The Snapshot Series, Chapter Six

[lilly-pilly.livejournal.com]

 Title: The Snapshot Series
Chapter Six - Truce
Author: lilly_pilly
Fandom: Smallville, X-men
Pairing: None so far - we'll see as we go on.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Smallville and X-men are still not mine. Working on that.
Summary: Scott won’t make any more mistakes.
Warnings: Spoilers for X-men 3 and up to episode five of Smallville, season one.
A/N: So now the series finally has a name. See the links to chapters below:

Arrival
First Day
 Secrets
Suspicion
Choices

Chloe's computer changed the formatting again.

 “Damn it!” She shoved her chair back and fought the urge to throw something at the screen. Clark had questioned if she was too close to the story, and she’d laughed off his concerns, citing journalistic integrity and so on, ignoring his sceptical expression. Giving up would be too much like admitting defeat. She was Chloe Sullivan, dammit, and she was not going to let one little article beat her.

When the door opened, she didn’t look up from trying to de-size her font.  

“Unless you have coffee or a magical editing fairy, you can get lost.”

 “Well, I have one of the above.”

 Chloe’s fingers froze on the keyboard. She looked up to see Mr Summers in the doorway, holding an extra-large Styrofoam cup.

 But it was the figure next to him that made her jump to her feet, fumbling for her mobile with shaking hands. It was Sean-fucking-Kelvin back from the dead, looking more normal than he had any right to in his red football jersey, and looking up at Mr Summers with an expression verging on worshipful.

 “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” Chloe blurted. “He’s dead! He’s supposed to be frozen solid in a lake somewhere!”

 Mr Summers held up his free hand placatingly.

 “Chloe, it’s okay.” Aside; “Tina, perhaps now’s not the best…”

 “Right.” Sean’s face melted, rippled, muscles and bones shifting to a smaller, more feminine shape, even as those huge shoulders collapsed, and ribcage drew in on itself. It was the eeriest thing to see Sean become Tina.

 Chloe relaxed a little, but didn’t put the phone away.

 “Oh yeah,” she sneered. “Like one serial murderer is better than another. I feel so much safer right now.”

 Tina flinched, glancing at Mr Summers for help.

 “Perhaps you should wait outside,” he told her gently.

 “Okay.” She slunk outside like a dog that had just been kicked, pulling the door closed behind her. Mr Summers made his way between desks to Chloe. He held out the cup.

 “What is that?” Chloe said.

 “It’s a double shot mocca on soy,” he said. “Also known as a truce.” He waited a moment while she didn’t take it. “I didn’t poison it.”

 Chloe took the coffee from him and set it next to her keyboard.

 “What do you want?” She asked warily. She wished Clark were here, or even Pete. Not that she thought they could handle Tina, but it would make her feel a little better to have the moral support. While she was wishing, she might as well wish for the whole of the Smallville police force and some professional bodyguards while she was at it.

 Mr Summers pulled out a chair and sat down.

 “I need information,” he said. “And I hear you’re the go-to girl.”

 “Really.” She sat down and reached for a notepad and pencil. She’d been trying to weasel information out of him all term. Maybe now he’d finally give a little to get a little. “The way I hear it, you’re finding mutants just fine without my help.”

 “Not well enough.” He turned his face away for a moment, mouth tight and dissatisfied. “That was good work on the Sean Kelvin case by the way.”

 It was Chloe’s turn to look away, gaze turning down to her keyboard.

 “Yeah, well. They try to kill me, I get a story about it, right?”

 “Are you alright?” Perhaps it was because he sounded like he genuinely cared or maybe the trauma was finally catching up to her, but Chloe felt her tight control wavering.

 “Yeah, of course.” Her voice choked, and she grabed for a tissue. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She sniffed and wiped her eyes.

 “I’m sorry you were hurt,” he said.  

“I feel sorrier for Jenna Barnam,” Chloe shot back. He didn't get annoyed, just nodded very slightly as if it was what he’d expected. Jerk. She knew exactly what he would have done if he’d caught up to Sean first. He’d have tried to have a sit-down with him and hidden him from the police just like he had Tina. “I guess I beat you this time, huh?” She didn't bother keeping the triumph out of her voice.

 He frowned.

 “It’s not about who gets to them first,” he said. “Or about writing articles in the school newspaper. It’s about making sure that no one is hurt.”

 “And you’ve been so successful of late.”

 She almost regreted her sarcasm. She wasn't normally this bitchy. Annoying, yes, and nosy and headstrong, but not bitchy. She didn't know what was wrong with her tonight. First she was in tears, then she’ was biting the head off a man who had a homicidal mutant hanging onto his every word. Not exactly smart or safe.

 “I’m sorry I didn’t stop him hurting you,” Mr Summers said quietly. He sounded like he meant it. “I didn’t have all the facts. I assumed he was struggling to control a newly manifested power, not deliberately seeking out victims. If I’d known, I would have handled it differently. I made a mistake.” Judging from the harsh line of his mouth, he didn't like admitting that. “I can’t make another. That’s why I need to know more about the mutants here.”

 Chloe took a deep breath and scrubbed away the threatening tears.

  “What do you want to know?” She was proud that her voice was level and firm.

 “Everything. How it all started. Where they came from.”

 “You seriously don’t know?”

 “The mutants I’m accustomed to are of a…different origin.”

 Chloe desperately wished she hadn’t left her tape recorder in her dad’s car. She quietly scribbled ‘different mutants’ on her notepad and ‘where?’ in capital letters. If she could only figure out where Mr Summers was from, there was a story just waiting to be told.

 “So what kind are you accustomed to?” She asked, trying to keep her voice light and casual.

 “It’s the ones in Smallville I’m interested in,” Mr Summers said, refusing to let himself be sidetracked. “I’d heard stories they come from meteor rocks, but I dismissed it as urban legends. Like saying your kids will be mutants if you share a bathroom with one.”

 There was a studied neutrality to his voice when he said that last part. It was hard to tell – everything he said was rather dry and flat – but Chloe thought there might be something more there. She made a note on her writing pad; discrimination?

 “But now I’m starting to think there might be something to it,” Mr Summers continued. “Those rocks keep turning up everywhere.”

 He said that in a half-exasperated tone, and Chloe thought ‘why not?’ She’d never had someone to share her theories that would actually listen, and not just humour her the way Pete and Clark did.

 “Do you know how the meteor rocks came to earth?” She asked.

 “The meteor shower ten years ago,” Mr Summers said instantly.

 “Bingo. The rocks contained a substance that scientists had never seen before. I’ve got a report somewhere round here that they published right after the meteor shower.”

 “I’d like to read it, if you can get it translated into brail.”

 “Sure, I guess. Anyway, the gist of it is that this substance emitted a low level of radiation of a type that no one had ever seen before. The scientists said that it was totally harmless.”

 “But you don’t think so.”

 “We were the most boring, wholesome town in existence until the meteor shower. After that, the weirdness started, and hasn’t stopped since.”

 “You have a point.” Mr Summers conceded. “But your theory has a hole in it. If the radiation causes mutation, why aren’t we all mutants? If we live here, we must have all been exposed at one point or another, but only a few manifest with amazing powers.”

 “Well… maybe you need a certain amount in your system to get a power. Or maybe it needs something else, like stress or anger or fear to make it come out.”

 “Like falling in a frozen lake.” Mr Summers smiled, and Chloe was appalled to find herself sitting up a little straighter under his approval. His smile faded as he ruminated: “It still doesn’t explain why they go mad. Unless… it causes significant physiological changes. No reason why it can’t affect brain chemistry as well…” He was talking more to himself than her now. “Jean would know better than I would…”

 “Jean?”

 Mr Summers shut his mouth, face going absolutely blank, and Chloe knew with a thrill of triumph that he had let something truly significant slip. She scribbled ‘Jean’ down on her notepad and underscored it three times. She opened her mouth to ask who Jean was, but saw the strain about his mouth. It reminded her of her father, after the divorce. She let the name go in favour of a gentler line of questioning.

 “You’re not really Clark’s cousin,” she said. “Are you.”

 “No.”

 Her eyebrows rose.

 “Woah, you’re admitting it?”

 “Why not? It won’t help you find anything else out about me, and Clark seems uncomfortable with you researching his family.”

 “He told you about that?”

 “No. You just did.”

 Chloe bit her lip, annoyed at herself.

 “Does Clark know you’re not his cousin?” She said.

 “He does.”

 “Then why didn’t he just say so?”

 “Probably because he was afraid if he said anything about me, I’d say something about him.”

 “You’ve got something on Clark? Yeah, right. He’s practically a boy scout.”

 “He’s a good kid,” Mr Summers agreed. “And believe me, I have no intention of causing trouble for him. I want nothing but what’s best for him.” He leaned forward a little. “Will you tell him for me?”

 Chloe’s gaze slid away from the unreadable dark glasses. Mr Summer’s interest in Clark worried her, the same way that Lex’s interest did. It wasn’t a worry that was quantifiable or explicable. It niggled at the back of her mind, constant, almost subliminal, but unable to be dismissed entirely.

 “Tell him yourself,” she said shortly.

 “He won’t talk to me. Not since Tina.”

 “Yeah, I heard you got kicked out of the Kents.” Chloe took a sip of coffee, and found it really wasn’t bad. If he poisoned it, he’d used the good stuff. “Speaking of which, why is Tina walking around looking like Sean? That’s not much of a disguise.”

 “Tina’s still wanted for the bank robbery and her mother’s death. Sean was an emancipated minor. No parents, an estranged uncle in England.”

 Chloe was puzzled by the non-sequitar for a moment, before comprehension dawned.

 “You’re going to steal his identity? My feelings for Sean aside, that’s just sick. Plus, your brilliant plan is never going to work if your little protégée ends up in prison for Sean’s crimes.”

 Mr Summers looked smug.

 “I’m sure that once the police check his fingerprints against those on the crime scene, that unfortunate misunderstanding will be cleared up.”

 “Yeah, well…” That really wasn’t a bad plan. “How do you know I just won’t tell them everything?”

 Mr Summers leaned forward, what little she could see of his face looking concerned.

 “Because she’s a troubled girl who’s made a very bad mistake, and everyone deserves a second chance.”

 Chloe made a ‘yeah, right’ sound. Mr Summers steepled his fingers beneath his chin.

 “Alright. Here’s another reason. Because as far as mutants go, Tina’s a minnow. Bait fish. And you don’t eat bait fish. You use them to catch something bigger.”

 Chloe swallowed.

 “You’re saying if I… turn a blind eye…” She made a face at the words, not liking the taste of them. This wasn’t why she wanted to become a journalist. “Then you’ll lead me to other meteor freaks?”

 “Every one I find. With certain conditions.”

 “I –”

 “First, you won’t publish any story on a mutant that isn’t dangerous, or that I deem worthy of rehabilitation.”

 “No way. You’ll want to rehabilitate every one!”

 “Chloe, I’ve found four. Tina’s the only one who’s ever shown any sign of wanting to change.”

 He had a point, so Chloe let it go. She could always write the story later. Besides, if they had found this many mutants working apart, how many would they find if they shared information? And that was when she realized she’d just agreed to his arrangement. She let her pencil drop and gave him a look that, had he been able to see, would have fried his synapses and cooked his brain like an egg.

 “I’m still going to find out who you are, you know.”

 “You’re welcome to try.” Mr Summers stood. “As always, Chloe, it’s been an experience. I’ll let you get back to your article.”

 Chloe got up to open the door for him.

 “Still going to find out,” she told him, and wanted to smack him for the faintly amused smile that crossed his face. At least most of the subjects of her articles actually disliked her. Mr Summers would be a lot less annoying if Chloe didn’t get the sense that he genuinely liked her and enjoyed their little contests.

 Tina-as-Sean was sitting on the plastic seats outside. She (he?) jumped up and hurried over to place a hand on Mr Summers’ elbow.

 

 “Come on, Mr Summers. Lets go.” She led him down the hall, shooting a dark look over her shoulder at Chloe. Chloe held up her hands as if to say ‘you can have him’. She didn’t slam her office door, but it was a near thing.  

 

Comments

[lilly-pilly.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I actually did include it, but somehow it didn't go through the first time. That better?

[flareonfury.livejournal.com]

loved it! Yay for more Chloe & Scott interaction!


Will there be a romance later on or no?

[lilly-pilly.livejournal.com]

Hmm, unfortunately no Scott/Chloe plans at this stage. I have another pairing in mind for Chloe, plus she's a high school student, and I can't see Scott going there,ever. Maybe an unrequited crush from Chloe's end, eventually?

[flareonfury.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with Scott/Chloe friendship. :) Although I don't mind the unrequited crush from Chloe's end either.

The pairing in mind, is it a guy from SV or from X-men?

[lilly-pilly.livejournal.com]

Definitely Smallville. Scott's going to be the only X-men character in this. The whole idea is 'can the presence of one man change history?' Well, for Smallville's sake, lets hope so.