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The Talented Miss Ripley
A post-mpreg fiction
Fandom: SV
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Rating:2

What went before


This is another tiny bit, but I have to be happy to make it work and right now, not so much!
On the other hand, this is probably the right frame of mind for Deal…*smile*



Art by [livejournal.com profile] laurab1



The sun was just beginning to dip a bit, and Clark brought two mugs of coffee out to the porch. He sat and handed one to his dad. Took a sip from his own. The air had a bit of a chill to it, and Jonathan was glad of the steaming coffee. He held it between his hands, and relaxed, warmed by the coffee and the welcome presence of his son.

“Dad…I’ve been thinking…”

Clark stopped, sighed so deeply that Jonathan glanced over at him. What he saw made him put his cup down. His son looked—tired, so much so that it made him sit up, reach out to him. Clark never looked tired, hardly ever looked older than the teen that’d left home all those years ago. Today, though, he looked every single one of his years.

Jonathan put his hand over Clark’s and squeezed. “Son, if there’s anything you want to tell me, I’m here to listen, help if I can.”

Clark nodded. “I’m a little nervous. I’m about to ask Lex to help me do something, something that’s more important than anything I’ve ever done before.”

Jonathan raised an eyebrow, and twisted to look Clark in the eyes. “Clark, it’s a sure bet Lex will do anything for you. He’d follow you to the ends of the earth, if you wanted him to. If you ask him to help you, whatever it is, you’ll make him happier than you can imagine.”

There was a creak on the porch behind them and his grand daughter was there, standing behind her dad—she winked at him. She was smiling wide, her eyes were dancing and he could see Clark in her, the green eyes, the completely irresistible smile. It made him… happy. She was beautiful, she made the family happy, hell, she brought the family back.

And by the look on her face, she’d been eavesdropping. Again. He was pretty sure where *that* trait came from.

She leaned against Clark’s broad back and rested her chin on his head. “Dad…Poppa’s been waiting forever to hear you say you need him.”

“Ripley—you know too much. Are all thirteen year olds this nosy—and this smart?”

“Nope. I’m special. Just like my dads.” She scratched his head hard, before plopping down to squeeze between the two of them and wrap her arm through Clark’s. She asked, “What’s the deal…what are you going to do?” Jonathan waited for the answer with great interest. Clark was obviously dying to tell him—something. “Yeah, son, what is on your mind?”

Clark took a deep breath. He stood and motioned Jonathan over to him.

Jonathan raised an eyebrow at Ripley, handed her his mug and rose off the steps, groaned a little. “This better be good, Clark.” He put his hands in the small of his back, and ignored the little snickers behind him. “It takes me longer and longer to get up from that darn step and I usually head right on upstairs to my very warm and very comfortable bed…” and very warm wife, but that’s nobody’s business but my own.

“Dad—I have something I want to show you.”

Jon had a flash of memory—Clark at five, just having discovered the barn cat had had kittens, and wanting him to come see, so excited—he grinned, it was funny, and a little sad, to see the same look, shining out of his grown son’s eyes….

Jonathan walked over to Clark, and he grabbed his arms, hugged him close and Jon hugged back, surprised and pleased. He heard a little gasp, and turned his head to Rip, who was gazing up at him in awe. Up. Her head was tilted back…really…far…back…and he was…

“Fuck, Clark!”

“Dad!” They dipped and wobbled and Clark’s cheeks burned. “Language, Dad!”

Jonathan grabbed Clark’s collar and wrapped his arms around his neck. “Holy—crap, Clark—since when—you can--FLY?”

Clark laughed a little. “Since a few days ago. I was running across the field, looking up at he sky and–and I was in the air. I wanted to be up there, and suddenly—I was. It ws like—the most natural thing in the world.”

They swooped up into the air, and gently floated upward, until the road was below them, and Jon could see the roofs of their distant neighbors. “Clark…what happened to a fear of heights?”

Clark laughed, “It just—just went. The moment I was in the sky, I was fine. Better than fine, I was great.” He smiled at Jonathan’s skeptical look. “Really.”

Clark turned a bit so that Jonathan could see all of Smallville below them. “See those lights, Dad? They’re all people, people who are alone, and scared, and looking over their shoulders, and I think…I think I’m supposed to help. Dad, more than that—I need to help. If I can make the darkness a little less frightening for them, than that’s what I have to do.” He looked at Jonathan, and Jonathan felt his heart swell. “That’s what I was taught to do,” he said softly.

Jonathan nodded. “You have to do what you have to do, son. I trust you.” He looked down and saw a flash of red hair streaking under them. Ripley was taking huge excited jumps up toward them—still just jumps, he mused.

“Clark, your instincts have been right before. And you have someone to help you do it.”

Clark smiled and nodded, his eyes soft the way they always went when they talked about Lex.

Clark brought them gently back to earth, and they both laughed at their reception. Ripley was running under them, yelling and waving her arms, shouting “me too me too.”

Jon stumbled a bit when Clark set him lightly on the porch, and in a second, swooped up Ripley, and tore off into the sky with her, faster than he’d done with him, higher, straight up like a rocket and Ripley’s excited laughter trailed down to him….

There was no way his son could keep his feet on the ground. He was meant to be flying—he was meant to be the amazing being he was. He might not be a religious kind of guy, but his son—well, it was obvious God had a plan for Clark, he had to admit. He grabbed the still warm cup of coffee and took a long thoughtful sip.

Lex…Lex was going to go into fits. He grinned over the rim of the mug, and listened, straining to hear Lex’s daughter shriek with laughter. Poor guy. Whatever plan *he’d* had for Clark was about to be turned on it’s ear.

tbc