inalienable rights CHAPTER THIRTY

Four people sat at the kitchen table, blinking at an empty chair. Clark had speedily vacated it without warning at the news that, in addition to the infant clone that Marin carried, there were six others, whereabouts unknown.

Jonathan, Martha, Marin and Dr. Crosby glanced at one another, each silently wondering where Clark had sped off to, and if he intended to return. After a long, uncomfortable minute, the clatter of wood against wood coming from the direction of the barn resounded with the answer.

Jonathan ventured out alone to investigate the sound and the angst that it implied. He found Clark on the roof of the barn, using his thumb to drive thick nails through the boards he'd brought up to repair the hole he'd left. "You can use a hammer, Clark," Jonathan called, trying to sound congenial and hoping that his son would give him some way to penetrate his justified temper.

"I'd rather use my fist, but I've made enough holes in the roof," Clark bit tersely, not moving his eyes from his task.

Jonathan looked up at his son, balancing effortlessly on the incline and pushing nails through the weathered boards like they were thumbtacks. Clark might have had an extraordinary means of employing it, but his father had practically invented the tactic. Avoidance by occupation. "Clark, come back down here, you don't have to do that now."

"It's not gonna fix itself, Dad." The strain in his voice was apparent.

"It can wait."

"No, it can't wait, it's a six-foot hole in the roof of the barn, and one of the rafters is split. Gotta fix it before that beam gives."

Jonathan walked into the barn and regarded his son's handiwork. "Looks like you've already reinforced the beam pretty well. We can fix the rest later."

"No, we won't fix it, I will fix it. I'm the one who wrecked it in the first place, just like everything else."

Paydirt. That was the foothold Jonathan had been feeling for. "You can't blame yourself for any of this, Son."

Clark was suddenly no longer visible through the hole in the roof, and Jonathan turned to find him walking into the barn. "Of course I can," he retorted flippantly. "You're always saying how important it is to take responsibility - well, I'm responsible for all of this."

Jonathan approached Clark and put both hands on his shoulders. "Clark, listen to me. I know what it's like to blame yourself for everything. It's hard to see people suffer for any reason, especially if it had anything to do with you, but you did not cause anything that happened."

Clark didn't protest. He merely nodded and kept his eyes low.

"That's not really what this is about, is it?" Jonathan guessed.

Clark shrugged and moved away, turning his back to his father to hide his sadness. "No, it is."

"But not just that."

Clark shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's okay, Clark," Jonathan prodded, stepping closer. "You can talk about it."

Clark closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the railing that led to the loft. "I don't want to."

"You sure?"

"No," Clark sighed, then scrambled to recover. "Yes - I mean yes."

"Okay then," Jonathan said, but didn't retreat.

Clark turned to face him. "Are you waiting for something?"

"I am."

"What?"

"For you to realize that you do want to talk about it." Jonathan was unaccustomed to being shut out when his son was upset.

Clark was beginning to look frustrated. "I said I don't want to talk about it! Why are you pushing this?"

Jonathan's impatience was beginning to outweigh his restraint. "Because I'm not going to let you sit out here and sulk while the rest of us are worrying about whether you're okay."

"Wow, sorry to inconvenience you," Clark spat, but instantly regretted it. His sense of pride, however, was less forthcoming.

"You'd better keep that tone in check with me, Son!"

The word "son" struck Clark poignantly. "Dad, I just found out that I can't ever be a father! Do you have any idea what that's like?"

Silence opened up and swallowed them both while Jonathan fumbled for a response. "Yes, I do," he managed meekly.

Clark mentally backpedaled and begged time to let him take back that remark. "Dad, I'm sorry, I didn't mean - "

"No, I know," Jonathan cut him off, waving a dismissive hand more casually than his expression implied. He turned to head back to the house, and Clark slumped against the railing. "Clark," he said over his shoulder when he reached the door. "I know that a lot has happened today, and you have all these new things to deal with. Just don't forget that the rest of us are dealing with them too, and none of us should do it alone."

Clark hesitated for a moment, trying to think of what he could say to smooth things over, and when he reached the door he saw that his father was already on the porch. To his surprise, it was Chloe he found just outside the barn.

"Chloe? What are you doing here? Why aren't you home sleeping?"

"I couldn't sleep, I told my dad I had some catching up to do at the Torch."

"On Sunday? It is still Sunday, right?"

"Since when does journalism answer to the calendar? Or the clock, or the class bell - "

"I think the real question is, when does Chloe Sullivan answer to those things? How long have you been standing there?"

Chloe shifted uneasily. "Not… too long."

"How long?"

"Long enough to get really confused."

"So you heard…?"

"I heard."

"Oh."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I thought you said you heard?"

"Yeah, I heard your words, and I heard your voice. They said two different things. You're not the only one with superpowers, you know - I have a talent for reading people."

Clark turned back to the barn without a word and took the steps to the loft two at a time. Chloe followed tentatively, taking a seat beside him on the couch.

"Are you not going to talk to me?"

"Can't you read silently?" Clark quipped.

Chloe smiled. "Nice one - really, bonus points - but seriously. You'll feel better if you get this stuff off your chest."

"I don't know if 'better' would be much of an improvement."

"It won't be if you keep sulking."

"You sound like my dad."

"Again? Okay, let me know if something on me turns plaid."

Clark chuckled despite his solemnity. "The tips of your ears are looking a little flannel-ish."

"I was afraid of that. Quick, the only cure is to tell me what I missed before I have to channel your father's wisdom again." Chloe smiled playfully, but the expression in her eyes was heartfelt and earnest.

Clark looked distant and regretful. "I just said something to him that I shouldn't have said. I didn't think first."

Chloe nodded. "I heard. But I'm sure he understands. He just wants you to talk to him."

"Yeah, I know, it's just - well, I didn't expect this, although I don't really know why it should surprise me, and I don't know. I guess I didn't realize how much it would affect me."

"Why shouldn't it? You're not even out of high school yet and you just found out that you can't have kids. I know that at our age kids are the last thing guys are usually thinking about, but most of them have the option in the future. I'd be surprised if you weren't upset about it."

Clark was silent for a long time before he looked up at Chloe. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You just - come in and make things make sense. I mean, it still hurts, but it makes sense."

"It's my job to wade through the quagmire and come up with the useful information," Chloe shrugged. "There's still something that doesn't make sense to me though."

Clark just looked at her with an eyebrow raised, waiting for her to pose her question.

"If you can't technically father children, how is it that Marin's carrying your child?"

Clark drew in a deep breath and let it out as slowly as he could. "Uh, well. She's technically not."

Chloe looked at him blankly. "See, this is why I submit to no man's timetable. I missed something huge, didn’t I?"

"I don't know, is alien cloning huge?" Clark asked with his head tipped back and his eyes closed.

Chloe's jaw would have hit the floor and crashed right through if it weren't attached. "Tell me that's a joke."

"Oh, it's no joke," Clark huffed, standing and crossing over to the window. "Yeah, the reason I can't be a father is because I apparently have twice as many chromosomes as a human, which Ripley discovered, so he replaced the nuclei of some of Marin's eggs with the nuclei of some of my cells, and he basically just used her as a clone incubator."

Chloe looked stunned, unable to budge from her position on the sofa. "Okay. So… yeah, that's not a joke."

"He cloned me. Chloe!" Clark cried suddenly. "Seven times, that I know of."

"Seven? What? He implanted Marin with seven clones, is he nuts?"

"No. Well, yeah, he's crazy, but he implanted her with one. The rest are in a freezer somewhere, or something."

Chloe shook her head and walked over to Clark, giving him a sympathetic hug. "This is… so far beyond unfair, Clark. He had no right to - "

"Oh, but that's the best part!" Clark exclaimed with an almost sadistic smile. "He did have a right."

Chloe shook her head and stared up at Clark, wide-eyed. "Do you hear yourself? What are you saying?"

"Seventh grade social studies."

"What?"

"Seventh grade social studies," Clark repeated. "The Declaration of Independence. 'When in the course of human events - '"

"Yeah, I know what the Declaration is, but I don't see your point."

"In seventh grade, I had to write a report on it. It was the first time I really paid attention to what it said, and I've never been able to shake it. When my dad told me what I really was back in ninth grade, I remembered that old report and read the Declaration again. There's one part I've repeated to myself almost every day since then."

"Which is?" Chloe's concern grew as Clark's tone became more mechanical.

Clark cleared his throat and recited; "'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.'"

"All right," Chloe responded, her confusion apparent.

"Do you know what 'inalienable' means, Chloe?" Clark asked her, going to a shelf and picking up the dictionary he kept there, opening it to a dog-eared page. His action told Chloe the question was rhetorical, and she remained silent, waiting for him to find his place. It didn't take long - he'd evidently searched this word out many times before. "Not being able to be transferred or taken away, for example because of being protected by law." He looked up at Chloe, clearly expectant.

Chloe shook her head yet again, mystified by this unseen side of her friend. "I'm sorry, Clark - I just don't know what you're getting at."

"I know," Clark said, hanging his head. "And I'm not getting at it very well. I should back up. See, the first time I read the Declaration, I got stuck on the word 'inalienable.' I remember thinking something dumb, like it meant that it didn't apply to aliens. I don't know why, but that thought stayed with me, and when I found out that's what I really was, that's how I started to feel. Like those rights don't apply to me."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe challenged, her voice rising in indignation. "Of course they apply to you - you said so yourself - 'inalienable' means that they can't be transferred or taken away. They're yours just as much as they're anybody else's."

"They're only mine to people who believe I'm human. But I'm not, so I never had them in the first place. You can't have something taken away from you if you never had it. I don't have any rights, Chloe. There are no self-evident truths for me."

Chloe was incredulous. "Do you seriously believe that?"

"Do you seriously believe that - if the whole world knew what I really am - I would have any rights? That I'd be treated like a normal person? There aren't any committees for the ethical treatment of aliens, Chloe. There's just me and my secret, and anybody who knows it, knows that I'm not really entitled to anything. And that's why, technically, Dr. Ripley was within his rights."

"That's just crazy talk, Clark! Ripley couldn't even run tests on a rabbit without approval."

"That's different, there are plenty of rabbits. People know all about rabbits. But people wouldn't know me, and they fear what they don't know. I've had a long time to think about this, believe me."

Chloe was silent for a while, looking contemplative. She walked up to Clark and took the dictionary from his hands. "You say you have no rights because you're not human, right?"

Clark simply nodded.

"So, with all the time you've had to think about this, have you ever looked up the word 'human?""

"Uh… no, I haven't."

"Well then, let's stop making educated guesses and go for the facts. I'm betting it says something other than "bipedal being with forty-six chromosomes, originating from Planet Earth." She flipped through the book until she found the page she was looking for. "Human. Five definitions. Want them all?"

"Why not?" Clark answered, not seeing what difference it would make.

"Good. But promise me this is the last time I'm going to have to drag your sorry butt out of the gutter, at least for today, okay? It's draining trying to be this smart and inspiring all the time."

Clark smiled, though somewhat against his will. "Okay, I promise. I think."

"Good enough," Chloe said, flashing him a grin. "First one: noun, a human being. Kind of ambiguous, so we'll move on. The rest are adjectives. Definition number two: relating to, involving, or typical of human beings. Do you relate, involve, and behave typically, Clark? Don't answer, I will. That's affirmative on definition number two. Number three: composed of people. Number four: showing kindness, compassion, or approachability. Number five: having imperfections and weaknesses." Chloe smiled and looked up from the page.

"What do you know, Clark? Looks like you're a textbook human after all."