Chapter 41
Flashback…
Be careful what you wish for. That's another cliché Lois is relearning as she discovers just how deep the rabbit-hole is in regards to Clark's life. However, if they are going to get out of this virtual Shawshank she needs to get him and Chloe on at least cordial terms. And for now she reckons that means just letting them vent at each other to some degree but she's wary not to let it get too out of hand.
So, Lois listens…and learns what it is that transpired to leave the two friends at such loggerheads. Not to mention she finally gets some mind-blowing revelations over just what the hell happened to her the summer before last. Time travelled into a dystopian future ruled by Clark's people. That's going to take a little time to absorb.
Though once again she can see clearly that Clark and Chloe strongly disagreed on how to deal with the Kandorians. It's almost like they disagree more than agree now. It's such a strong contrast to when she first came to Smallville. Back then Clark and Chloe were like comrades-in-arms. Practically inseparable. Now look at them.
Perhaps a necessary break comes when Chloe disappears again, saying it is urgent.
"I had no idea how complicated your life is," Lois admits.
"I did warn you," Clark reminds her.
"So I really got sent into the future?"
Clark nods. "Well, a future technically. We managed to change it."
Lois stares at him. "Then the future I saw never happened at all but that being the case how did I go there? Am I making sense?"
"Time travel is complicated…and migraine inducing."
"That's your answer?" the brunette asks derisively.
All Clark can do is shrug. What else can he say?
"And now your daughter is here trying to change it."
Clark sighs. "If I had raised her like I should have I would have never allowed it. You can make things worse. Much worse."
"That sounds like it comes from personal experience."
"It does," he reflects sadly.
"You see it was exactly this that was giving me doubts about us. Could I cope? Would I just get in the way of your destiny?"
Clark makes a face of irritation. "Lois. The fact we're even here talking about how time can be changed should tell you that we make our own destiny."
"Did I hit a nerve or something?" she queries at the intensity of his reaction.
"I really don't want to talk about it."
"I've missed it, haven't I?"
Clark looks at her, confused. "Missed what?"
"My chance with you. Us."
"Lois," Clark says wearily. He has no wish to argue with her again.
"I'm right though aren't I?"
"I want us to still be friends."
"Oof, the only want to be friends line is supposed to belong to the female sex, Smallville," Lois complains.
Did he just say that line?
"Honestly, I kinda knew this was coming," Lois says with some sadness in her tone.
Clark looks at her with a querying expression.
"It's not me you want. It's your kid's mom. I saw it that night Carter died."
"What are you talking about?"
"That night, in your clubhouse, the second she walked in you only had eyes for her. You were off like a shot to her side. Try and deny it."
Despite this simulation's best attempts to repress his memory Clark does recall that night and perhaps more importantly what he was feeling the moment his eyes caught sight of his daughter and Andi. Concern definitely. He had been extremely worried about Andi the moment he heard she was missing. There was something else too though. Something that had been slowly percolating under the surface lately. He had wanted to hold Andi, keep her safe, a deep tender affection that was more than friendship. God, Lois is right. He does want Andi. "This is so awkward," he mumbles finally.
"Ha! Knew it!" Lois crows triumphantly earning her a severe look. "Hey, let the scorned woman have her moment," she defends herself.
Clark sighs. "I've never been good at this," he confesses in regards to relationships or what to say at a moment like this.
"There's no good way to break-up, Smallville. Trust me. I've been on both ends."
"I want to say I still think it could have worked if you hadn't…well…"
"Ran off?"
"Yeah."
"Truth is Clark…and God, this is more honest than I usually am about myself, it wouldn't have worked for as long as I had doubts. I would always be questioning it. You would get tired of that. I think I need to…"
"Finally grow up?" he teases.
Lois shoots him a snarky look. "I am more of a grown-up woman than you would ever be able to handle," she returns to her usual cocky attitude.
"That's ok. There's only one woman I want to handle…and I said that out loud didn't I?" he cringes at how that must have sounded.
Lois snorts with laughter. "And here I thought Mr and Mrs K raised you better than that."
"Army brat," he hits back with.
"Farm boy," she stabs back.
With the return of their old banter, it may not be today or tomorrow but Clark believes that he and Lois might actually be able to get back to a good friendship. "I don't know about you but I'm well past being stuck in here."
"Amen to that."
"Then there is something very important we need to discuss. A…last step before you can leave."
Clark and Lois turn their head to see Chloe has returned, only Clark is frowning. There was something…off. Something in the inflection of Chloe's voice. He has a bad feeling all of a sudden.
The present…
"Off? How was Chloe off?" Andrea wonders and yes, she's totally avoiding the part of the conservation where Clark and Lois settled any lingering aspects of their relationship, leaving him completely available. Apparently more than available. He might actually feel something for her. She's still not sure she's ready.
"Because it wasn't Chloe. Her avatar had been taken over by Lt Trotter of the VRA who were trying to take the facility back from the Suicide Squad."
"Suicide Squad? How were they involved?"
"Oh, Chloe was blackmailing them into doing her dirty work," Clark reveals with appropriate amount of derision.
"Wow. Ok. Chloe sounds so different to how I remember her," Andrea remarks, stunned by how much the blond woman seems to have changed.
"Different to how I remember her too," Clark sadly laments, reminiscing of better days. "If you want her version of the story it was about reigning them in. Curtailing their acts of terrorism."
"Or you could have just handed them over to the authorities," Andrea pops up with.
"Exactly," he agrees.
"So what was Trotter trying to do?" the Latino woman turns to.
"Trick me into telling her how my powers work. As if she could remotely begin to understand my physiology."
"You didn't fall for it?"
"I already had trust issues with the real Chloe. I was hardly going to trust a fake one trying to pull off an impersonation. Also the real Chloe wouldn't need to ask about my powers or vulnerabilities. She knows about them already. Anyway the real Chloe got back control of her avatar and that is when we finally had it out once and for all."
Flashback…
"Come on Clark. Work with me here," Chloe pleads with him, still trying and failing to get him to trust her so they can leave this simulation.
Clark laughs mockingly. "Work with you? When you won't work with me? When you plot and scheme behind my back? Not to mention spy on me. When you ran off with the fucking Suicide Squad of all people instead of coming to me so we could have worked out a plan?"
"I did what I needed to do," Chloe defends herself.
"Why?"
"What?"
"It's a simple question. Why was it what you needed to do? Why did you not think you and I could have come up with an alternative?"
"It's complicated."
"I don't think it is. I think it amounts to that somewhere along the way you lost faith in me."
"That's not true!" the blond argues.
"Was it because I couldn't save Jimmy? Was that it? Or some time before then? Wow, it really says something, I think, that I trusted your Earth 2 counterpart more after knowing her for a few hours than I trust you right now."
"None of this was what was supposed to happen," Chloe mutters, rubbing her face.
"What does that mean?" Clark asks, annoyed.
"This…" the blond waves her hand between Clark and Lois. "You two being split up for starters. Ever since Supergirl showed up everything is wrong. The helmet never showed me her."
"Helmet?" Clark queries before it clicks. "Chloe, you didn't?!" he exclaims. Her silence says everything. "You put on Fate's helmet?! Are you insane?!" he shouts at her utter stupidity.
Lois raises her hand. "For those of us not fully in the club?" she requests clarification.
"It's a magical helmet that shows you people's fates. Their futures," Clark answers. "But it comes at a terrible price. It drives the wearers literally insane."
"Chloe, why?" Lois asks her cousin.
"I didn't see anyway out. So I thought…"
"The helmet could," Lois gets.
"Chloe. The future is not set in stone. I thought you understood that," Clark lectures her.
"I saw things that must happen," she argues, not backing down or admitting error.
"Like what?"
"I can't say beyond you need Lois to become who you're destined to be."
Clark mutters several unrestrained curses over this 'destiny crap' again.
Lois just looks intensely at her cousin. "Yeah. Thanks for giving me a choice there couz," she sarcastically drawls.
"Oh don't give me that, Lois. You love Clark. I know that. You know that."
"It takes two to tango, Chloe. Clark's moved on and fun fact, I've discovered I can live with it. I'm not going to shrivel up and die you know."
"But will you ever be as happy?"
"I don't know. You don't know and I don't care whatever mystical powers some helmet possesses it doesn't know what lies in my heart. Only I get to decide where and who my heart belongs to, Chloe. Not you. Not a knock-off cosplay helmet. Me and me alone," she sternly lectures her little cousin. "Also, you're not exactly giving Clark a lot of credit here. I'm pretty certain he can become whoever he wants to without little 'ol me."
"Thank you," Clark says, grateful for Lois' show of faith in him.
"This is all Supergirl's fault," Chloe mutters. "Everything was going the way it should have until she showed up. Who the hell is she?!"
"You don't know?" Clark asks, bemused. "Even after all your spying?"
"I'm not omniscient, Clark."
"Huh. I was starting to think you believed you were."
"Oh screw you!"
"Rather not, thanks."
Lois clears her throat loudly. "I hate to break this up. Truly I could watch you two for hours if I had some popcorn but I want to go back to my body some time," she finds herself trying to get them to focus.
Clark gathers himself. "Ok, Chloe. You want me to trust you then I need you to answer something for me."
"What?" the blond wonders.
"I'm sure you know I've been spending time with Andrea Rojas."
"Yeah. Kinda surprised you haven't handed her over to the cops," Chloe admits.
"Says the woman who helped her leave Metropolis," Clark says and the tags on at her surprised expression, "Yes. I know you did. Treat me as having at least half a brain here, Chlo."
"She didn't deserve jail. Especially after…"
"She became pregnant," Clark guesses.
"Yeah."
"I knew you knew."
"I was the one who found her a doctor. Because she's a metahuman she couldn't just go to anyone."
"Ok. That one I'll express gratitude for," Clark will let pass. "But here's the question I need answered, Chloe. Did you know Andi's daughter was mine?"
"What?!" Chloe gasps.
"Did you know she was mine and kept it hidden from me for 5 years?" he asks, his voice now approaching a dangerous tone. All coiled and waiting to explode.
"Chloe, tell me you didn't?" Lois asks pleadingly, not wanting to believe her cousin could be that malicious.
"I didn't! I swear I didn't!" Chloe insists.
"You were not the least bit suspicious over the timing of it?" Clark wonders, knowing how Chloe thinks…or at least how she used to think. These days he's not sure he understands her reasoning at all.
"The blood tests…" Chloe starts and then stops, clamping her hands over her mouth.
"Ah ha! You were suspicious!" Clark points, seeing he has caught her out.
Chloe meets his accusatory glare. "The blood tests showed no sign of Kryptonian DNA, Clark. Nothing. So, I dismissed the notion of you cheating on Lana as a stupid idea I had. After all noble, honourable Clark Kent would never cheat on his girlfriend," she says mockingly
"I know what I did, Chloe. I'm willing to admit my mistakes. Are you?"
"First time for everything since last I recall Clark Kent never made mistakes. He always made the good, right, moral choices," Chloe says with a healthy tone of derision.
"And we're back to where we started with you accusing me of being unable to make difficult choices," Clark relays his opinion.
Chloe folds her arms in a huff and Clark does the same.
"Geez Louise, you two are boneheaded," Lois remarks. "Ok Chlo. Let me ask you something and lets make this the thing that settles whether we trust you or not. How about it?"
"If it'll get us out of here," Chloe agrees in a roundabout way.
"Look me in the eye tell me that if the blood tests had shown something you would have told Clark about his daughter."
"Of course I would have," the blond woman insists passionately.
"I believe you," Lois says before turning to Clark. "Ok Smallville, time to go."
"Just like that?" he asks sceptically.
"Yeah. Just like that," Lois says in a mock impression of him. He looks at her with an arched, sceptical eyebrow. She rolls her eyes. "Look, do I agree with everything she's done, no but I do believe that she would never deliberately set out to harm either of us. If you think differently say your piece," she challenges the alien hero.
Clark frowns as he thinks. As he does so he recalls saying to Earth 2 Chloe that he would trust Chloe, his Chloe, with his life. He meant it when he said it and he guesses he still does. He sighs. "Like I said I just want to get out of here and back to my daughter."
"And her mother," Lois adds.
"You matchmaking now?" Clark asks, barely able to believe that she is doing what she seems to be.
"Maybe. Just remember this Smallville, I'd make a great Godmother," Lois teases.
Clark rolls his eyes.
The present…
"There's not much to say after that. Trusting Chloe really meant believing in the fake nature of the world and once you did you bend it to your will, including creating a door to escape."
"Sounds very…The Matrix."
Clark chuckles. "I guess it does now you mention it," he accepts her point.
"So you got out and came home?"
"Yep. Bumped into Mia along the way and then came to see you."
"And you and Chloe? Are you no longer friends?"
Clark's face dims. "I don't think I can trust her the way I used to…but I don't want to say that we could never get back to some form of trust."
"You're a better person than me, Clark."
"You don't give yourself enough credit," Clark says in all sincerity. She scoffs slightly. "You don't," he insists. "You and I have endured a lot of similar things in our lives, Andi. Therefore, I know how difficult it can be to endure them and not break. When Mia…adult Mia showed up, all I wanted was to find my daughter. Then you opened the door."
Andrea looks at him curiously.
"Is it too shallow to mention how the first thing that happened then was myself caught by your beauty?"
"Yes," she replies, yet she does so with a small, pleased smile.
"I'll keep that in mind. Though I think it goes to show that you and I have always had a spark between us. Remember when we first met, in the Planet?"
Andrea nods. She does. When they were bent down, picking up the papers and their eyes met…she can remember her heart skipping a beat. She had thought he was so cute. And it's memorable because she's never really had that reaction around guys. Even ones she dated. It's also memorable for the fact it was the first positive feeling she had experienced since her mother had died. It managed to cut through her grief for a moment.
"I thought you were so…adorably cute. Under different circumstances I think I might have even asked you out," Clark confesses. The different circumstances, of course, being not dating someone else at the time.
"Under different circumstances I might have said yes," Andrea responds honestly. The different circumstances in her case being not being lost in grief and anger over losing her mother.
The two shift closer to each other.
"Andi, while you do keep a lot of yourself hidden I've seen how smart you are, how strong your spirit is, what a kind, compassionate person you are under the controlled surface. I like talking to you and I miss you when you're not around. When I'm troubled it's you I seek out, like after my trip to Earth 2. There's a connection I feel. One I want to explore. I want to know you better in every way," he says with deep emotion and meaningful tone. His hands then cup her face as he moves towards her lips…
…only to find himself blocked by a single finger pressed against his lips. He looks at her perplexed.
"You've said your piece. Now it's time for me to say mine."
That tone of voice...Clark has a bad feeling about this.
Author's Note: On the show they did touch on Clark feeling hurt and betrayed by Chloe and while he is a forgiving guy I do wonder if they just brushed over it a little too quick. A reviewer or two has wanted me to really bash Chloe and I get why. I do. While certainly her moral compass has gotten bent out of shape I'm not prepared to go as far as placing her in the villainy department. I'm also in the camp of believing Lois can be a good friend to Clark once she gets to accept it's time to move on from him. Their bickering is always fun. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.