Chapter Text
Conner opened the motel room door, eyes growing wide when he saw John standing beside Clark.
“Shit.” He muttered.
“Conner,” John sighed, sounding relieved to see him.
“Who is it- oh.” Bernard called from inside the room.
Clark couldn't see him from his angle beside the door, but he saw the way Conner slowly reached over to grab the doorframe, blocking them from entering, and the way John's eyes widened slightly.
“Leave him alone.” Bernard, still wearing pajamas, demanded, pushing between Conner and the doorframe, spreading his arms wide as if to block the much larger teen from the two men outside. “He didn't do anything wrong.”
John looked calmly at them both and just let out a tired sigh. “Boys, we can talk out here, and risk being overheard, or you can invite us in and we can have a private conversation.”
It was Conner who moved first.
He deflated and closed his eyes, hands releasing the doorframe.
“Bear, come on.” He turned and let them into the small room, Bernard reluctantly following him.
“Thank you.” John stepped in, Clark coming in last and closing the door.
“How did you find us?”
“Dinah.” John crossed his arms.
Conner looked surprised. “I never told her-,”
“No. But your sessions with her are over video. And that tipped her off.” He pointed to a large, black and white, framed photo of what the town looked like a century ago. Engraved in bold letters was the title, ‘Smallville’. “And there is only one reason you'd come to Smallville.”
“... Oh.”
“Conner, you know me. You know I just want what's best for you. What happened that you couldn't come to me for help?”
Conner didn't respond. He just stared at his socked feet.
“Conner, please.”
Still no reply.
“Conner, do you know why *I* am here and not the police? It's because I knew that if they were the ones to find you, you'd end up in handcuffs. This, on top of your assault-,”
Conner's eyes flew open wide and he looked right at Clark, panicked.
John grimaced and then let out a breath. “I’m sorry. But, what possessed you to run away? Was there something going on you couldn't tell me?”
Clark watched Conner's face closely, not having expected John's slip up.
Assault?
Conner thought for a moment, and then turned. “Bear-,”
“No.” Bernard, seated on the edge of one of the beds, crossed his arms across his chest.
Except…
His voice was scared.
Almost pleading.
“Bear, show him what they did to you.”
Bernard looked at John, and then at Clark.
They stood in silence, no one speaking, until finally he stood and walked over to Conner.
It wasn't until he was standing well inside Conner's personal bubble that he faced them and shakily began unbuttoning his pajama shirt.
Closing his eyes tightly, he pulled the material off and spun in a slow circle, letting the adults see everything.
His torso and arms were riddled with welts.
Bruises.
Lashes.
Clark gasped and he saw John take a step forwards, but Bernard had already covered himself back up, head bowed like he was ashamed.
“Who.” Was all John demanded.
“It doesn't matter.” Bernard muttered.
Conner rubbed his back, trying to comfort him.
“Conner, if someone did this to Bernard, they need to be held accountable.” Clark pointed out.
“You're assuming the laws actually give a damn about right and wrong.”
“I am a lawyer.” John stated.
“Yeah, and I've never been fucked over before just because I'm the convenient scapegoat.” Conner snapped back.
John didn't reply.
“Boys, just tell us what happened.” Clark took over. “We're here to help.”
The two of them shared a look, and then Bernard stepped back over to the bed and sank down, Conner right beside him.
“Hindsight being what it is, I know now that it was a stupid decision. But… I just wanted to have some fun.”
Clark and John grabbed a couple of chairs from the nearby table and sat down.
“My family's always been hard on me to get good grades. And… I used to be able to. But then I got to high school and… I think I just got burned out. Don't get me wrong, I didn't just give up. I… I tried. I tried to focus. Tried to study. But it was like I was walking up a hill, and with each step it would get steeper and steeper, and I'd be carrying more and more. Nothing I tried worked. I talked to my counselor, who just told me that no one wanted to do schoolwork, but that was no excuse. My parents started punishing me for being lazy.”
Bernard reached over and grabbed Conner's hand, lacing their fingers together.
“I spent my whole school career up to then as the kid in class with the highest marks. Anything less was a failure. Every resource I tried just kept telling me that, if I was failing, it was my fault. ‘Work harder’. ‘Apply yourself’. ‘Stop being lazy’. ‘Stop pretending to be stupid, we've got your old test results. We know what you're really capable of’. And the whole time I just kept getting more stressed, which made my grades keep going down, which just made everyone more convinced I was doing it all to spite them.
“One day, I came across this online game. It was in a group chat for kids in my school, so we could help each other with homework, but these kids… they started doing this Truth or Dare thing. Rule number one was that the teachers were to never find out, which honestly should have been my first red flag, but… I'd been going to faculty members for help for months and they all just brushed me off. I was at a point where… I saw that rule and figured that these were just other kids like me. Sick of… everything. The whole deal. Of doing everything we were told, working our asses off, stressing about every little detail, only to end up barely able to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning just to do it all over again while the people we're doing it for waste no opportunity to remind us that we're stupid, lazy and worthless.”
Bernard seemed to realize he'd gotten off track and awkwardly cleared his throat. “Um. I… I decided to join the game. It was just little things. No one was being disruptive. No one was vandalizing or anything. It was just… a group of us playing our own little game. That was all. At first.”