Legacy
by Tracy (lunarknightz)
Rating: G
Category: Weird Smallville Crossovers (No, really.)
Spoilers: End of Season 2 for SV, the entire Newsies movie.
Summary: At nine, Chloe doesn't think much of newspapers, at all...until Gabe shares a bit of family history...
Disclaimer: Singing, Dancing, Smallville and Newsies don't belong to me. Don't sue.
Chloe wrinkled her nose. "I don't care about a stupid newspaper, Daddy."
Gabe Sullivan drew his nine year old daughter closer, scooping her up onto his lap. "Now, I can't believe that. Sullivans have newspaper in their blood, you know that?"
"Ewww!" She paused for a second and then looked down at her hands. "How do you read it?"
"Huh?"
"How do you read the newspaper if it's in your blood? Do you have to have special 3D glasses or something, because Lois got some that are pretty and pink when she went to see that film on dinasours at the science museum last week, and I could use some just like them. And then I could read my blood." Chloe chirped.
Gabe laughed. "It's not quite like that, Chloe girl. I'm a silly Daddy, aren't I? What I was trying to tell you about is the legacy our family has with newspapers."
"Legacy?"
"My great grandfather, who would be your great-great grandfather was part of the Newsboy Strike of 1899."
"Strike? What did they go on strike about?"
"Your great-great grandfather was a newsboy. Back in those days they didn't have the dispensing machines for newspapers."
"Like the one at the corner where you buy the Daily Planet?" Chloe interrupted.
"Yes, like that one. They didn't exist back in 1899. Instead they had young men and teenage boys sell the newspaper on the streets. It wasn't an easy job, and they had to pay for each paper that they took and didn't sell. The last straw was when they raised the price of the papers. The newsboys couldn't sell enough papers to keep food in their tummies or a roof over their heads, and they went on strike."
"Did they win?"
"Yes, they did. The whole story is an interesting part of American History. So, Miss Sullivan, newspapers aren't silly or stupid. They are a part of our family's history, and part of the future."
Chloe shrugged. "Whatever. Can I go call Lois now?"
Gabe nodded, and Chloe scampered off towards the phone.
"Dad?"
Gabe turned around at the sound of his daughter's voice. Chloe stood in the doorway to the kitchen, clad in her Barbie pajamas. In her hands, Chloe held a big book that he didn't recognize.
"Chloe? What are you doing up, sweetheart?" It was eleven o'clock at night, a long while past Chloe's bedtime.
"I couldn't sleep." Chloe came over and sat in her dad's lap.
"What's wrong?" Gabe smoothed one of Chloe's blond pigtails.
Chloe held out the book towards him. Gold lettering on the spine read "The Strike of 1899." "I can't find anything. I've been reading this book, and I looked through a couple others at the library, and there's nobody named Sullivan. There's no great-great Grandpa in this book at all." She was almost near tears.
"Ah. Let me see that." Chloe nodded and handed the book to Gabe.
Gabe flipped to the very back of the book, and looked at the index before flipping to a point back towards the front. He put a finger on one name in bold type.
"There he is, Chloe. That's your Great Great Grandpa."
"Jack Kelly?" She was puzzled. "I thought his name would be Sullivan…"
"Sullivan was his name, originally. Francis Sullivan. He changed it to Jack Kelly after his parents died and he was a newsboy. It was my Grandfather that changed his name back to Sullivan, and that, dear girl…" Gabe noticed that Chloe's eyes were drooping. "Is a story for another day."
He beamed with pride.
His little girl had a column in the Daily Planet. Before she'd even graduated from High School! She'd accomplished her dream.
Newspapers and journalism had been Chloe's focus for years. At ten, she'd started a small family newspaper, and hired her cousin Lois to be a reporter. Lois had lasted for twenty five minutes before Chloe fired her for misspelling too much. By eleven, she was working at a paper at her school, and she was named editor of the Smallville High Torch when she was only a freshman.
Gabe felt a bit responsible for Chloe's obsession- tracing it to the day he told her the story of their ancestor. Though the true heroism behind the story was more closely related to unionization than journalism, Gabe was glad that his little girl was turning out to be more Nellie Blye than Norma Ray.
Here was another member of this family, making their mark on the world through newspapers. Idly, Gabe thought about the Kelly side of his family- His grandfather's brother had kept the Kelly name and moved to Gotham City to make a name for himself. He'd married into money, Gabe recalled his father telling him. What was that name again? Wilcox? Worthington? Wayne?
It didn't matter.
Today was his little girl's day to shine.
Gabe smiled and raised his coffee cup aloft. "To the Daily Planet's newest columnist!" He toasted.
Chloe blushed as the customers of the Talon joined him in his salute.
Author's Note: Why yes, my brain is a crazy-insane-o place. The Walt Disney Movie Newsies (orginally released in 1992) is based on a true story- the strike and the situations surround it or real, though I don't think the musical numbers were. g Finding out that Jack Kelly's original name in the movie was Francis Sullivan proved too tempting of a bunny not to tackle. Christian Bale portrayed Jack Kelly, thus the Wayne comment in the end. You never know, the DC universe is a wild and wacky place...