Disclaimer: I don't own Smalliville or any characters associated with it.
Remembrance
Lex walked into the torch. He saw a young blonde sitting at the desk and smiled.
"Can I help you... Sir?"
The blonde asked and stood. She noticed him wobble a little and groan, so she hurriedly helped him to a chair.
"I'm just here to remember."
He responded and looked around He looked at the billboard and remembered the wall of weird. He smiled as a bunch of memories flashed through his mind. Her smile, her wit, and everything else that made her so wonderful. He knew from the day he met her he was undeserving of such an angel.
"Remember what sir? If you don't mind my asking."
He laughed a little. He was surprised how easily laughter came now that he'd known her.
"Call me Lex. Sir makes me feel old."
"Lex!... Lex Luthor!"
She smiled in Recognition.
"Weren't you Lionel Luthor's heir?"
"That I was."
He said and laughed again.
"And then you gave it all up for..."
"Yes, I know my own life story."
"Well I wouldn't mind hearing it from you're point of view, maybe I'll even write about it in the torch."
"I'm sure she would have like that."
Lex smiled wistfully.
"Then let me start at the beginning"
She pulled out a notebook and a pencil as he motioned around the room.
"This is where I met her for the first time. She was witty and cute and I knew I'd fallen for her right away, but life had other plans for me. To make a long story short, she eventually hated me and became suspicious. Eventually I found a way to convince her to forgive me over a summer her precious Clark Kent was gone from Smallville. We fell in love over the course of that summer and there was no one I trusted more than her. I asked her to marry me shortly after Clark returned, I couldn't risk losing her again. To my shock she said Yes. Naturally my father wasn't happy. He threatened to disinherit me for 'marrying the enemy' as he saw it. She offered to split up and forget it happened and I hate to say this but I actually considered it."
The girl frantically wrote down his every word. He paused for her to catch up and she asked.
"What made you... well you know take the plunge?"
"Oh well I woke up one morning the day after she'd offered to forget anything ever happened and she wasn't there. I couldn't bear not seeing her every morning when I woke up and every night when I went to sleep, so I told her to forget about my father and we got married anyway. So you know what happened then, my outraged father took everything he could from me. He even bought out LexCorp and so with the money I had left we found a nice house in a suburb in Metropolis and moved in a year after we where married. I was surprised how well her father accepted the marriage. He was a great grandfather to the children."
She raised her eyebrow.
"Children? How many?"
"Oh well two. Twins. One boy and One girl."
His eyes teared at the mention of his children.
"She was a great mother and even though my father disinherited me that didn't mean I didn't have my fair share of enemies. One day I came home a little late from work and the house in burned to the ground. I lost everything that day. I lost the only woman who'd ever taken a chance on me and given me all of herself without expecting anything in return. I searched the rubble for hours but to no avail. Later her body was found..."
He was full out crying now and the young reporter offered him a tissue. He denied it an continued on with his story.
"she was there protecting our children. They'd all died of smoke inhalation the only one with burns on the body was their mother. I know it sounds sad but there were so many happy memories. That's what made it so unbearable when she died."
He wiped the tears away and a determined look covered his face.
"I spent years trying to figure out who to blame for my wife and children's deaths. Then I figured it out after years of trying to blame someone I found out it was an accident. A simple mistake of a gas leak, and I kept thinking that if I hadn't stopped at the store to buy her 5 roses, it was our fifth anniversary, then I might have died with them or maybe even saved them. I remember her so well. Her smile was the most amazing I'd ever seen. Her nose would crinkle sometimes and it just... I loved seeing her smile. Once, the day we moved into the house, I looked over at her and my breath was caught in my chest. She was seven months pregnant and she was looking out the huge window in the living room. The sun had just risen so there was a glow coming in through the pane. A breeze blew in and the drapes around her ruffled and blew out. She was laughing then at the funny look on my face and I swear to god that at that moment she glowed, just like an angel."
"Wow! How did you cope with such a loss? and why come here today of all days?"
The young girl asked encaptured in the story she hadn't written the past bit down yet.
"I coped by forgetting what hurt too much to remember and remembering what hurt too much to forget. It may not make sense to you now but when you lose someone you really love you'll understand what I mean. Today is the anniversary of her death and the 51st anniversary of our wedding. 48 years ago she died in that fire. We'd only lived in the house for about four years."
"Do you mind if I ask her name? I've heard the story of the tragedy but no name was mentioned accept yours."
"It was Chloe Sullivan."
He spoke softly as if speaking her name would hurt him. The blonde girl sighed. He began to cough and she got up to get him some water. When she returned all she found was a tattered picture. She looked at the people in side and immediately recognized the young man as Lex Luthor. He was getting wedding cake stuffed into his mouth by a beautiful blonde in an amazing wedding dress. Chloe Sullivan... she guessed. She turned the photo around and read.
"Thanks for helping me remember her one last time."
Was all that was written in scribbly writing. She walked to the computer and typed 'Lex Luthor' into the search engine. An article popped up in bold letters.
'RECENT DEATH OF LEX LUTHOR SURPRISES ALL. Lex Luthor died in bed last night clutching a photo of him and his previously deceased wife Chloe Sullivan. May he rest in piece."