Title: Rain
Disclaimer: Don't own...can't own...won't own...anything Smallvillian or Kryptonian or anything ever because I'm poor and still paying for an education.
Rating: G or PG
AN: More depressing babble on my part. I still don't really know what I wrote. Inspired by the fact that it's pouring so hard today that I came home after going to one class because I was soaked from head to toe with squishy socks.
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And every time it rains
I feel her holding me
And everytime it rains
Are the angels crying
And every time it rains
I feel her holding me
And everytime it rains
Are the angels crying
-Cold, "Rain Song"
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Dogs and cats, cats and dogs, buckets and buckets…
Rain.
Gloomy and depressing and so fitting for her mood. Because her world ended 4 days, 6 hours, and 23 minutes ago and she denied it. Because today she’s gotta face reality. Because in exactly 42 minutes she’s going to bury the only person she ever really loved and who ever really loved and cared about her as much as she loved and cared about him and she was thinking in run-ons and really wishing there was some way to shut her mind off and forget that she was alone surrounded by friends who said they were there for her with their kind words and pitying glances and crushing, stifling hugs that seemed endless cause there were just too damn many and the stench of the cologne and perfumes and she couldn’t breathe because he wasn’t breathing so why should she?
Gabe Sullivan was dead.
No one could understand what that was to her. That her father was her whole world. That he was there for her when her so-called friends were holding grudges that shouldn’t have held because she was still protecting them. That he was the only person who really mattered to her. That so what if Lana didn’t have any of her parents because she could barely remember them to begin with. That so what if Clark never knew his real parents because the Kents were the best he could’ve gotten. That so what if Pete was holding her up and keeping her from falling on her face because he had his whole family and they were healthy and happy and together. That she’d sent a letter to her mother who had another family right now who never replied. That her daddy, the one who taught her the art of take-out and the beauty of the caffeinated beverage would never laugh or smile with her ever again.
Her world ended the moment Lex Luthor uttered the words “I’m sorry” and she knew, she just knew that her father, her life, her world, was gone, never to be seen again.
And what good were those words? “I’m sorry.” They didn’t make it hurt any less. They didn’t bring the only person she’d loved more than life itself back to her. They didn’t take away from the fact that her daddy was gone and never coming back.
And what did it mean to rain “cats and dogs” anyway? Buckets yeah, but cats and dogs?
It rained during Whitney’s dad’s funeral too. She remembered Lana and Clark and their doe-y woe-is-me eyes. Did Whitney notice? Or was he just as painfully numb as she is now? Too much to notice, to care, to think about anything other than the fact that she was alone in the world with no shoulder to cry on and no daddy to kiss it and make it better.
Before she knew it the funeral was over and she’d missed everything about it but it didn’t really matter because why should it? She could remember her father all on her own without other people telling her about him. Because she knew him best and he hated funerals just as much as she did.
An umbrella covered her and the rain stopped its attack and a warm jacket covered her soaked figure and Lex Luthor took her arm and guided her into the safety of his Ferrari. And something in his eyes told her that he understood. That his mother was the only parent he’d ever had and when she died his world ended too. Because she knew his story just as well as everyone else. Because she knew his father was the most unfeeling and hateful bastard that ever stepped foot on the planet and he was the only person Lex had had to count on.
Because he knew that the pain never went away, and that if you wallowed in it long enough you’d drown in it. Because Chloe Sullivan was too strong to go down like this. Because he’d seen the strength and drive and passion in her the moment she walked into the Torch office and shook his hand like they were equal.
Because Gabe had loved his daughter more than anything. Because not a day went by at work when he wouldn’t hear about how Chloe was doing and what she was doing and all of the trouble she kept getting into. Not a day went by passing Gabe’s office that he didn’t see all the pictures and articles on the walls, a monument to the one person in his life that gave it meaning.
Because he remembered having something so similar to that with his mother, his only parent, the only person he’d ever loved more than life itself. Because he’d been left with Lionel after she was gone. Because he’d never seen Chloe looking so weak and vulnerable even when she’d been shoved out his window and put in the hospital. Because she looked broken and no one else could understand just how much she’d lost. Even him. Because she had so many more memories, to cherish and to haunt her.
Because when she was strong she was beautiful and when the world was crumbling all around her she was just that much more striking. Because she was bright and stood out against the dark gray of the storm surrounding them. Because she looked like she was about to be blown away and he couldn’t let that happen. Because she was stronger than that and he knew it. From the few conversations and meetings with her, he’d never imagined her looking so lost and he never wanted to.
Because Chloe Sullivan was all fire and passion and strength. Because Gabe would never have wanted her to hurt like this. And holding her in his arms as she sobbed on his shoulder, getting puddles of rain all over his leather interior, he knew he never wanted to let her go.
Because the smell of rain would always remind him of the day he realized he was in love with a girl whose heart was broken and who felt as alone as he did every day since Lillian Luthor had passed away.
She looked up and in his eyes she saw a beginning. Right after the end, something else was going to start. But not now. Now she’d cry and rage at the world who took away the one person who had been her rock.
Because Gabe Sullivan was dead and she felt like she’d been taken with him, six feet under and locked in a box. Because the rain would be a constant reminder of when the world ended.
The End.
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