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“Bruce, we need to talk.”
Clark crouched down on the rooftop next to the dark figure. Batman’s face was hidden by the shadows even as he stared out over the streets of Gotham.
“This really isn’t the most appropriate place for a social call,” he answered, his voice raspy. Clark guessed he used a voice modulator, the same way Oliver did when he was in Green Arrow guise.
“I meant later. Tomorrow.”
“Is it life or death?”
“No, but it is important for the League,” he told him, ready to answer any objections the other man might have.
Bruce turned toward him for a moment, then nodded.
“I’ll be there,” he said briefly before using his cape to swoop down on some unsuspecting crook.
Clark bit his lip, then took off into the air. Bruce tended to avoid confrontations with his Justice League colleagues, but when he made a promise, he kept them.
It was late the next evening when Chloe strode in, or rather waddled in. She was seven months pregnant and her walk had tended to take on something that resembled a duck’s waddle. Of course, Clark would never comment on it. Not if he wanted to sleep in his own bed tonight, rather than the couch. Lois could be very unforgiving about personal slights. Even if they were meant jokingly.
“Is he here yet?” she asked impatiently.
“No. Should you be here?”
“I want to know what you’re going to do about him, Clark. He insulted Ollie.”
“He’s allowed to speak his mind, Chloe. Bruce has a right to his opinions.”
“Yeah, I figured you would see his side.”
“Chloe, I am not taking sides. In fact, I’m just as concerned as you are about the whole thing. It’s just that I can see Bruce’s side of it too.”
“You know he’s destroying the morale of the whole Justice League with his holier-than-thou attitude.”
Clark had no idea what to say. He had worried that Bruce’s hostility toward Oliver might affect the rest of the Justice League, considering Oliver had pretty much started it all. The last thing he wanted to do was take sides, especially when everyone looked up to him as their leader. Even Oliver, who was about as close to a best friend, or rather, best male friend, as he was going to be. Friendship or not, Clark knew he needed to try to see things from both sides.
Oliver hadn’t said anything, but he knew Bruce’s attitude bothered his friend. The thing was, when Bruce put aside his personal feelings, he showed that he could do exactly what he’d said he would do. A couple of weeks earlier, Oliver had been hurt while out patrolling. He’d landed badly after jumping from the roof of a building and twisted his ankle. Not enough that it would need urgent medical attention, but enough that it was painful to walk on for a couple of hours. Trouble was, he’d found himself in the middle of a gang war in Suicide Slums and would have been killed if it hadn’t been for Bruce, who had swooped down and picked him up, getting him to safety before dealing with the gang.
“Well, about time you showed up,” Chloe said with biting sarcasm.
“I was a little tied up,” Bruce answered. As he usually did when he attended meetings at Watchtower, he was in full uniform. Well, they weren’t exactly there for tea and crumpets, he’d often growl, showing his upbringing by an English butler. “What did you want to talk about?” he asked, or rather growled.
“How about the fact that you continue to be hostile toward my husband, yet he’s never done anything to you.”
“I would beg to differ.”
“Just what the hell is your problem?” Chloe ranted.
“Chloe, calm down before your blood pressure skyrockets.”
“Don’t tell me what to do Clark Kent.”
“He’s right,” Bruce answered.
“No one asked you!” she snapped.
“Chloe, don’t make me call Oliver,” Clark threatened.
Chloe glared at him, sticking out her bottom lip and grumbled as she went to sit down on the couch and put her feet up. Her ankles were a little swollen, but not too much.
“Stupid Clark, threatening to use my own husband against me. How low can you get?”
Clark heard a snicker and glanced at an amused Bruce.
“Women,” he sighed. “Earth women!” Bruce’s mouth turned up in a rare grin.
“Glad I never succumbed myself,” was all the Gotham billionaire said.
Clark nodded and went to the small fridge.
“We have cider if you would like.”
“Thanks but I’m not thirsty. What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Well, as much as I hate to say it, Chloe pretty much hit the nail on the head. Your attitude toward Oliver.”
“Professionally, I don’t have an attitude.”
“But your personal feelings are affecting the rest of the group.” Clark raised a hand before the other man could speak. “I get that you have issues. I’m not out to paint you as the bad guy here, because god knows Oliver has certainly done himself no favours in the past.”
Chloe snorted and he looked at her.
“Chloe, that isn’t constructive.”
“Who died and made you boss?”
“That would be Carter,” he told her. Well, it was pretty much the truth that the moment he’d met the former Justice Society member, Carter Hall, aka Hawkman, had treated him as if he was the leader. He had earned the other man’s respect and that alone had been enough to get the others to look to him as their leader.
Chloe just blew a raspberry at him. Clark shook his head at Batman.
“Ignore her. Pregnancy hormones.”
“It’s a good thing you’re invulnerable, Superman, and that I’m pregnant because I would so kick your ass right now.”
Bruce just chuckled. “I bet you would,” he answered.
It seemed that no matter how Bruce felt about her husband, he actually liked Chloe.
“Clark, I get that you’re concerned about the morale of this group. My personal feelings toward Oliver are no one’s business but my own. I can be professional.”
“Still, I’m concerned it may affect your judgement in future.”
“Fine. I get that. But, let me ask you something. Why are you so forgiving for what he’s done in the past? Why have you never taken him to task? I mean, if you ask me, Oliver should be in prison for some of the things he’s done.”
“Do you think if Oliver could go back again he would make the same choices, knowing what he knows now?”
“Maybe not, but you can’t turn back the clock. Not even you, although I suppose you could if you tried.”
“You’re right, you can’t. God knows I’ve learned that the hard way.”
“How so?”
“I turned back time and because of it, I lost my father. Maybe I am too forgiving of Oliver, but god knows, I’ve made my own mistakes. I learned a long time ago that punishing him and continuing to hold his mistakes against him isn’t going to turn back the clock. It’s not going to change what he did.”
“That’s the whole problem. I don’t see Oliver feeling any remorse and I still don’t get how you can just brush it all under the rug.”
“Well, who says we did,” Chloe answered. “I mean, you’re assuming we just let it go.”
“Didn’t you?”
“Not at all. I’m guessing the crux of this whole thing is what he did to Duncan.”
“Before that.”
“You don’t think people can change?”
“Not really, no.”
“Okay, then answer this, smart guy,” Chloe responded. “What makes you any better than Oliver when you went after the guy who killed your parents?”
“We’ve been over that, Chloe,” Clark reminded her. “And one has nothing to do with the other.”
Bruce frowned at him, clearly wondering why he was even bothering to give the other man a fair hearing.
Chloe got up from the couch.
“Well, let me ask you this, smart guy. Where’s your degree in psychology?”
“Excuse me?”
“You know, the letters after your name that says that you know enough about the human brain to be able to judge a man’s character.”
“I’m still not following.”
“You didn’t see Oliver when he was practically falling down drunk, or out of his mind on whatever poison he’d been dropping.”
“Which clearly says to me Oliver is a man more interested in partying than doing the right thing.”
“Then you clearly don’t know that those are also the signs of a man with a guilty conscience,” she pointed out. “A man who is so torn up with remorse that he will do anything to run away from it. I know what you’re going to say. You think I’m biased because he’s my husband and I love him, but I thought that before I fell in love with him.”
“He still should have ...”
“Let’s not forget one thing,” Clark said. “Oliver was a kid when all that stuff happened at Excelsior. When I was his age, I also did some really stupid things. Then again, you could say I was under the influence.”
“That’s another thing that bothers me. How did you manage to get away with that when you caused thousands of dollars, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage. I mean maybe you didn’t kill anyone, but ...”
“Maybe it sounds like an excuse to you, but when I’m on Red K, I really don’t care much about the consequences of my actions.”
“Why did you if you know what you become when you use it?”
“My mom had just lost a baby and I blamed myself for it. I was running away from my problems. Just like Oliver.”
“It still doesn’t excuse what he did.”
“And I suppose Duncan had a good excuse for what he did? He murdered two people and nearly killed Oliver and Lex,” Chloe pointed out. “Not that I’m Lex’s biggest fan.”
“You didn’t know Duncan and it still sounds to me like you’re defending Oliver’s actions.”
“You’re assuming too much,” Clark told him. “When I first learned the truth about Duncan I was sickened.”
He’d been furious with Oliver when he had learned exactly what he’d done. Clark could see Duncan’s point of view of the situation, especially since he had been on the receiving end of bullying himself. He would have thought at least Lex would have done the right thing at sixteen, but after Oliver had told him what had gone down at the school, he’d realised something he should have seen years earlier. That no matter what he tried to do, Lex had made some bad choices and other people had paid the price. The difference between Lex and Oliver was that Oliver had eventually learned from his mistakes even if he’d tried to bury his guilt.
“You think any of that mattered to Duncan?” Bruce asked when Clark voiced his thoughts. “He still ended up in front of that car. And they drove him to it.”
“I get that, Bruce, and that isn’t right, but ...
Bruce held up a hand, continuing to argue. “See it from Duncan’s side. He was practically a vegetable. His only family was gone and his life was destroyed. Don’t you think his actions are understandable?”
“Yet you say that Oliver’s aren’t when he tried to kill Lex in that truck.”
“That’s another thing that bothers me. If you knew Oliver did it, why didn’t you take him to the police?”
“Because if Oliver hadn’t done it, I might have,” Clark told him.
Bruce looked shocked. The truth was, though, Clark had been so close. If the explosion hadn’t occurred, he sometimes wondered if he really might have killed him. He’d certainly been angry enough after everything that had happened. Lana might have chosen to leave, but it was Lex who had forced her hand. Lex who had turned her into someone Clark couldn’t recognise. It was one of the reasons he’d begun to fall out of love with her, even if he had been in denial of that for so long.
“Bruce, all I’m saying is, two wrongs don’t make a right. What Oliver and Lex did to Duncan was pretty bad, but what Duncan did was just as bad, if not worse. There is no justification for cold-blooded murder.”
“I doubt whether what Duncan did was cold-blooded murder.”
“One murder could be considered a crime of passion, so to speak,” Chloe answered, “but two, not to mention the attempts on Lex and Oliver are premeditated.”
“You’re talking semantics.”
“No, she’s not,” Clark told him quietly. “Duncan had time to plan, from the moment the medication he’d been given woke him up and allowed him to figure out how to astral project.”
“All right, maybe you have a point, but what about all the other times he’s crossed the line? Why do you let him get away with it, time after time?”
“Bruce, my father, my adoptive father, that is, taught me to see the world as if it was an old western. That the good guys wore white and the bad guys wore black. We both know that’s about as far from the truth as you can get,” he added, looking pointedly at Bruce’s all-black Batman costume. “I once tried to turn my back on humanity because I had such a narrow view. I don’t always agree with the things Oliver does but I realised a long time ago that punishing him isn’t going to change what he’s done. The best I can hope for is to help him learn from those mistakes.”
“I don’t know,” Bruce said slowly. “I still think you’re too forgiving.”
“That’s your choice and I’m not going to try to change your mind. I just ...”
“Well, I for one, wish you’d set the hostility vibes on low,” Chloe answered. “Because the kid doesn’t like it when Daddy comes home all stressed out and complaining that the big boys won’t let him play in their sandbox.” She glared at him. “And I really wouldn’t want to have to kick your ass. Not in my condition anyway.”
Clark rolled his eyes. He thought Lois had a way with words, but Chloe was in a league all her own. He glanced once again at Bruce and sighed. Maybe things weren’t resolved, but he hoped he had managed to give the other man a few things to think about.