimidating me with it. I was fighting off alien invasions in college, try again."
Bruce huffed a little as he pulled off his mask. "What are we talking about? You called the alarm; you're the one who insisted there was an emergency."
"One to find my son. He's home now and we'll take care of all of it."
"As you have before? I was talking with Clark in the Watchtower and I don't think you've handled this at all well."
"The way Alfred kept you in business school or maybe the way he made sure you didn't fall off the face of the planet for seven years?"
"He has no place in this."
"He does. We're trying to reach our son and he's not a criminal. He's associated with Lex, but he's not like him. I appreciate what you did, how you've helped, but I won't have you give Kon the third degree. He's not a League problem."
"If Lana and Lex use him to get to his powers of if he decides to abuse his abilities, then it is our problem. The most powerful being on the planet-or he will be-and he's cozying up to two of the most heinous individuals I've ever encountered. The things ISIS does alone..."
"I know that. Lana's crazy but Kon hasn't done anything buy lie to us and search out his mom. I can't say I blame him for the latter. I went through a frantic phase to find Moira and Clark had the same yen for Lara. It happens."
"I won't let him hurt people, Chloe."
He rarely called her by her name. He wanted to make a point, and the point sickened her. Her son could be trusted. He could.
When it mattered, he'd never hurt an innocent. She knew that.
"Bruce, with all due respect, get the Hell out of my house. The Watchtower is where we run League business and always has been. If you can't respect that, maybe you shouldn't 'consult' for us any longer."
"Maybe I shouldn't," he replied, before stalking toward the door. "Oh and tell Clark I've had no luck so far with the stones. We're trying Iceland next."
"Thank you," she replied, counting down until he shut the door behind him. She felt her knees buckle under her and she forced herself upright. She had time later to feel poorly, to indulge her fears for her son. Right now, she had to be the mother Lana would never be.
Entering into the living room, Chloe sighed at the sight before her. Kon was sitting on the window seat, as far away as possible from where Clark was sitting on the sofa. His scowl was thick and she wondered if his expression would get stuck that way. It certainly did give him a bit of a rodent look and, as always, she was limited in the claim she had over him.
"Connor Sullivan Kent, what the Hell were you thinking?"
"Chlo! I thought we'd handle this with some calm and understanding."
"I am calm. Angry would be strapping a piece of Blue K to him and seeing how he likes it. How dare you go to the Luthors after all the warnings we've given you. How dare you put yourself and your sibling in danger like that."
"Half-sibling," Kon replied. "And nothing's wrong with Moira. She's fine."
"They know."
"Mom suspected as much. I didn't say stuff they didn't already know."
"No one told Lex Luthor your father was pregnant until today. At least none of us admitted it, until they talked about it first. What have you told them?"
"Twenty questions, Chloe? I'm not in the mood to be grilled."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "We need to know what Lex knows about your father. Did you tell him about the transfusions?"
Kon paled before her. "I might have."
"Kon, how could you?" Clark asked and she could see the beads of sweat on his forehead, hear the slight wheeze to his breath. He'd already had a transfusion this morning. Now was not the best time for him to be confronting so much stress.
"You don't understand. When I go over there, it's not like they sit down and have some itinerary and today is the day that we discuss dad's illness."
"Watch your tone," she replied.
"Fine, Chloe. I go over there and we talk. We just talk and it's not like they drag out needles and start experimenting on me. It's not like that at all. I talk about Moira and how stressful it all is and how upset I am and trouble with you or dad or Cass. That's all. They just want to listen to anything that upsets me."
"You told them about our family, didn't you?" she pressed.
"I told them whatever was bugging me that day. It wasn't some conspiracy."
"Connor," Clark said quietly. "We worry. There's everything to lose here and Lex knows how to hurt us. He has for years."
"Why hasn't he then? If he's so evil, why wasn't I raised in a cage."
"Don't even joke," she snapped. "You were so very close to being raised like that and we never wanted to tell you the full story because we didn't want to scare you. You had the worst nightmares as a little boy because you could remember just the smallest bits of being there."
"I dreamed of needles," he said, as he turned to look out the window, his voice far away. "I dreamed that it was all white everywhere and that it hurt, but mom said it was because I was getting vaccines."
"And blood draws every single day," Clark replied. "They came here to the farm when you were six months old, when they were sure you had powers, and took us both. They slapped that meteor rock on my wrist so I couldn't fight back and save you and they locked us up like animals. They were going to keep you because Lana wanted you back and Lex wanted a son, and they were going to get rid of me."
Kon turned so fast that it his head blurred. "What does that mean?"
Clark shrugged. He sounded so tired when he spoke. "I don't know. I can guess what it meant but Lex has never been one to waste resources. It wouldn't have left me with much of a life either way."
"I can't...Lex has been so nice to me."
"Kon, of course he has," she replied, her tone softening. " A stor , he wants something from you. He wants the information you can give him and he wants your power."
"He listens."
Chloe quirked her head at him. "You keep saying that. What is it that Lana and Lex do for you that we can't?"
"Mom understands how I feel and if I said what I really feel, out loud, you'd make me leave like you said you would."
It was Clark's turn for sudden movement. He was gaping at her. "What?"
She swallowed under the scrutiny. "I suggested to him that if he kept insulting you and the baby that it might be better if he went to stay with Martha or Kara and Jimmy for a while, not forever, just until you weren't so sick. The stress isn't good for you."
"But you still don't want me here, Chloe, and mom says I can come live at the mansion any time I want. If you're going to kick me out anyway..."
"I'm not, but you can't treat your father like shit and expect us to let it continue either."
Clark shook his head at her. "I'd never want him sent away."
"Kara lives in Metropolis. It's not like it's far," she replied. "I can't let you be so stressed, it might..." It made her throat constrict to think of losing Clark or Moira. She wouldn't even let herself think it.
"I'm not going anywhere," he replied, reaching one long arm out to take her hand. "We're fine."
She knew the lie when she heard it.
" A stor , I only wanted you to try staying with your aunt and uncle if you still felt the need to mock your father or if it got to be too much. It'd last five months and not forever. I'm sorry I said anything if it made you feel like I was pushing you away."
"Do you love Moira more?"
Chloe blinked. She hadn't been expecting that question, mainly because Connor had been so mad at her lately. She didn't think he wanted her to be his mother. "What?"
"Do you love Moira more, cause she's yours? I can see it. I saw it every day all my life, that I didn't really look like you, that I didn't fit right."
"Connor Sullivan, of course you fit. You father belongs to Grandma Martha and you've always belonged to me."
"I didn't always."
"No, I guess you didn't, but I always loved you, even from the first day your father told me you were coming. You can't imagine how excited I was or how proud I was of him. Of course I love you, but I thought you were mad at me."
"I am," he replied. "I just...I don't know how to live the way that I am."
"Same way Alura and Jax do. The same way Aunt Kara and I learned to adjust," Clark continued.
Kon looked up at both of them and the pain was so raw and fresh in his eyes that it was too much for her. She didn't have superspeed but she did have a mother's quickness, the need to cradle her child. " A stor , we can help you."
He shook his head. "No, you can't. You don't understand. I can't tell you the things I tell mom. I can't ." He disentangled himself from her gently, always gentle, her boy.
The words hurt but the fear and despair in his voice hurt more. What in the world could he share with Lana that he couldn't with her and Clark? What couldn't a fellow Kryptonian and a mutant understand about being afraid to be different?
" A stor , it's okay. We'll figure it out."
He looked up at her and wiped at his eyes. "We can't because I can't let you know."
"Know what, buddy?" Clark asked, leaning forward.
"What I'm really like," he said, before blurring away.
"Clark?"
Her husband shook his head. "He's in the loft. It's not like he ran back to them."
"I don't know what we're going to do," she said, beginning to pace. "He can't go back there. He just can't."
"I know."
"If she touches him again, I swear to God..." Chloe spat. She hated Lana, hated her because she knew it was just a matter of time before she got her hooks into Connor further, lured him in enough to start treating him like an object to control or, worse, like a monster. There was only so long that Lana could act before the mask of concerned mother fell away.
Her a stor would never recover from that.
Clark eased himself slowly-too slowly-off the couch and swept her up in a hug. "It's going to be okay."
"Bruce is furious. He'd put Connor under lock and key if he could."
"He wouldn't. He just is an ass."
"Connor's not dangerous. He's my baby."
"Yes, he is."
"I didn't even think he could be jealous about Moira. Why would I? He's been calling her a tadpole since all of this started. I should have seen it, seen that he'd be just jealous like an average only child would be. How can I keep missing things with him?"
"We all did. It's so complicated, but we'll figure something out."
"I don't think we can just put J'onn and Diana on him, Clark."
"Something else. We'll step up his meeting with Jax. Maybe get Cassie to talk sense into him."
"Cassie isn't speaking with him."
"What?" he asked, still cradling her.
"She was fed up with everything he'd been saying about the baby and meteor mutants. I don't know yet how they can patch it up."
"Well if we start from there, maybe if he has better influences, it'll help."
"And maybe Bruce will still trail him. He isn't public enemy number one. He's a fourteen year old kid, Clark."
"I'll talk to Bruce, make him listen."
Chloe considered that. "Clark, have you ever thought of going to Reykjavík?"
"Iceland?"
"Bruce thinks he might have a lead on your stones. Maybe you and Connor just need father-son time. Let Bruce actually get to know him better. Hell, let him glower Kon straight."
"Lots of glowering."
"Bruce can do it, but I know he can't see the Fortress until it's fixed. This is about trying to find his culture. I think it might do him some good, to just spend time with you like he used to."
"And you?"
"I'll talk to Cassie. Mom's have a way of fixing things."
"And the Luthors?"
"That's going to take some thought. If we could only get enough proof on them..."
"Watchtower to the rescue?"
"Victor and I can do more. I just...what is it he can't tell me? I was there the entire time, for everything. Clark, what is he so afraid of."
He reached out and stroked her hair; she leaned into the embrace. "I dunno, Chlo, I dunno."
