52

Chloe leaned into her husband's embrace. Her husband was home. Her son was back. Her family was whole and healthy, but that just was the immediate part.

"Chlo, shh."

"I can't...Mary's a wreck. She's got the kind of stare that my mom had back at Fairview. I can't lose it."

"You won't," he replied, holding her close to him. "The Fortress said it couldn't help. I believe it. Lara wouldn't lie to me. I know she wouldn't, but that's not the only option we have."

"You mean me?"

Clark nodded. "I don't want to use you like that, especially after you just woke up, but yes."

Chloe hugged him tighter. "I can't."

"Well, I know it could be a close shave, but you're very powerful, Chlo."

She looked up at him and rubbed the corners of her eyes. "I can't, Clark. I've been trying for the better part of a day. I can't make him better. Even I don't have that kind of power."

"Then we'll find something else, go over Dax-Ur's notes again. Jax is half-human. There has to be something we can do to save him."

Kon was watching them both silently. Chloe didn't know how to read her son anymore. Just two days ago he'd told her to fuck off in no uncertain terms. Now he was watching the conversation between her and Clark with tired resignation. He hadn't called her 'mom,' when he'd gotten off the Javelin but, on the other hand, he'd helped subdue Lex and his lackeys.

Was he one of them again?

Or was he waiting to go home to Lana.

" A stor , you don't have to come in. It might be difficult to see Jax like this."

"I saw Lex touch him with the Kryptonite. I saw it suck the life out of him, Chloe," Kon shook his head and shivered a little. "I couldn't save him."

Clark nodded. "Lex would make sure of it, make sure you got a front row seat to understand exactly what he could do and the kind of power he had over you. It's his standard way of operating in the world, buddy."

"I am so sorry," Kon said and she could hear the franticness in his voice. "I couldn't do anything. I couldn't stop it and there was Kryptonite-the green kind-in the room and they made him sick so he couldn't fight it when they put the gold on his neck. I should have been better."

" A stor , it's going to be alright," Chloe lied. "It's going to be fine."

"No it's not."

"We'll figure something out. We can talk to your Aunt Zatanna. We might be able to do something with magic or maybe the Kawatchee have something. If we'd quit long ago, you and your father wouldn't be here now."

"Maybe Jax would be better off," he huffed, as they entered into Jax's room.

"Maybe he would," Mary replied, looking up at them all. "You have a lot of nerve coming here, Connor."

"I didn't do this."

"How much wonderful information did you tell Lex and Lana while you lived with them. Did you tell them what the gold would do?"

"I didn't even know gold existed."

Mary looked down at her son's ashen gray skin and kept her focus there. "Maybe you did and maybe you didn't, but you don't get to side with those monsters and then come here and pretend you care about my son. Get out."

"I wanted to see him."

"I don't have a lot of time left with my child, and I don't want you near me. It should have been you, Connor. If they wanted to play with a Kryptonian's DNA, it should have been yours. Your her child, Lana Luthor's playtoy. You should have been the one to suffer like this."

"I-"

"Go away."

"Mary, stop talking. You're better when you don't talk," Chloe said sternly. "Kon, Clark, maybe it's best if you go see Alura and Kara. They've missed both of you."

"Chloe-"

" Connor Sullivan , I said now," she said, waiting with baited breath to see if he'd follow her orders.

He looked between her and Mary and then lingered a while on Jax. "I...if he wakes up, tell him I'm sorry."

He had blurred out before Chloe could blink.

"No, Kon, you don't get to say 'I'm sorry!'" It's only a fucking miracle I'm not dead. I don't care how many bullets you can catch."

Chloe ducked back into her quarters as Kon followed Cassie down the hall.

"I save your life. I said I was sorry. Your family knows you're safe, Cass. Come on, you can't ignore me forever."

"It's a big fucking satellite, Kon, and I think I can. The ego on you is unbelievable. Is that how your mother acts? Is that much entitlement fucking genetic?"

"I don't really want to talk about my mom. I want to talk about us!"

Cassie spun and crowded over him, all 5'9 of her, "There isn't an 'us.' We were best friends, Kon, and then you pissed all over it and now we're not anything. You put my life in danger. You put my family's life in danger when you gave me that relic-not because of what the Fortress can do but because of what Lex would do to get it-and it was all just another game. It was another part of the 'what Kon wants' contest. Well, fuck it. Cassie wants to be left alone."

"Cass!" he called and from the way his weight was just barely over the balls of his feet, Chloe could tell he was preparing to slip into superspeed.

"Don't follow me," she replied, turning away and starting back down the hall. "I've said everything I have to say."

Kon cursed and punched the wall beside him. Then he howled when the metal didn't give. "Fuck me."

Chloe shook her head and came out from her place. "It's an alloy from the An'derex Galaxy. John Stewart's contacts recommended it. It's stronger than any Kryptonian or Martian." She sighed and reached out over his hand. "It's sprained."

"You don't have X-ray vision."

She shrugged. "Sixth sense. I can feel what I'm healing. It's not a break, Connor Sullivan. Do you want me to fix you or would you rather go to the infirmary and I can give you an Ace bandage?"

Kon considered that. "You've had a lot on you lately. I know about dad and what I did. You can just wrap me up. It'll probably be healed by tomorrow anyway."

She held his hand longer than she had to. "Are you sure I couldn't help?"

"Chloe, it's okay. I put everyone to enough trouble as it is. You're not a bandaid service."

"I suppose not," she replied, leading him down the halls and into the sick bay. It was as gleaming and sterile as the rest of Watchtower. Her son hopped up on the hospital bedd and held out his left arm.

"I didn't know you knew first aid."

"It's a survival skill from Smallville. Long before I was invulnerable myself, I had to know how to clean a wound and give myself some bandages. It's a skill I keep up. You never know when someone will need a field dressing," she said, grabbing the bright green bandage and shrugging. "It's ugly but self adhesive. It'll avoid the butterfly clips."

"Least of my problems," he said, swaying his legs a little and looking down at his laps. "Thank you for doing this, Chloe."

"Kon, can you do me a favor?"

"I don't know," he replied, his tone quiet and reserved.

"You don't have to...I guess Lana's still your mom even if Luthor Land turned out to be everything we told you it would be."

Kon looked up at her and his eyes were red and swollen. "I can't just go back to things the way they were. Cassie's right about that. I fucked up. I fucked up for six months. I got Jax killed."

"Jax isn't dead yet," she reminded, wrarpping the bandage between his forefinger and thumb. "And Lex and Lana used you, played into your own insecurities to get what they wanted."

"What would you know about it?"

Chloe sighed and continued her ministrations. "Because once, before he was the Oracle and on our side, Lionel Luthor was worse than Lex. When I was a sophomore in high school, your father and I weren't speaking to each other. I was angry and hurt that he chose your mother over me."

Kon nodded. "I see."

"So Lionel asked me to spy for him, to find out your father's secret, and I said yes."

Kon's head shot up in superspeed. "You wouldn't do that to dad."

"I didn't. I backed out of the deal, but when people like Lionel Luthor have you, they don't want to let go. It took a long time to get out of his clutches and even longer to prove to your father that he could trust me with his secret. It took years, Connor, to rebuild trust that broken."

"So Cass and me?"

"That's really up to Cassie. But I was telling you this story because I know better than you think how much Luthor money and privilege blinds, how much fun it is to have them buy you."

"Chloe?"

"Lionel bought me my first column at The Daily Planet . I was weak and he gave me what I wanted and Grampy Gabe almost got blown up because of it."

"Whoa."

"Yes, so I know what it's like to make the wrong choice, a stor , and what it means to have someone give you a chance again. Cassie's hurt feelings are her own, but I forgive you."

"I was an asshole."

"You're my son, the asshole," she replied, grinning and finishing off his wrap. "You're lucky I'm very open minded. Many people don't deal as well as I do with assholes."

Kon laughed. "Chloe!"

"Look, let's just have a deal. I know you're old for kiddie names. I'll stick with 'Kon' and you can call me 'mom,' if you want to. You don't have to earn it, like a right. I'm giving it to you freely because I know you made a mistake and cause I know someone a hell of a lot smarter than any of us was playing you, alright?"

He nodded and sniffed a little. "Alright but I fucked up."

"Yup and you're grounded til you are thirty, Connor Sullivan."

"Now that sounds like a mom."

"I think so," she chirped, smiling as he climbed off the bed.

He paused and looked down-and when had he grown?-at her. "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for offering to heal me. I know it hurts, like back with Eeyore, and it's amazing that you still offered."

"It's what I do."

"It's what Mo will do," he added offhandedly and then his eyes went wide.

" A stor? "

"Mom, I need you to call everyone. I...is there a good conference room?"

"What is it?"

"I think I know how to save Jax."