FIC: DCFic - Family - Clark - PG
Aug. 31st, 2006 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laniew1The sequel to Awakening (Kon’s POV) and Fatherhood Lex’s POV.
The next will be multiple POV’s.
The envelope and the note it contained were a familiar pale lavender and Clark was really kind of glad that Lois wasn’t around to see him terrified of a note.
The following spoilers are in affect for this fic: Teen Titans (entire run), Infinite Crisis 1-7 and the tag line for 52: Week 22.
TITLE: Family
SERIES: Resurrection
RATING: PG.
PAIRING: Hints of Clark/Lois, past Clark/Lex
AUTHOR: Melanie
SPOILERS: The entire current Teen Titans run, Infinite Crisis 1-7, Tag line for 52: Week 22
DISCLAIMER: "Good news, sir. Your son Kon-El didn't die in the Crisis after all."
Family
The envelope and the note it contained were a familiar pale lavender and Clark was really kind of glad that Lois wasn’t around to see him terrified of a note.
He’d been tempted to use his newly returned x-ray vision on it, but he was an adult and almost entirely invulnerable, being scared of an envelope and a note no matter who the sender was seemed just silly.
Elegant cursive handwriting, as familiar as his own, spelled his name and the Daily Planet’s address out on the envelope.
The note contained within was the same handwriting.
It was an invitation to a party that was being thrown by Lex Luthor, there was no hint of what the party was for and Clark felt a slight twinge of apprehension.
He wouldn’t put it past Lex to use the party venue as yet another way to attempt to hurl some sort of insult at Superman, thinly veiled of course, through Clark.
Lex had been angry for so many years, had attempted to destroy Superman at every possible turn and Clark wasn’t sure how he knew but he did know that Lex knew who Superman’s human guise was.
A quick glance around showed no one paying attention to him, they never did unless Lois was yelling at him or Perry was yelling for him.
A sniff of the paper and the envelope left the faint scent of Lex’s cologne in the air. The same that he’d worn when he’d been in Smallville.
And there was that twinge again.
He was reaching out a hand for the telephone when it rang and he frowned at it before picking it up.
“Luthor’s holding a party,” a statement of fact and Bruce’s voice before he even got a hello out.
“Yes I know, I’ve been invited,” Clark scowled at the envelope, he’d had a faint hope that maybe with Conner’s death Lex had been rendered human and was going to declare the war between them over. He should have known better.
Besides Conner had been nothing to Lex. He’d interacted with the boy only a half a dozen times and even though he was the other half of Conner’s biological make-up he’d had no part in raising the boy.
He hadn’t handled the situation in the best manner himself, but at least he’d tried. Though at the beginning he’d given Lex the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe he hadn’t known that Conner was the closest thing to a son that he would have. But there was very little that Lex didn’t profess to know and the fact of the matter was that Lex had to have known.
He’d taken him in and he couldn’t raise Conner himself (not unless he wanted to answer a lot of awkward questions) so he’d done the next best thing and sent him to Smallville to be raised by the best two people that he knew.
It wasn’t the perfect solution but it was the best he could do under the circumstances, if anybody could handle Conner through his teen-age years it would be Martha and Jonathan Kent.
Clark dropping in when he could though not to often because it only served to drive long buried memories of Lex promising him the moon and the stars to the forefront which then put a strain on his relationship with Lois and made it harder to fight Lex.
Not when he was remembering Lex beneath him and over him. Not when he saw the boy that for all intents and purposes was their son.
His and Lex’s.
He was glad that he hadn’t known that Lex was the other half of Conner sooner. He probably would have done something stupid. And it was becoming readily apparent that while Lex had known that Conner was his son that he hadn’t cared.
Their son was dead now and Lex probably hadn’t even cared that he’d been alive. Just went on with his life and his plots and schemes while Clark and Superman waded through days feeling sorrow and pain undiminished by time and Kal-El still screamed in his head at the injustice of his son being murdered and being unable to stop it.
“As have Diana and I,” Bruce sounded as calm as ever, though he had to be as puzzled as Clark as to the invite.
“What do you think the party is for?” Clark queried. Because Bruce would have put out feelers seconds after receiving the invite.
“It’s probably a trap,” Bruce said.
Clark thought maybe Bruce (and most likely Batman as well) wanted it to be a trap so he had a reason to hit Lex.
“Are you going?”
“Well yes,” Bruce’s tone implied that he thought Clark was an idiot. “That would be the only way to find out what Luthor is up to.”
“It could be just a party,” Clark said, though he thought it highly unlikely.
From the silence on the other end Bruce thought the same thing.
“Your tux is here, I’ll bring it when I come down.”
And then Bruce was gone and Clark continued holding the phone to his ear.
The last time he’d worn the tux had been at a Christmas party at Wayne manor. He’d been happy and smiling with Lois on his arm, Conner had been uncomfortable in his own brand new tux tugging on the neck tie like he thought it was trying to strangle him.
This time he’d wear the tux to a party that he didn’t want to go to, Lois would sooner spit on him then be happy and glowing on his arm.
And Conner had been dead and buried for over a year.
******************************************************************************
He added Lex’s penthouse to his rounds that night.
Flying past the building no less then three times.
There was little to no movement inside. Though something was happening, Superman could feel it in his bones.
In the center of the penthouse was a room, lined with lead and Superman fought the impulse to smash into the building and see what Luthor was hiding from him.
The night of the party Bruce showed up with his tuxedo under his arm, shoving Clark into his bedroom and ordering him to dress.
“I really thought maybe I wouldn’t go,” he said even as he was pulling the pants on.
Bruce could glare impressively.
“If I’m going and Diana’s going, then you’re going as well,” Bruce said and Clark thought maybe he was imagining the snappish quality to Bruce’s voice.
Bruce didn’t slam doors but he stalked across the bedroom and closed it behind him with a little more force then was strictly necessary.
He’d been under a lot of strain lately and Clark figured giving him space to deal with things on his own was probably wise.
Even if he needed it he didn’t take help graciously.
He never had, although he would take it from Superman easier then he would take it from others.
There was a knock on the door and he didn’t hear Bruce move but knew he had because there was Diana’s quiet voice.
“Clark are you almost ready?”
Clark pulled his jacket on, cursed the fact that the whole party was some black tie affair that was probably designed to drive him slowly insane.
Lex knew that he hated these things.
He opened the door and Bruce and Diana had their heads bent together. Probably discussing contingency plans and he knew at least Bruce was wired and Oracle would be monitoring the entire night.
“So we’re ready then.”
“As we’ll ever be,” Clark muttered.
As they could ever be with Lex Luthor in the mix and a party that the three of them had no reason to be invited to other then for Lex to attempt to be evil while staring directly at them.
******************************************************************************
The party was exactly like every other party of its ilk that Clark had ever been to (which thankfully had not been many).
They’d handed their invitations to a man who looked bored enough to fall asleep, that man had in turn handed them to another man who had then announced them.
It had been an hour since their arrival and there was no sign of a plot, evil or otherwise, on Lex’s behalf.
They’d mingled for a short time and determined that no one knew what the party was being held for.
A coming out party of some sort an older woman with silver-white hair and a haughty expression had informed them.
But a coming out party for who they had no idea. Clark thought maybe Lex was throwing the party strictly to see how many rumors could be started and discarded by the high society of Metropolis (with a few socialites and businessmen from Gotham and LA thrown in for good measure) while they waited for him to show up and tell them it was all a joke.
Bruce was bored and a bored Bruce was a dangerous Bruce and Clark felt a small measure of remorse for any evil-doers in Gotham once Batman hit the streets.
Diana was nursing the same glass of champagne she’d been given when they walked through the door.
Lex had not yet arrived.
“Still think he’s up to something?” Clark asked.
Bruce glared at him without looking at him, though Clark still felt the affects of it. Diana looked amused. Which made Clark wonder if the champagne was drugged, he took a discreet sniff which obviously wasn’t discreet enough because Diana arched a brow at him in question. He smiled innocently at her and she shook her head, taking another sip.
It wasn’t drugged, it was actually quite good quality and he might have to snag a glass of it before it all disappeared.
Diana’s eyes widened and Bruce swore under his breath. Clark turned to see what had captured their attention and he swore that his heart stopped beating.
“Alexander Luthor and his son, Conner Luthor.”
******************************************************************************
They couldn’t get close to him.
“Should have known that son of a bitch would have another clone,” Bruce was muttering beside him.
Had been muttering since Lex and Conner had been announced.
Clark wasn’t so sure. Kal-El was silent within his head for the first time in over a year. The moment they had laid eyes on Conner (Kon-El) he’d fallen silent and was now making plans to reclaim the boy he had named as his son and heir.
Kal-El believed the boy to be Kon-El, Clark and Superman believed that as well, though there was also a fraction of doubt.
The boy smelled the same and smiled the same, though there was no joy in his eyes and his lips when he smiled were thin and false.
But Conner had been a clone of him and who was to say that Lex couldn’t have made another clone that would look and smell and be the same as Conner had.
He was surrounded by bodyguards and Lex never left his side, his hand on Conner’s shoulder directing him from group to group.
They never came near the three of them, though Clark knew that Lex had seen them.
He’d made eye contact, had smiled at Clark and Bruce and Diana like he’d won some prize that they coveted.
Lex had smiled at him like that when he’d had Lana for that short time.
Lex had smiled like that when Clark had been the prize that he coveted above all others.
Clark knew without a doubt that Lex believed he’d won and he couldn’t help but wonder from the emptiness in Conner’s eyes and the false smile on his face if he had.
******************************************************************************
The next will be multiple POV’s.
The envelope and the note it contained were a familiar pale lavender and Clark was really kind of glad that Lois wasn’t around to see him terrified of a note.
The following spoilers are in affect for this fic: Teen Titans (entire run), Infinite Crisis 1-7 and the tag line for 52: Week 22.
TITLE: Family
SERIES: Resurrection
RATING: PG.
PAIRING: Hints of Clark/Lois, past Clark/Lex
AUTHOR: Melanie
SPOILERS: The entire current Teen Titans run, Infinite Crisis 1-7, Tag line for 52: Week 22
DISCLAIMER: "Good news, sir. Your son Kon-El didn't die in the Crisis after all."
Family
The envelope and the note it contained were a familiar pale lavender and Clark was really kind of glad that Lois wasn’t around to see him terrified of a note.
He’d been tempted to use his newly returned x-ray vision on it, but he was an adult and almost entirely invulnerable, being scared of an envelope and a note no matter who the sender was seemed just silly.
Elegant cursive handwriting, as familiar as his own, spelled his name and the Daily Planet’s address out on the envelope.
The note contained within was the same handwriting.
It was an invitation to a party that was being thrown by Lex Luthor, there was no hint of what the party was for and Clark felt a slight twinge of apprehension.
He wouldn’t put it past Lex to use the party venue as yet another way to attempt to hurl some sort of insult at Superman, thinly veiled of course, through Clark.
Lex had been angry for so many years, had attempted to destroy Superman at every possible turn and Clark wasn’t sure how he knew but he did know that Lex knew who Superman’s human guise was.
A quick glance around showed no one paying attention to him, they never did unless Lois was yelling at him or Perry was yelling for him.
A sniff of the paper and the envelope left the faint scent of Lex’s cologne in the air. The same that he’d worn when he’d been in Smallville.
And there was that twinge again.
He was reaching out a hand for the telephone when it rang and he frowned at it before picking it up.
“Luthor’s holding a party,” a statement of fact and Bruce’s voice before he even got a hello out.
“Yes I know, I’ve been invited,” Clark scowled at the envelope, he’d had a faint hope that maybe with Conner’s death Lex had been rendered human and was going to declare the war between them over. He should have known better.
Besides Conner had been nothing to Lex. He’d interacted with the boy only a half a dozen times and even though he was the other half of Conner’s biological make-up he’d had no part in raising the boy.
He hadn’t handled the situation in the best manner himself, but at least he’d tried. Though at the beginning he’d given Lex the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe he hadn’t known that Conner was the closest thing to a son that he would have. But there was very little that Lex didn’t profess to know and the fact of the matter was that Lex had to have known.
He’d taken him in and he couldn’t raise Conner himself (not unless he wanted to answer a lot of awkward questions) so he’d done the next best thing and sent him to Smallville to be raised by the best two people that he knew.
It wasn’t the perfect solution but it was the best he could do under the circumstances, if anybody could handle Conner through his teen-age years it would be Martha and Jonathan Kent.
Clark dropping in when he could though not to often because it only served to drive long buried memories of Lex promising him the moon and the stars to the forefront which then put a strain on his relationship with Lois and made it harder to fight Lex.
Not when he was remembering Lex beneath him and over him. Not when he saw the boy that for all intents and purposes was their son.
His and Lex’s.
He was glad that he hadn’t known that Lex was the other half of Conner sooner. He probably would have done something stupid. And it was becoming readily apparent that while Lex had known that Conner was his son that he hadn’t cared.
Their son was dead now and Lex probably hadn’t even cared that he’d been alive. Just went on with his life and his plots and schemes while Clark and Superman waded through days feeling sorrow and pain undiminished by time and Kal-El still screamed in his head at the injustice of his son being murdered and being unable to stop it.
“As have Diana and I,” Bruce sounded as calm as ever, though he had to be as puzzled as Clark as to the invite.
“What do you think the party is for?” Clark queried. Because Bruce would have put out feelers seconds after receiving the invite.
“It’s probably a trap,” Bruce said.
Clark thought maybe Bruce (and most likely Batman as well) wanted it to be a trap so he had a reason to hit Lex.
“Are you going?”
“Well yes,” Bruce’s tone implied that he thought Clark was an idiot. “That would be the only way to find out what Luthor is up to.”
“It could be just a party,” Clark said, though he thought it highly unlikely.
From the silence on the other end Bruce thought the same thing.
“Your tux is here, I’ll bring it when I come down.”
And then Bruce was gone and Clark continued holding the phone to his ear.
The last time he’d worn the tux had been at a Christmas party at Wayne manor. He’d been happy and smiling with Lois on his arm, Conner had been uncomfortable in his own brand new tux tugging on the neck tie like he thought it was trying to strangle him.
This time he’d wear the tux to a party that he didn’t want to go to, Lois would sooner spit on him then be happy and glowing on his arm.
And Conner had been dead and buried for over a year.
He added Lex’s penthouse to his rounds that night.
Flying past the building no less then three times.
There was little to no movement inside. Though something was happening, Superman could feel it in his bones.
In the center of the penthouse was a room, lined with lead and Superman fought the impulse to smash into the building and see what Luthor was hiding from him.
The night of the party Bruce showed up with his tuxedo under his arm, shoving Clark into his bedroom and ordering him to dress.
“I really thought maybe I wouldn’t go,” he said even as he was pulling the pants on.
Bruce could glare impressively.
“If I’m going and Diana’s going, then you’re going as well,” Bruce said and Clark thought maybe he was imagining the snappish quality to Bruce’s voice.
Bruce didn’t slam doors but he stalked across the bedroom and closed it behind him with a little more force then was strictly necessary.
He’d been under a lot of strain lately and Clark figured giving him space to deal with things on his own was probably wise.
Even if he needed it he didn’t take help graciously.
He never had, although he would take it from Superman easier then he would take it from others.
There was a knock on the door and he didn’t hear Bruce move but knew he had because there was Diana’s quiet voice.
“Clark are you almost ready?”
Clark pulled his jacket on, cursed the fact that the whole party was some black tie affair that was probably designed to drive him slowly insane.
Lex knew that he hated these things.
He opened the door and Bruce and Diana had their heads bent together. Probably discussing contingency plans and he knew at least Bruce was wired and Oracle would be monitoring the entire night.
“So we’re ready then.”
“As we’ll ever be,” Clark muttered.
As they could ever be with Lex Luthor in the mix and a party that the three of them had no reason to be invited to other then for Lex to attempt to be evil while staring directly at them.
The party was exactly like every other party of its ilk that Clark had ever been to (which thankfully had not been many).
They’d handed their invitations to a man who looked bored enough to fall asleep, that man had in turn handed them to another man who had then announced them.
It had been an hour since their arrival and there was no sign of a plot, evil or otherwise, on Lex’s behalf.
They’d mingled for a short time and determined that no one knew what the party was being held for.
A coming out party of some sort an older woman with silver-white hair and a haughty expression had informed them.
But a coming out party for who they had no idea. Clark thought maybe Lex was throwing the party strictly to see how many rumors could be started and discarded by the high society of Metropolis (with a few socialites and businessmen from Gotham and LA thrown in for good measure) while they waited for him to show up and tell them it was all a joke.
Bruce was bored and a bored Bruce was a dangerous Bruce and Clark felt a small measure of remorse for any evil-doers in Gotham once Batman hit the streets.
Diana was nursing the same glass of champagne she’d been given when they walked through the door.
Lex had not yet arrived.
“Still think he’s up to something?” Clark asked.
Bruce glared at him without looking at him, though Clark still felt the affects of it. Diana looked amused. Which made Clark wonder if the champagne was drugged, he took a discreet sniff which obviously wasn’t discreet enough because Diana arched a brow at him in question. He smiled innocently at her and she shook her head, taking another sip.
It wasn’t drugged, it was actually quite good quality and he might have to snag a glass of it before it all disappeared.
Diana’s eyes widened and Bruce swore under his breath. Clark turned to see what had captured their attention and he swore that his heart stopped beating.
“Alexander Luthor and his son, Conner Luthor.”
They couldn’t get close to him.
“Should have known that son of a bitch would have another clone,” Bruce was muttering beside him.
Had been muttering since Lex and Conner had been announced.
Clark wasn’t so sure. Kal-El was silent within his head for the first time in over a year. The moment they had laid eyes on Conner (Kon-El) he’d fallen silent and was now making plans to reclaim the boy he had named as his son and heir.
Kal-El believed the boy to be Kon-El, Clark and Superman believed that as well, though there was also a fraction of doubt.
The boy smelled the same and smiled the same, though there was no joy in his eyes and his lips when he smiled were thin and false.
But Conner had been a clone of him and who was to say that Lex couldn’t have made another clone that would look and smell and be the same as Conner had.
He was surrounded by bodyguards and Lex never left his side, his hand on Conner’s shoulder directing him from group to group.
They never came near the three of them, though Clark knew that Lex had seen them.
He’d made eye contact, had smiled at Clark and Bruce and Diana like he’d won some prize that they coveted.
Lex had smiled at him like that when he’d had Lana for that short time.
Lex had smiled like that when Clark had been the prize that he coveted above all others.
Clark knew without a doubt that Lex believed he’d won and he couldn’t help but wonder from the emptiness in Conner’s eyes and the false smile on his face if he had.
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Date: 2006-08-31 10:33 pm (UTC)I'm so happy with this story. Totally.