FIC: DCFic - Heroes - Multiple POV's - PG
Sep. 16th, 2006 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laniew1The fourth part in my ‘Kon Resurrection’ series: Read these first Awakening (Kon’s POV) and Fatherhood Lex’s POV & Family.
There were just some times where you didn’t want to come home and find a contingent of super-heroes (in uniform nonetheless) standing in the middle of your living room.
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, Lex/Lana, Conner/Cassie
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."
Heroes
There were just some times where you didn’t want to come home and find a contingent of super-heroes (in uniform nonetheless) standing in the middle of your living room.
Like if you were a villain and in the middle of some plot to destroy the world.
Or if you were a hero and you’d just come from a party where one of their own, one who was dead and had been buried with much pomp and circumstance was revealed to possibly be alive.
And not only alive but now somehow seemingly aligned with one Superman’s worst enemies.
Clark didn’t even know how to wrap his mind around that (never mind how Superman and Kal-El were dealing with it), because Conner had never even seemed to care that Lex was the other half of him besides the vague mentions of ‘I don’t want to end up like him.’
So Clark wanted to come home to an empty apartment and yeah, he would still have had to deal with Bruce and Diana but it would have only been them.
Not all these others, like Robin and Wonder Girl, who were staring at them, expecting answers that Clark couldn’t give. Not yet anyway. The Flash was standing a distance away from them but with them regardless.
Bruce looked as if he’d expected nothing less; Diana went directly to Cassie who was staring at them with bright eyes and a hope filled face.
Tim would have had the same expression Clark was sure, but he’d been trained by Batman and Bruce and both could be stoic in the face of the most amazing discovery.
Tim and Bart had been the first real friends that Conner had made on his own.
Conner had been their friend, been their teammate. As much as Clark (and Superman and Kal-El) had grieved so had they.
They weren’t the only ones though. Clark’s living room was full and everyone was going to demand answers. Were going to ask the tough questions that Clark couldn’t even begin to think about how he was going to answer.
Conner was alive and those were the only words that he had to give them.
It was probably a good thing that Lois had moved out a month prior because she’d have been in the thick of things, probably the one asking the tough questions since everyone else seemed to be as in shock as he was and felt.
He wondered how they’d gotten in and if they’d been in uniform when they’d arrived, if they had and they’d been seen he was going to have more questions to answer when his neighbors got a hold of him.
“He’s alive,” Cassie was sobbing into Diana’s shoulder, Donna touching her back gently, rubbing in gentle strokes. “I knew he was alive.”
Clark wished she would have told him that fact, so he wouldn’t have felt like a strong breeze would knock him over when Lex and Conner had appeared on those steps.
“We don’t know that for sure, for all we know Luthor could have had a back-up in case the clone was killed,” Bruce stated. No emotion, he might as well have been in uniform for all the support he wasn’t showing Tim.
Tim and Bart had both been Conner’s friends, But Tim had been Conner’s best friend.
Tim had the lenses down on his mask so Clark couldn’t even see if there was something showing in his eyes.
Clark shrugged out of his coat, loosened and pulled off his neck tie.
Kal-El was muttering in his head about the insanity of leaving Kon-El with Lex. He was making and scrapping plan after plan to go and retrieve his heir.
His child and even though there was Kara, Kon-El had been the one that Kal-El had considered ‘family’. His blood, Kal-El was rejoicing that he wasn’t the last in his line any longer.
Clark kept remembering the look on Conner’s face, there’d been no happiness, no joy. It had been the face of a child resigned to his fate. He wondered why Conner had not called for help, why he hadn’t tried to escape and make his way to him.
To his friends.
That was the only thing keeping him from saying positively, without a doubt that the boy that Lex had within his grasp was Conner.
Conner would have looked at him, would have made eye contact with him and asked for help without even saying a word.
And he hadn’t, he’d looked through them like they weren’t there and there’d been a brief horrified thought that maybe Lex was drugging Conner into submission before he’d calmed and realized that he couldn’t smell any drugs.
Of course that didn’t mean that Lex wasn’t holding something else over Conner’s head. His friends, Clark.
Conner had just been broken somehow. And Clark wasn’t sure what had broke him and if they could fix it even if they did get him back.
******************************************************************************
There’d been fights and Clark was thankful that his living room was still mostly intact.
No decision had been made, though they were all in agreement that Conner (or the clone of Conner whichever the boy might turn out to be) could not stay with Lex.
They’d just not been able to come to an agreement on how to get Conner back.
Half the group thought that just taking him, by force if need be, would be the best way. The other half thought a more diplomatic approach would be more helpful. And keep them from being attacked or brought up on kidnapping charges.
Clark hadn’t been aware that there had been news crews covering the party, and that every single station had aired the half a second where Conner had been introduced as Lex’s son on a continuous loop.
Besides the fact that they were the good guys, the good guys didn’t typically kidnap teenagers from their homes, not unless they were endangered in some way.
Superman thought child endangerment was a suitable reason to use to get Superboy back. It was obvious that Luthor was using him for some nefarious purpose that they had not yet uncovered. That he would most likely harm or had already done so if the boy didn’t do what he demanded. Kal-El had agreed emphatically.
And while Clark had agreed too, he’d just thought that there should be an easier way to do it then basically declaring war with Lex.
Even though Lex had already declared war on him. All parts of him.
“I have to hand it to him, anything we do will have to be above board. If the boy comes up missing we’ll be the first place that Luthor will direct them to look,” Bruce had woken him bright and early.
Too early, the sun hadn’t even been up and Clark thought that Bruce might have not even gone to bed when he’d finally managed to get the superhero contingent taking up residence in his living room to go home.
Clark grunted at him, the only response that Bruce seemed to require from him.
He let his head fall back and closed his eyes.
Only to hear a knock at the door and he might have whined, but there would only be Bruce’s word against his if it came down to it.
He pushed himself to his feet, Bruce trailing after him with a coffee mug in hand. Looking altogether too awake for someone who supposedly did his best work at night.
He ran a hand through his hair and hoped that he didn’t look like he was sleepwalking. Then opened the door.
And felt Bruce fall into a defensive position behind him.
Hope glared at him, thrust an envelope into his hands, sniffed and turned on her heel.
Bruce had the envelope out of his hands before Clark even registered that yes, Hope had been standing there and no she hadn’t shot him, or kicked him or punched him in the face.
Not that he’d wanted her to; it wouldn’t hurt him after all. But typically when it came to meetings between Clark and Lex’s bodyguards’ violence was exchanged.
A glance over at Bruce showed him staring at the lavender note paper that he’d pulled from the envelope like it might do tricks if he took his eyes off it for more then a split second.
“Bruce?”
“It’s an invitation for Clark Kent and one guest for lunch at Luthor’s penthouse.”
Clark’s eyes widened and he snatched the paper from Bruce’s hand. And it was an invitation to eat lunch with Lex. Not that he’d thought that Bruce was kidding, because Bruce didn’t make jokes.
He’d thought that Lex would make them suffer a bit longer, because he could also read the message under the words and that one line invitation was for Clark and someone else to see Conner.
“Who do you think? Cassie or Tim?”
“Neither,” Bruce stated. When Clark looked at him in surprise he met his eyes without flinching. “We don’t know that the boy Luthor has is Conner, not for sure. I think a bit of reconnaissance is in order before we allow either Cassandra or Tim access to see him.”
Clark nodded. Unspoken was Bruce (and Diana’s) need to protect their charges. Both Cassie and Tim had been hit hard by Conner’s death. His resurrection was going to hit them equally as hard.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Maybe I should call Diana,” Clark shuddered internally. He could just envision Lex and Bruce coming to blows over the salad.
“The invitation is for 11:00, she’d never make it in time.”
“I could go get her,” Clark said weakly.
Bruce gave him a look that indicated that he thought him an idiot.
“We’ll need to dress for lunch,” he ran a critical eye over Clark and Clark scowled at him. “You’ll need to shower, I’ll pick out clothes for you to wear.”
“I’ve been dressing myself for a number of years Bruce…”
“Yes and it shows, go shower,” Bruce pointed in the general direction of the bedroom. “We can talk about how we plan to handle Luthor once you’re done.”
******************************************************************************
They’d showed the invitation at the door and been allowed gracious entrance. Hope scowling at them as she led them through the penthouse.
Clark had been here before, but not since the split between him and Lex had become permanent and they had devolved into enemies. It hadn’t changed much in the ensuing years. The art on the wall was slightly different as Lex’s tastes had changed; there were some other smaller pieces littering the room that he didn’t recognize, others that he did.
Lex was standing in the living room, back to the door watching something on the balcony when Hope led them in.
“Thank you Hope,” the woman glared at Clark and moved out of the room, Mercy was standing a few feet away and a hand signal that Clark didn’t even see had her fading away as well.
They were alone in the room, though Clark knew Lex well enough to know that he wasn’t entirely defenseless.
He turned to face them, looking unsurprised to see Bruce standing beside Clark. He nodded to a folder on the table and Bruce stepped forward to retrieve it, Clark glanced over his shoulder to see what it contained.
All the while fighting to contain Kal-El who was wanting Clark to demand that Lex release their son from captivity.
“I assume you’ll want to run your own tests of course,” Lex made it sound like he’d expected nothing less.
“We’ll also want to take our own samples,” Bruce smiled thinly at him. “To protect the purity of the results of course.”
“Of course.” Lex nodded, Mercy appeared in the doorway and Clark wasn’t even sure how Lex had indicated that he needed her. “Mercy will you tell Conner that our guests have arrived.”
******************************************************************************
Lunch wasn’t the most uncomfortable thing that Clark had ever been through but it ranked right up there with things that he never wanted to do again.
Conner had appeared behind Mercy looking quiet but physically unharmed. And this close, closer then they’d managed to get at the party, Clark was even more sure then he had been that this was Conner, Kal-El was clamoring in his head and Clark fought to keep his expressions neutral (Kon-El).
The boy was sullen and quiet during lunch, sitting an equal distance away from all of them, probably so as to not be seen as taking sides. He ate no more then three bites of his food, pushing the rest of it around on his plate with his fork.
The conversation ebbed and flowed around him, he answered when asked a direct question but never asked any of his own.
He made eye contact with Clark twice and both times he could have sworn that he’d seen the words that Conner wasn’t saying loud and clear in Conner’s gaze.
When lunch was over he wiped his mouth, placed his napkin on the table and looked at Lex.
“I’d like to speak to Conner alone,” his tone was quiet but even Lex seemed to realize that it was Superman speaking and not Clark.
Lex nodded once, a glance over at Conner before he stood.
“I’ll explain to Bruce what is contained within the folder while you two talk then,” Bruce stood though he seemed reluctant to leave and Clark hoped that Bruce would know enough that Conner would never feel comfortable talking to him with Bruce in the room.
Even though Bruce had watched Conner with what Clark thought might be growing genuine concern during lunch.
“I’m sure I could have figured out the contents of the folder without your assistance,” he was saying as they exited the room. The door closed softly behind them and Clark looked at Conner.
Allowed Kal-El and Superman the opportunity to drink their fill of the boy they’d thought dead.
“Are you okay?” it was a quiet question and obviously not the one that Conner had expected from the way that his eyes shot up.
“I’m fine,” he wrapped a hand around his half-empty glass of soda.
“Conner…”
“I told him that you’d come you know, told him that Superman would kick his ass and…” Conner swallowed, eyes lowering to stare at the table once more. “You never came. No one did.” It was whispered and Clark felt his heart ache for the boy. He’d waited for rescue, waited for people that he trusted and cared for to come for him and no one had.
“If we’d known Conner we would have been here, you know that. You can come with us now if you want, we’ll walk out of here and…”
“I can’t leave.”
Clark stared at him in incomprehension.
“He said that he’d tell everyone that you were Superman, that he’d announce the secret identities of everyone. And… I couldn’t let him do that, I just… anyway there’s papers now, Lex… Luthor he… because of what I am and… everything. He claimed me as his son. He has… custody of me now.”
“Conner…” Clark stared at him in horror.
“It’s not so bad you know, he doesn’t beat me or anything. Leaves me alone mostly, except when he’s checking my homework. He… I didn’t even know he’d done it until he showed me the papers, I didn’t think that was what he wanted. He was so proud,” Conner shivered. “He had this expression on his face like he knew that he’d won and…”
Clark wanted to hug him suddenly; Conner looked so… not scared. But unsure of where his place was.
Was it with Lex, with Clark, with the Titans who Clark was sure would be on Lex’s doorstep demanding to see Conner even before Batman and Superman deemed it safe to do so.
“Conner…”
“I’m a clone you know,” Conner had a small voice. “It was a special case because of that, because I’m really, technically only like five no matter what age I actually look.” He drew a deep breath, tried to smile as he met Clark’s eyes.
He failed. Kal-El was screaming, Superman was infuriated. How dare Luthor claim something that wasn’t his to claim.
“If you don’t want to stay here Conner, if Lex got custody of you using the fact that part of his genetic material was used to make you I can use the same to fight it.”
He wasn’t sure how he’d go about it. He’d broach the subject with Bruce when they left (without Kon-El and Kal-El was not pleased with that fact) though he was sure that Lex had already thought of and had a plan to counter that move on his part.
“It’s okay,” another indrawn breath. Conner appeared to be relaxing slightly and maybe the fact that people knew that he was alive. The fact that Clark knew where he was and was most certainly going to be keeping an eye on him and Lex’s interactions with him, was making it easier for him to think that maybe things were going to be okay. “He’s not that bad you know, Luthor. He’s hired tutors and stuff, made this long speech about the travesty that was the public school system that I mostly tuned out and…”
Clark smiled at him. He’d heard that speech once, when he’d been about Conner’s age.
“I think it’ll be okay, for a little while.”
******************************************************************************
Tim thought he was being amazingly patient. He had, after all, not commandeered one of the Bat-planes and flown to Metropolis to wait in Clark’s apartment while Bruce and Clark were meeting with Lex Luthor.
And seeing Kon.
Which led him to thoughts of a hundreds of failed experiments, the wasted time in the lab under Titan Tower and kissing Cassie while Kon had been alive and being held by Luthor the entire time.
While he was being trotted out by Luthor and introduced as his son, and the last time Luthor had called Kon his son he’d been concerned and they’d all thought Kon had been dying so he wondered if they should be worried that Kon had some sort of terminal illness.
He should have known that Luthor would have a contingency plan in place should something ever happen to Kon.
Bruce had disappeared early that morning, no note though Tim had known that he’d gone to Clark’s. Probably to discuss the insanity of believing the boy Luthor was claiming as his son was Kon.
Tim knew he was, knew it without a shadow of a doubt and he wasn’t sure why he was so certain, he just knew that Cassie was just as certain and he wondered how Diana and Donna were keeping her from going to Kon.
“Master Tim?” Alfred appeared at the top of the stairs and raised an eyebrow at him. A tray in his hand indicated that he’d probably missed lunch. The number of sandwiches and glasses indicated that Bruce and Clark were probably on their way to Wayne Manor.
“Tim shouldn’t you be in school?” Batman was behind him suddenly, silently. Superman hovering in the air a ways away. Tim gave him an ‘are you kidding me’ look that Batman ignored in favor of looking through the folder in his hand.
No Kon behind them and they wouldn’t have just left Kon with Luthor, would they?
“Lex has custody of Conner,” Superman sounded disturbed by that fact. Tim wondered if he should be worried that Superman could apparently read his mind.
Batman was removing two vials from his pocket, folder open before him as he sat down.
Tim moving to hover behind him, Superman landing and moving quietly to look over Batman’s shoulder.
The pictures inside were of Kon, test results upon test results and from the size of the folder they’d done a lot of them while they’d had their hands on Kon.
Would do even more while Kon remained within their grasp.
He fought to keep no expression on his face as Batman flipped through the pictures. But there was Kon bloody and battered directly after the fight in which he’d fallen and he could see himself off to the side, could see Cassie crying in Wonder Woman’s arms.
Could see Superman kneeling there beside Kon looking as devastated as Tim could ever remember seeing him.
Kon on a table pale and clean but looking dead.
Kon in the tube, similar to the one that had saved his life after the first fight with the other Superboy. Eyes taped shut, mask over his face.
“Luthor didn’t know they even had the body until six months after the fact,” Batman was saying.
“You believe him?”
“I have no reason not to at this point; he set up the system though. If the boy fell there were contingency plans in place to retrieve him, procedures in place to revive him.”
“The body we buried?”
“A duplicate, made for that exact purpose if you can trust Luthor’s documentation.”
“What do you think his plan is?”
“Besides keeping us from having access to the boy?”
“He has a name Bruce,” Tim interjected softly. Batman had left the folder open to the last picture, Kon in anger throwing a chair. Tim wondered what had caused the anger.
“Besides keeping us from having access to Conner?” The emphasis on the name was Batman’s way of saying that he’d known it just didn’t want to use it.
“Yes.”
“I’m unsure; he planned this all very well. Up to and including the way he was able to keep us from even knowing or having any sort of inkling that Conner might be alive. I’m led to believe that he might have planned to snatch him the entire time and everything that happened just served to force his hand before he might have been ready.”
“You think he might have been planning to take Conner the entire time?”
Batman nodded.
“It’s just too convenient, being awarded custody of Conner, without you even being notified that there was custody in dispute leads me to believe that he had it planned all along. Including playing the ‘he’s a clone, he’s only five in real-time angle’.”
Superman growled and a look over at him showed Superman with an expression on his face that Tim had never seen.
“He won’t keep him Kal-El, he couldn’t,” Batman said softly, a whisper and if he hadn’t been straining to not miss a second of the conversation he probably wouldn’t even have heard it. “Conner is yours just as much as he’s Luthor’s. No honest, law-abiding judge is going to keep Superman from having joint custody of his son if he chooses it.”
“Lex named me as Conner’s other genetic donor?” Superman sounded surprised, Batman flipped through the folder to the last five pages.
“He named Kal-El AKA Superman as Conner Luthor’s second genetic donor.”
“Why would he do that?” Tim asked. Because why give Superman a way to take Conner away when it was apparent that Luthor wanted to keep him all to himself.
“Maybe hell has frozen over.”
******************************************************************************
“Do I even need to tell you what the test results say?” Bruce asked. He’d long since shed Batman, Tim was curled in a chair reading through the folder. Clark wondered why Bruce was letting Tim have unfettered access to Conner’s medical history, then realized that there was no way that Bruce could have stopped him.
If Bruce had tried to keep it away Tim would have found a way around him and got his hands on it. This was probably the only way that Bruce had to control exactly what Tim knew.
“He’s Conner,” Clark stated firmly. Tim looked up at him, closing the folder in his lap and laying his hands on it.
“The samples all proved to be a 100% match to what was already on file for Conner.”
Clark nodded, inside his head Kal-El was clamoring for him to go get their son. To bring him home and to punish Lex for even contemplating keeping them away from him.
“So what do we do now?”
“I’ve talked to my lawyers; Superman has a meeting with them tomorrow morning. In the meantime we should keep as close an eye as Luthor will allow on Conner.”
“I’ve already added the penthouse back into my patrol route when I’m in Metropolis…”
“I was thinking more along the lines that there should be a steady stream of visitors to see him. Luthor did say that he would allow us to see him. He didn’t dictate limits on who or when or how often.”
They both looked over at Tim, Clark didn’t know how he could tell but he could see the muscles twitching in Tim’s arms and he was ready to go now. At that very moment, school and sleep be damned.
“I was thinking that Dick could accompany Tim and Cassie there tomorrow. Possibly Bart if he’s available.”
******************************************************************************
They made excellent time that morning. Were waiting outside Luthor’s penthouse at eight and waiting for Cassie and Bart to appear.
“Tim?” Dick had been keeping up a steady stream of conversational nonsense since they’d set off that morning. Probably in an attempt to keep Tim from dwelling to deeply on the fact that when they left they might have to leave Kon behind.
With Luthor.
“Tim,” Bart was in front of him suddenly, arms wrapping around him tightly and hugging him. His hair was falling into his eyes, expression warm and happy to see him.
“Are we ready?” Cassie walked up more sedately, maybe because she’d chosen to wear a skirt and heels.
Bart let go of him, latching onto Cassie next, making her laugh. Tim nodded at her, Cassie nodded back. Dick was already on his way to the front door and Tim moved quickly to catch up.
“Kon’s alive,” Bart was saying, Cassie murmuring something back to him.
Tim was more focused on getting through the door that Dick was holding open then trying to overhear their conversation.
They’d kissed, him and Cassie. The air between them remained awkward even with the promise that they’d made to never speak of it again, Tim wasn’t sure how to fix things.
How to put that easy camaraderie that had existed between them for years back into place.
And now there was Kon, alive and well. Kon would expect them to have all remained friends, Kon would expect that camaraderie to have remained in place even after his death. Tim wasn’t sure how they could explain why he and Cassie could barely stand to be next to each other to his best friend without telling him that they’d kissed.
Grief or no grief he didn’t think Kon was going to understand.
He certainly wasn’t going to understand that even though they’d been kissing each other Kon had been the one they’d both been thinking of.
******************************************************************************
His room was twice the size of Clark’s old bedroom. Part of him wondered if this was Lex’s way of competing with Conner’s other genetic donor.
Conner wanted to tell him that it was a wasted effort; of course Conner also didn’t understand why they were fighting over him anyway.
He’d been in the world for five years, had been on his own for over half of it. Neither one of them had wanted him, not until the other had him. If he voiced that opinion Lex would tell him that he was crazy and Clark would tell him that he was wrong.
But he wasn’t. Lex hadn’t shown any interest in him until he’d gone to live in Smallville with Clark’s family. Clark had shown the bare minimum of interest in him required for the boy that was his partial clone, or had until Lex had unveiled him at his party.
He could vividly remember the looks of astonishment on Clark and Bruce and Diana’s faces. Then the pain, at least on Clark’s. Bruce had looked at him with nothing but distrust, which he should be used to since that was Bruce’s default facial expression when dealing with him. Diana hadn’t had any expression but Conner had known that she was probably running scenarios through her head on how she’d break the news to Cassie.
As if Cassie would even care.
Cassie and Tim had been the two people that he’d been most anxious to see besides Clark, until Lex had shown him those pictures and while there was a possibility that they were faked in some way; with his luck he wasn’t holding out hope.
Mercy appeared in his doorway, standing silently waiting for him to acknowledge her.
He sat on his bed, back pressed against the wall.
Once he’d been moved into it he’d hung up posters (which had caused Lex to visibly flinch), Lex had given him a TV and DVD player although his behavior hadn’t been good enough to warrant the addition of cable or satellite TV. A desk and chair for the homework, a laptop with an Internet connection though he was sure that Lex had someone watching everything he did on it.
He’d heard the door open, heard Tim and Cassie and Bart’s voices before Mercy appeared. He knew why she was standing there staring at him and if she’d been someone else and he hadn’t been what he was he would have thought he saw some small measure of remorse in her eyes.
He pushed himself to his feet, wiped suddenly damp hands on his jeans and followed her.
Lex had tried to get him wearing dress pants and dress shirts and Conner had balked, they had an agreement that if Conner left the penthouse (which Lex assured him he was fully able to do as long as he took Mercy or one of the guards with him) he would dress as a Luthor would. If he stayed in the penthouse he could wear whatever he wanted.
And if that was a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the S-emblem on it then that was his prerogative.
He only wore it once, just to see Lex’s expression twist into something mean and nasty, so he could remind himself that as okay as Lex had been he was still Luthor and Lex Luthor was still one of Superman’s biggest adversaries.
He wore a plain blue t-shirt, blue jeans, a pair of sneakers. He was obviously underdressed he realized when he walked into the living room.
Because Cassie was in a skirt and sweater. Tim and Bart both looked as if they’d missed the stop for prep-school, the only thing they were missing was the ugly ties and matching blazers.
Dick was the only one that looked relaxed, black jeans, black turtleneck.
Cassie smiled at him and Tim grinned, he blinked and missed Bart moving across the room and latching onto him, he waved Mercy off so she wouldn’t shoot him and she faded back.
Still in the room because Lex certainly wasn’t going to let him go now that he had him.
“Dude,” Bart was grinning so widely that he was kind of freaking Conner out a little bit. Cassie and Tim had both moved forward and he thought they all three were going to attempt to hug him at the same time but they both stopped suddenly, an awkward look passing between them and they both held back.
Reminding him that Cassie wasn’t his any longer, she was Tim’s.
Which made his chest hurt and he pulled away from Bart and stood there with his hands by his side and just looked at them.
And maybe Cassie and Tim realized that something was wrong because they were having some sort of silent conversation in which they didn’t move or talk just looked at each other and blinked.
He wondered if Wonder Woman was happier now that Cassie was involved with a Bat then she had been when she’d been involved with him.
“What are you guys doing here?”
They all looked at him as if he’d gone insane, even Dick who had been leaning back against the couch watching their interactions with a smirk and much interest.
“What are we doing here?” Cassie repeated incredulously.
“You didn’t think we would want to see you the minute that we got the all clear? We would have been here the night that Luthor trotted you out in front of the TV cameras but Superman and Batman were all ‘we don’t even know if it’s really him, it could just be another clone’,” Bart said breathlessly, tone a little irritated that Conner wasn’t as happy to see them as they were purporting to be to see him.
Tim didn’t say a word, just looked at him with that hooded blank expression that Conner was so used to seeing on his face.
“I figured that you guys would have moved on with your lives, it’s been over a year. I didn’t think you’d even care,” Conner muttered.
“You didn’t think we’d care?!” Cassie sounded affronted that he’d even believe that of her and she almost bowled him over when she flew at him. Arms tight around his neck.
He looked over at Tim and wanted to say, look man can you get your girlfriend off me, but the words stopped in his throat.
Because Tim was looking at him as if he were insane, Bart was in one spot but was vibrating enough that Conner knew that he wanted to be moving.
And Dick was just staring at him like he maybe had an idea of what was going through Conner’s mind, though Conner, through almost daily exposure to Tim, knew the Bat’s enough that even if Dick had no clue what he was thinking he would still look as if he did.
“We’re going to get you out of here,” Cassie whispered. He stiffened slightly, because Lex had made it abundantly clear that if he left he was to come back and if he didn’t then he would publish the list unmasking every super-hero within 12 hours.
Conner had called his bluff, because Lex couldn’t know everybody’s secret identities, he just couldn’t. Lex had placed a sheet of paper in front of him, superheroes, their alternate identities, home addresses, pictures in some cases and Conner may have freaked out a little bit.
He stayed because he wasn’t going to let anyone get hurt because of him. And that was what would happen if Lex announced the names to the public.
People would get hurt, people that he cared about. Some of them in the room with him and as much as Tim and Cassie being together hurt him he wouldn’t let them be harmed because of him. That was the one thing that he could give them.
Because he didn’t have any choices left, the ones that he’d had he made to protect people and none of those mattered anyway because Lex had that all important piece of paper declaring him his father and custodial guardian and Conner couldn’t go anywhere.
He couldn’t leave.
Not without having Lex direct police and FBI at the super-hero community if he disappeared.
So he stayed, and hoped that Superman would come up with a plan that would get him out from under Lex’s thumb before Lex got mad enough to out the super-hero community because Conner wouldn’t go blindly along with everything that he wanted.
******************************************************************************
There were just some times where you didn’t want to come home and find a contingent of super-heroes (in uniform nonetheless) standing in the middle of your living room.
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, Lex/Lana, Conner/Cassie
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."
Heroes
There were just some times where you didn’t want to come home and find a contingent of super-heroes (in uniform nonetheless) standing in the middle of your living room.
Like if you were a villain and in the middle of some plot to destroy the world.
Or if you were a hero and you’d just come from a party where one of their own, one who was dead and had been buried with much pomp and circumstance was revealed to possibly be alive.
And not only alive but now somehow seemingly aligned with one Superman’s worst enemies.
Clark didn’t even know how to wrap his mind around that (never mind how Superman and Kal-El were dealing with it), because Conner had never even seemed to care that Lex was the other half of him besides the vague mentions of ‘I don’t want to end up like him.’
So Clark wanted to come home to an empty apartment and yeah, he would still have had to deal with Bruce and Diana but it would have only been them.
Not all these others, like Robin and Wonder Girl, who were staring at them, expecting answers that Clark couldn’t give. Not yet anyway. The Flash was standing a distance away from them but with them regardless.
Bruce looked as if he’d expected nothing less; Diana went directly to Cassie who was staring at them with bright eyes and a hope filled face.
Tim would have had the same expression Clark was sure, but he’d been trained by Batman and Bruce and both could be stoic in the face of the most amazing discovery.
Tim and Bart had been the first real friends that Conner had made on his own.
Conner had been their friend, been their teammate. As much as Clark (and Superman and Kal-El) had grieved so had they.
They weren’t the only ones though. Clark’s living room was full and everyone was going to demand answers. Were going to ask the tough questions that Clark couldn’t even begin to think about how he was going to answer.
Conner was alive and those were the only words that he had to give them.
It was probably a good thing that Lois had moved out a month prior because she’d have been in the thick of things, probably the one asking the tough questions since everyone else seemed to be as in shock as he was and felt.
He wondered how they’d gotten in and if they’d been in uniform when they’d arrived, if they had and they’d been seen he was going to have more questions to answer when his neighbors got a hold of him.
“He’s alive,” Cassie was sobbing into Diana’s shoulder, Donna touching her back gently, rubbing in gentle strokes. “I knew he was alive.”
Clark wished she would have told him that fact, so he wouldn’t have felt like a strong breeze would knock him over when Lex and Conner had appeared on those steps.
“We don’t know that for sure, for all we know Luthor could have had a back-up in case the clone was killed,” Bruce stated. No emotion, he might as well have been in uniform for all the support he wasn’t showing Tim.
Tim and Bart had both been Conner’s friends, But Tim had been Conner’s best friend.
Tim had the lenses down on his mask so Clark couldn’t even see if there was something showing in his eyes.
Clark shrugged out of his coat, loosened and pulled off his neck tie.
Kal-El was muttering in his head about the insanity of leaving Kon-El with Lex. He was making and scrapping plan after plan to go and retrieve his heir.
His child and even though there was Kara, Kon-El had been the one that Kal-El had considered ‘family’. His blood, Kal-El was rejoicing that he wasn’t the last in his line any longer.
Clark kept remembering the look on Conner’s face, there’d been no happiness, no joy. It had been the face of a child resigned to his fate. He wondered why Conner had not called for help, why he hadn’t tried to escape and make his way to him.
To his friends.
That was the only thing keeping him from saying positively, without a doubt that the boy that Lex had within his grasp was Conner.
Conner would have looked at him, would have made eye contact with him and asked for help without even saying a word.
And he hadn’t, he’d looked through them like they weren’t there and there’d been a brief horrified thought that maybe Lex was drugging Conner into submission before he’d calmed and realized that he couldn’t smell any drugs.
Of course that didn’t mean that Lex wasn’t holding something else over Conner’s head. His friends, Clark.
Conner had just been broken somehow. And Clark wasn’t sure what had broke him and if they could fix it even if they did get him back.
There’d been fights and Clark was thankful that his living room was still mostly intact.
No decision had been made, though they were all in agreement that Conner (or the clone of Conner whichever the boy might turn out to be) could not stay with Lex.
They’d just not been able to come to an agreement on how to get Conner back.
Half the group thought that just taking him, by force if need be, would be the best way. The other half thought a more diplomatic approach would be more helpful. And keep them from being attacked or brought up on kidnapping charges.
Clark hadn’t been aware that there had been news crews covering the party, and that every single station had aired the half a second where Conner had been introduced as Lex’s son on a continuous loop.
Besides the fact that they were the good guys, the good guys didn’t typically kidnap teenagers from their homes, not unless they were endangered in some way.
Superman thought child endangerment was a suitable reason to use to get Superboy back. It was obvious that Luthor was using him for some nefarious purpose that they had not yet uncovered. That he would most likely harm or had already done so if the boy didn’t do what he demanded. Kal-El had agreed emphatically.
And while Clark had agreed too, he’d just thought that there should be an easier way to do it then basically declaring war with Lex.
Even though Lex had already declared war on him. All parts of him.
“I have to hand it to him, anything we do will have to be above board. If the boy comes up missing we’ll be the first place that Luthor will direct them to look,” Bruce had woken him bright and early.
Too early, the sun hadn’t even been up and Clark thought that Bruce might have not even gone to bed when he’d finally managed to get the superhero contingent taking up residence in his living room to go home.
Clark grunted at him, the only response that Bruce seemed to require from him.
He let his head fall back and closed his eyes.
Only to hear a knock at the door and he might have whined, but there would only be Bruce’s word against his if it came down to it.
He pushed himself to his feet, Bruce trailing after him with a coffee mug in hand. Looking altogether too awake for someone who supposedly did his best work at night.
He ran a hand through his hair and hoped that he didn’t look like he was sleepwalking. Then opened the door.
And felt Bruce fall into a defensive position behind him.
Hope glared at him, thrust an envelope into his hands, sniffed and turned on her heel.
Bruce had the envelope out of his hands before Clark even registered that yes, Hope had been standing there and no she hadn’t shot him, or kicked him or punched him in the face.
Not that he’d wanted her to; it wouldn’t hurt him after all. But typically when it came to meetings between Clark and Lex’s bodyguards’ violence was exchanged.
A glance over at Bruce showed him staring at the lavender note paper that he’d pulled from the envelope like it might do tricks if he took his eyes off it for more then a split second.
“Bruce?”
“It’s an invitation for Clark Kent and one guest for lunch at Luthor’s penthouse.”
Clark’s eyes widened and he snatched the paper from Bruce’s hand. And it was an invitation to eat lunch with Lex. Not that he’d thought that Bruce was kidding, because Bruce didn’t make jokes.
He’d thought that Lex would make them suffer a bit longer, because he could also read the message under the words and that one line invitation was for Clark and someone else to see Conner.
“Who do you think? Cassie or Tim?”
“Neither,” Bruce stated. When Clark looked at him in surprise he met his eyes without flinching. “We don’t know that the boy Luthor has is Conner, not for sure. I think a bit of reconnaissance is in order before we allow either Cassandra or Tim access to see him.”
Clark nodded. Unspoken was Bruce (and Diana’s) need to protect their charges. Both Cassie and Tim had been hit hard by Conner’s death. His resurrection was going to hit them equally as hard.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Maybe I should call Diana,” Clark shuddered internally. He could just envision Lex and Bruce coming to blows over the salad.
“The invitation is for 11:00, she’d never make it in time.”
“I could go get her,” Clark said weakly.
Bruce gave him a look that indicated that he thought him an idiot.
“We’ll need to dress for lunch,” he ran a critical eye over Clark and Clark scowled at him. “You’ll need to shower, I’ll pick out clothes for you to wear.”
“I’ve been dressing myself for a number of years Bruce…”
“Yes and it shows, go shower,” Bruce pointed in the general direction of the bedroom. “We can talk about how we plan to handle Luthor once you’re done.”
They’d showed the invitation at the door and been allowed gracious entrance. Hope scowling at them as she led them through the penthouse.
Clark had been here before, but not since the split between him and Lex had become permanent and they had devolved into enemies. It hadn’t changed much in the ensuing years. The art on the wall was slightly different as Lex’s tastes had changed; there were some other smaller pieces littering the room that he didn’t recognize, others that he did.
Lex was standing in the living room, back to the door watching something on the balcony when Hope led them in.
“Thank you Hope,” the woman glared at Clark and moved out of the room, Mercy was standing a few feet away and a hand signal that Clark didn’t even see had her fading away as well.
They were alone in the room, though Clark knew Lex well enough to know that he wasn’t entirely defenseless.
He turned to face them, looking unsurprised to see Bruce standing beside Clark. He nodded to a folder on the table and Bruce stepped forward to retrieve it, Clark glanced over his shoulder to see what it contained.
All the while fighting to contain Kal-El who was wanting Clark to demand that Lex release their son from captivity.
“I assume you’ll want to run your own tests of course,” Lex made it sound like he’d expected nothing less.
“We’ll also want to take our own samples,” Bruce smiled thinly at him. “To protect the purity of the results of course.”
“Of course.” Lex nodded, Mercy appeared in the doorway and Clark wasn’t even sure how Lex had indicated that he needed her. “Mercy will you tell Conner that our guests have arrived.”
Lunch wasn’t the most uncomfortable thing that Clark had ever been through but it ranked right up there with things that he never wanted to do again.
Conner had appeared behind Mercy looking quiet but physically unharmed. And this close, closer then they’d managed to get at the party, Clark was even more sure then he had been that this was Conner, Kal-El was clamoring in his head and Clark fought to keep his expressions neutral (Kon-El).
The boy was sullen and quiet during lunch, sitting an equal distance away from all of them, probably so as to not be seen as taking sides. He ate no more then three bites of his food, pushing the rest of it around on his plate with his fork.
The conversation ebbed and flowed around him, he answered when asked a direct question but never asked any of his own.
He made eye contact with Clark twice and both times he could have sworn that he’d seen the words that Conner wasn’t saying loud and clear in Conner’s gaze.
When lunch was over he wiped his mouth, placed his napkin on the table and looked at Lex.
“I’d like to speak to Conner alone,” his tone was quiet but even Lex seemed to realize that it was Superman speaking and not Clark.
Lex nodded once, a glance over at Conner before he stood.
“I’ll explain to Bruce what is contained within the folder while you two talk then,” Bruce stood though he seemed reluctant to leave and Clark hoped that Bruce would know enough that Conner would never feel comfortable talking to him with Bruce in the room.
Even though Bruce had watched Conner with what Clark thought might be growing genuine concern during lunch.
“I’m sure I could have figured out the contents of the folder without your assistance,” he was saying as they exited the room. The door closed softly behind them and Clark looked at Conner.
Allowed Kal-El and Superman the opportunity to drink their fill of the boy they’d thought dead.
“Are you okay?” it was a quiet question and obviously not the one that Conner had expected from the way that his eyes shot up.
“I’m fine,” he wrapped a hand around his half-empty glass of soda.
“Conner…”
“I told him that you’d come you know, told him that Superman would kick his ass and…” Conner swallowed, eyes lowering to stare at the table once more. “You never came. No one did.” It was whispered and Clark felt his heart ache for the boy. He’d waited for rescue, waited for people that he trusted and cared for to come for him and no one had.
“If we’d known Conner we would have been here, you know that. You can come with us now if you want, we’ll walk out of here and…”
“I can’t leave.”
Clark stared at him in incomprehension.
“He said that he’d tell everyone that you were Superman, that he’d announce the secret identities of everyone. And… I couldn’t let him do that, I just… anyway there’s papers now, Lex… Luthor he… because of what I am and… everything. He claimed me as his son. He has… custody of me now.”
“Conner…” Clark stared at him in horror.
“It’s not so bad you know, he doesn’t beat me or anything. Leaves me alone mostly, except when he’s checking my homework. He… I didn’t even know he’d done it until he showed me the papers, I didn’t think that was what he wanted. He was so proud,” Conner shivered. “He had this expression on his face like he knew that he’d won and…”
Clark wanted to hug him suddenly; Conner looked so… not scared. But unsure of where his place was.
Was it with Lex, with Clark, with the Titans who Clark was sure would be on Lex’s doorstep demanding to see Conner even before Batman and Superman deemed it safe to do so.
“Conner…”
“I’m a clone you know,” Conner had a small voice. “It was a special case because of that, because I’m really, technically only like five no matter what age I actually look.” He drew a deep breath, tried to smile as he met Clark’s eyes.
He failed. Kal-El was screaming, Superman was infuriated. How dare Luthor claim something that wasn’t his to claim.
“If you don’t want to stay here Conner, if Lex got custody of you using the fact that part of his genetic material was used to make you I can use the same to fight it.”
He wasn’t sure how he’d go about it. He’d broach the subject with Bruce when they left (without Kon-El and Kal-El was not pleased with that fact) though he was sure that Lex had already thought of and had a plan to counter that move on his part.
“It’s okay,” another indrawn breath. Conner appeared to be relaxing slightly and maybe the fact that people knew that he was alive. The fact that Clark knew where he was and was most certainly going to be keeping an eye on him and Lex’s interactions with him, was making it easier for him to think that maybe things were going to be okay. “He’s not that bad you know, Luthor. He’s hired tutors and stuff, made this long speech about the travesty that was the public school system that I mostly tuned out and…”
Clark smiled at him. He’d heard that speech once, when he’d been about Conner’s age.
“I think it’ll be okay, for a little while.”
Tim thought he was being amazingly patient. He had, after all, not commandeered one of the Bat-planes and flown to Metropolis to wait in Clark’s apartment while Bruce and Clark were meeting with Lex Luthor.
And seeing Kon.
Which led him to thoughts of a hundreds of failed experiments, the wasted time in the lab under Titan Tower and kissing Cassie while Kon had been alive and being held by Luthor the entire time.
While he was being trotted out by Luthor and introduced as his son, and the last time Luthor had called Kon his son he’d been concerned and they’d all thought Kon had been dying so he wondered if they should be worried that Kon had some sort of terminal illness.
He should have known that Luthor would have a contingency plan in place should something ever happen to Kon.
Bruce had disappeared early that morning, no note though Tim had known that he’d gone to Clark’s. Probably to discuss the insanity of believing the boy Luthor was claiming as his son was Kon.
Tim knew he was, knew it without a shadow of a doubt and he wasn’t sure why he was so certain, he just knew that Cassie was just as certain and he wondered how Diana and Donna were keeping her from going to Kon.
“Master Tim?” Alfred appeared at the top of the stairs and raised an eyebrow at him. A tray in his hand indicated that he’d probably missed lunch. The number of sandwiches and glasses indicated that Bruce and Clark were probably on their way to Wayne Manor.
“Tim shouldn’t you be in school?” Batman was behind him suddenly, silently. Superman hovering in the air a ways away. Tim gave him an ‘are you kidding me’ look that Batman ignored in favor of looking through the folder in his hand.
No Kon behind them and they wouldn’t have just left Kon with Luthor, would they?
“Lex has custody of Conner,” Superman sounded disturbed by that fact. Tim wondered if he should be worried that Superman could apparently read his mind.
Batman was removing two vials from his pocket, folder open before him as he sat down.
Tim moving to hover behind him, Superman landing and moving quietly to look over Batman’s shoulder.
The pictures inside were of Kon, test results upon test results and from the size of the folder they’d done a lot of them while they’d had their hands on Kon.
Would do even more while Kon remained within their grasp.
He fought to keep no expression on his face as Batman flipped through the pictures. But there was Kon bloody and battered directly after the fight in which he’d fallen and he could see himself off to the side, could see Cassie crying in Wonder Woman’s arms.
Could see Superman kneeling there beside Kon looking as devastated as Tim could ever remember seeing him.
Kon on a table pale and clean but looking dead.
Kon in the tube, similar to the one that had saved his life after the first fight with the other Superboy. Eyes taped shut, mask over his face.
“Luthor didn’t know they even had the body until six months after the fact,” Batman was saying.
“You believe him?”
“I have no reason not to at this point; he set up the system though. If the boy fell there were contingency plans in place to retrieve him, procedures in place to revive him.”
“The body we buried?”
“A duplicate, made for that exact purpose if you can trust Luthor’s documentation.”
“What do you think his plan is?”
“Besides keeping us from having access to the boy?”
“He has a name Bruce,” Tim interjected softly. Batman had left the folder open to the last picture, Kon in anger throwing a chair. Tim wondered what had caused the anger.
“Besides keeping us from having access to Conner?” The emphasis on the name was Batman’s way of saying that he’d known it just didn’t want to use it.
“Yes.”
“I’m unsure; he planned this all very well. Up to and including the way he was able to keep us from even knowing or having any sort of inkling that Conner might be alive. I’m led to believe that he might have planned to snatch him the entire time and everything that happened just served to force his hand before he might have been ready.”
“You think he might have been planning to take Conner the entire time?”
Batman nodded.
“It’s just too convenient, being awarded custody of Conner, without you even being notified that there was custody in dispute leads me to believe that he had it planned all along. Including playing the ‘he’s a clone, he’s only five in real-time angle’.”
Superman growled and a look over at him showed Superman with an expression on his face that Tim had never seen.
“He won’t keep him Kal-El, he couldn’t,” Batman said softly, a whisper and if he hadn’t been straining to not miss a second of the conversation he probably wouldn’t even have heard it. “Conner is yours just as much as he’s Luthor’s. No honest, law-abiding judge is going to keep Superman from having joint custody of his son if he chooses it.”
“Lex named me as Conner’s other genetic donor?” Superman sounded surprised, Batman flipped through the folder to the last five pages.
“He named Kal-El AKA Superman as Conner Luthor’s second genetic donor.”
“Why would he do that?” Tim asked. Because why give Superman a way to take Conner away when it was apparent that Luthor wanted to keep him all to himself.
“Maybe hell has frozen over.”
“Do I even need to tell you what the test results say?” Bruce asked. He’d long since shed Batman, Tim was curled in a chair reading through the folder. Clark wondered why Bruce was letting Tim have unfettered access to Conner’s medical history, then realized that there was no way that Bruce could have stopped him.
If Bruce had tried to keep it away Tim would have found a way around him and got his hands on it. This was probably the only way that Bruce had to control exactly what Tim knew.
“He’s Conner,” Clark stated firmly. Tim looked up at him, closing the folder in his lap and laying his hands on it.
“The samples all proved to be a 100% match to what was already on file for Conner.”
Clark nodded, inside his head Kal-El was clamoring for him to go get their son. To bring him home and to punish Lex for even contemplating keeping them away from him.
“So what do we do now?”
“I’ve talked to my lawyers; Superman has a meeting with them tomorrow morning. In the meantime we should keep as close an eye as Luthor will allow on Conner.”
“I’ve already added the penthouse back into my patrol route when I’m in Metropolis…”
“I was thinking more along the lines that there should be a steady stream of visitors to see him. Luthor did say that he would allow us to see him. He didn’t dictate limits on who or when or how often.”
They both looked over at Tim, Clark didn’t know how he could tell but he could see the muscles twitching in Tim’s arms and he was ready to go now. At that very moment, school and sleep be damned.
“I was thinking that Dick could accompany Tim and Cassie there tomorrow. Possibly Bart if he’s available.”
They made excellent time that morning. Were waiting outside Luthor’s penthouse at eight and waiting for Cassie and Bart to appear.
“Tim?” Dick had been keeping up a steady stream of conversational nonsense since they’d set off that morning. Probably in an attempt to keep Tim from dwelling to deeply on the fact that when they left they might have to leave Kon behind.
With Luthor.
“Tim,” Bart was in front of him suddenly, arms wrapping around him tightly and hugging him. His hair was falling into his eyes, expression warm and happy to see him.
“Are we ready?” Cassie walked up more sedately, maybe because she’d chosen to wear a skirt and heels.
Bart let go of him, latching onto Cassie next, making her laugh. Tim nodded at her, Cassie nodded back. Dick was already on his way to the front door and Tim moved quickly to catch up.
“Kon’s alive,” Bart was saying, Cassie murmuring something back to him.
Tim was more focused on getting through the door that Dick was holding open then trying to overhear their conversation.
They’d kissed, him and Cassie. The air between them remained awkward even with the promise that they’d made to never speak of it again, Tim wasn’t sure how to fix things.
How to put that easy camaraderie that had existed between them for years back into place.
And now there was Kon, alive and well. Kon would expect them to have all remained friends, Kon would expect that camaraderie to have remained in place even after his death. Tim wasn’t sure how they could explain why he and Cassie could barely stand to be next to each other to his best friend without telling him that they’d kissed.
Grief or no grief he didn’t think Kon was going to understand.
He certainly wasn’t going to understand that even though they’d been kissing each other Kon had been the one they’d both been thinking of.
His room was twice the size of Clark’s old bedroom. Part of him wondered if this was Lex’s way of competing with Conner’s other genetic donor.
Conner wanted to tell him that it was a wasted effort; of course Conner also didn’t understand why they were fighting over him anyway.
He’d been in the world for five years, had been on his own for over half of it. Neither one of them had wanted him, not until the other had him. If he voiced that opinion Lex would tell him that he was crazy and Clark would tell him that he was wrong.
But he wasn’t. Lex hadn’t shown any interest in him until he’d gone to live in Smallville with Clark’s family. Clark had shown the bare minimum of interest in him required for the boy that was his partial clone, or had until Lex had unveiled him at his party.
He could vividly remember the looks of astonishment on Clark and Bruce and Diana’s faces. Then the pain, at least on Clark’s. Bruce had looked at him with nothing but distrust, which he should be used to since that was Bruce’s default facial expression when dealing with him. Diana hadn’t had any expression but Conner had known that she was probably running scenarios through her head on how she’d break the news to Cassie.
As if Cassie would even care.
Cassie and Tim had been the two people that he’d been most anxious to see besides Clark, until Lex had shown him those pictures and while there was a possibility that they were faked in some way; with his luck he wasn’t holding out hope.
Mercy appeared in his doorway, standing silently waiting for him to acknowledge her.
He sat on his bed, back pressed against the wall.
Once he’d been moved into it he’d hung up posters (which had caused Lex to visibly flinch), Lex had given him a TV and DVD player although his behavior hadn’t been good enough to warrant the addition of cable or satellite TV. A desk and chair for the homework, a laptop with an Internet connection though he was sure that Lex had someone watching everything he did on it.
He’d heard the door open, heard Tim and Cassie and Bart’s voices before Mercy appeared. He knew why she was standing there staring at him and if she’d been someone else and he hadn’t been what he was he would have thought he saw some small measure of remorse in her eyes.
He pushed himself to his feet, wiped suddenly damp hands on his jeans and followed her.
Lex had tried to get him wearing dress pants and dress shirts and Conner had balked, they had an agreement that if Conner left the penthouse (which Lex assured him he was fully able to do as long as he took Mercy or one of the guards with him) he would dress as a Luthor would. If he stayed in the penthouse he could wear whatever he wanted.
And if that was a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the S-emblem on it then that was his prerogative.
He only wore it once, just to see Lex’s expression twist into something mean and nasty, so he could remind himself that as okay as Lex had been he was still Luthor and Lex Luthor was still one of Superman’s biggest adversaries.
He wore a plain blue t-shirt, blue jeans, a pair of sneakers. He was obviously underdressed he realized when he walked into the living room.
Because Cassie was in a skirt and sweater. Tim and Bart both looked as if they’d missed the stop for prep-school, the only thing they were missing was the ugly ties and matching blazers.
Dick was the only one that looked relaxed, black jeans, black turtleneck.
Cassie smiled at him and Tim grinned, he blinked and missed Bart moving across the room and latching onto him, he waved Mercy off so she wouldn’t shoot him and she faded back.
Still in the room because Lex certainly wasn’t going to let him go now that he had him.
“Dude,” Bart was grinning so widely that he was kind of freaking Conner out a little bit. Cassie and Tim had both moved forward and he thought they all three were going to attempt to hug him at the same time but they both stopped suddenly, an awkward look passing between them and they both held back.
Reminding him that Cassie wasn’t his any longer, she was Tim’s.
Which made his chest hurt and he pulled away from Bart and stood there with his hands by his side and just looked at them.
And maybe Cassie and Tim realized that something was wrong because they were having some sort of silent conversation in which they didn’t move or talk just looked at each other and blinked.
He wondered if Wonder Woman was happier now that Cassie was involved with a Bat then she had been when she’d been involved with him.
“What are you guys doing here?”
They all looked at him as if he’d gone insane, even Dick who had been leaning back against the couch watching their interactions with a smirk and much interest.
“What are we doing here?” Cassie repeated incredulously.
“You didn’t think we would want to see you the minute that we got the all clear? We would have been here the night that Luthor trotted you out in front of the TV cameras but Superman and Batman were all ‘we don’t even know if it’s really him, it could just be another clone’,” Bart said breathlessly, tone a little irritated that Conner wasn’t as happy to see them as they were purporting to be to see him.
Tim didn’t say a word, just looked at him with that hooded blank expression that Conner was so used to seeing on his face.
“I figured that you guys would have moved on with your lives, it’s been over a year. I didn’t think you’d even care,” Conner muttered.
“You didn’t think we’d care?!” Cassie sounded affronted that he’d even believe that of her and she almost bowled him over when she flew at him. Arms tight around his neck.
He looked over at Tim and wanted to say, look man can you get your girlfriend off me, but the words stopped in his throat.
Because Tim was looking at him as if he were insane, Bart was in one spot but was vibrating enough that Conner knew that he wanted to be moving.
And Dick was just staring at him like he maybe had an idea of what was going through Conner’s mind, though Conner, through almost daily exposure to Tim, knew the Bat’s enough that even if Dick had no clue what he was thinking he would still look as if he did.
“We’re going to get you out of here,” Cassie whispered. He stiffened slightly, because Lex had made it abundantly clear that if he left he was to come back and if he didn’t then he would publish the list unmasking every super-hero within 12 hours.
Conner had called his bluff, because Lex couldn’t know everybody’s secret identities, he just couldn’t. Lex had placed a sheet of paper in front of him, superheroes, their alternate identities, home addresses, pictures in some cases and Conner may have freaked out a little bit.
He stayed because he wasn’t going to let anyone get hurt because of him. And that was what would happen if Lex announced the names to the public.
People would get hurt, people that he cared about. Some of them in the room with him and as much as Tim and Cassie being together hurt him he wouldn’t let them be harmed because of him. That was the one thing that he could give them.
Because he didn’t have any choices left, the ones that he’d had he made to protect people and none of those mattered anyway because Lex had that all important piece of paper declaring him his father and custodial guardian and Conner couldn’t go anywhere.
He couldn’t leave.
Not without having Lex direct police and FBI at the super-hero community if he disappeared.
So he stayed, and hoped that Superman would come up with a plan that would get him out from under Lex’s thumb before Lex got mad enough to out the super-hero community because Conner wouldn’t go blindly along with everything that he wanted.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-12 10:07 pm (UTC)