Get Well Soon

a sick little story by VfangzV

Characters: Chloe and Lex from 'Smallville.'

Lex rolled over on his side, dazed. The first thing he saw was an empty bottle of bourbon sitting on shards of a shot glass that he didn't remember smashing. It was becoming a routine, almost. Go to work, come home, drink, pass out on the floor of his mansion. Pretty bleak for someone who owned half the city, but he had his reasons... Lex tried to prop himself up, but he was too weak. He hadn't been eating or sleeping well, and his empty stomach wasn't happy about the consistent influx of alcohol. He could feel it sloshing around in his abdomen and was starting to feel sick. Lex groaned miserably and gave up on getting to his feet. It wasn't even very late in the day for him to be this wasted; the sun was just going down. He felt horrible, but at least no one had to see him like this... "Lex Luthor!" called a female voice suddenly. Lex whipped his head from side to side and tried to raise himself up again. The room was spinning so violently he could hardly tell where it had come from... "Hey! Can't you get up?" it was a bright, clear voice. It sounded like... "Chloe Sullivan?" he said as she appeared above him. "What are you doing here?" "I'm here," she said, holding out her hand to help him up, "to pull you out of your rut." "I don't need your help!" he growled. Lex mustered enough strength to force himself to stand, but as soon as he got to his feet, he stumbled and swayed and had to lean on a wall to steady himself. His mouth started filling up... he was salivating uncontrollably and could feel himself getting queasier. He clapped a hand to his mouth and convulsed, trying to fight the sick feeling. "Oh ya, you're doing juuust fine!" laughed Chloe, getting closer to him and putting a hand on his face, "you're even paler than usual. What does that tell you?" Lex swallowed hard and turned on her "I told you to get out of here!" he yelled. "No you didn't," she said, "besides," Chloe suddenly started looking more hazy, almost transparent... "how can I leave," and she disappeared completely, her voice still echoing "when I'm in your head?" Suddenly Chloe appeared on his left where she had been on his right, and kissed him on the cheek before disappearing again.

Lex stood there, flabbergasted. His weak knees were trembling from the effort of holding himself up, and another sharp wave of nausea brought him down on all fours. "I gotta stop drinking so damn much," he muttered to himself, swallowing against another urge to throw up. Lex was stubborn, especially when it came to his own body. He mistreated it and expected it to keep working for him, often denying basic urges, like vomiting. "I'm fine," he yelled at no one in particular, and got up on his feet again. "Aargh!" a shard of glass from the floor had cut into his palm and was jutting out as the small wound bled and dripped down his hand. "Damn it!" he shook his hand out of frustration, but that only made it bleed more. He was so dizzy he didn't have the precision to pull out the shard. Lex wouldn't even know where to look for bandages in that huge, empty palace of his. Bleeding almost seemed like a better option; Lex stumbled over to a big wooden table and leaned on it, supporting himself with the non-wounded hand. He gazed down with blurry vision. The sight of dripping blood made him feel sicker... it made him feel helpless. He'd done it to himself, essentially. Still, he couldn't feel the pain so much as the nausea; Lex looked away from his injury, and there she was.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," she said, walking towards him with tweezers, antiseptic and a roll of bandages, "Look what you did!" Her scolding didn't sound very stern. She hopped up onto the table and reached out: "Let me see, Lex." He was too sick, too exhausted, too depleted in every way to fight with his vision, who happened to be wearing a sexy red dress. He extended his hand like a wounded child, and she started examining him. "Ooh, that's a deep one! Went pretty far into the dermis. That must have really hurt when it pierced that first layer..." Lex turned white and doubled over. Unable to control himself any longer, he felt the alcohol rise and threw up... into a trash can. 'Where did that come from?' he wondered. He felt a warm hand rubbing his back. "Feel better now, Luthercorp? I'd hold your hair back if you had any," said Chloe, who had just appeared behind him. "Are you here to torture me or to make me feel better?" asked Lex angrily. "A little bit of both," replied Chloe, smiling. She hopped back onto the table, and Lex stumbled over to her and gave her his hand. "Now hold still," she warned, "Wait, tell me when you're going to take it out." "Really Lex?" she laughed. "Just tell me right before... like, count or something." "Ok then. One, two..." "Ouch! Goddammit!" Lex tore his hand away from her. It was gushing blood, but at least the glass was gone. "Well, it's out now. Quit being such a baby!" she said, taking the hand back. Lex yelled and cursed; his hand stung like fire as Chloe poured antiseptic over it and wiped away the blood.

As she started to bandage the wound, Lex calmed down enough to start thinking about why he was imagining Chloe Sullivan, of all people, sitting in his house and taking care of him in his most vulnerable of conditions. He'd always just thought of Chloe as a nosey reporter wannabe, and the only person more fascinated with Clark Kent than he was... for different reasons of course. Chloe was definitely smart. If they ever got into a debate he was pretty sure she'd give him a run for his money, as young as she was. Chloe was pretty, too; she had soft blonde hair, a great smile, deep blue eyes and an awesome rack. Yeah, it all made sense now...

Lex blinked, his head heavy with the realization that he might actually have feelings for Chloe Sullivan. Feelings, like excessive drinking, made him really nauseous. He started salivating again... "There, all done!" she said, patting his newly bandaged hand. She had done a masterful job. Lex didn't recall anyone other than an actual medical professional ever caring for him this way; it really threw him off. "What's the matter Lex?" she asked, disappearing off the table and rematerializing in front of him. "Would you quit doing that?" he yelled. She smiled for a second and asked "Doing what?" Then she started appearing and disappearing over and over again all around him. He couldn't keep up, she was making him dizzy. "Would you...! Oh god, I think I'm gonna be sick..." Chloe didn't stop until Lex lost control again and vomited up more alcohol, convulsing over the trash can. When he finally stopped he saw her watching him with a concerned look on her face. "What is your problem?" he asked, weakly, completely defeated at this point. "That's kind of a personal question, don't you think?" she said with a smile before vanishing.

Lex stood in the middle of the room for several minutes, scanning his surroundings for any sign of Chloe. His hand was still bandaged, the trash can was still there, over on the table sat all the things she'd used to treat his wound. As weak and confused as he felt, that strange encounter gave Lex some new-found motivation. He wasn't just going to lay around and drink himself to death. He was going out...

Lex went upstairs to take a nice, long shower. The hot water running over his body helped soothe his sickness away and sobered him up. He dressed up in his snazziest clothes, grabbed his keys and drove down to a little coffee place. Chloe's cousin Lois worked there, and he knew that Chloe usually went there after work to talk to her while Lois closed up.

Lex took a deep breath when he got to the front of the shop. He started to feel weak in the knees again, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He knocked on the glass door, startling the two girls inside. They started laughing and waved at him. Chloe got up to open the door. Lex heard Lois say "Woah; he doesn't look so good!" "Well maybe he's sick," said Chloe, smiling as she let him in. "Did you want something?" asked Lois, making no attempt to hide her dislike for him. "I just wanted to talk to Chloe for a moment. Is that ok?" he asked in a sarcastic tone. "It's fine," said Chloe, turning to her cousin, who was rolling her eyes as she put some chairs back in their place. The two stepped outside. They exchanged pleasantries before Chloe asked him "Are you feeling ok?" "Of course," he said before pausing. "Actually, I've been a little... under the weather," he admitted, looking away. "What happened to your hand?" she exclaimed. He could have sworn his heart stopped for a second when she asked him that. "Uh, it's nothing, just a... work accident." "You're a businessman, in an office!" said Chloe, "Did the staplers go on strike and start rioting or something?" They both laughed before Chloe asked him what he wanted to talk to her about. Lex was speechless. He hadn't really planned what to say, and he was kicking himself for being so uncharacteristically tongue-tied. He blurted out "Are you seeing anyone?" 'Dammit, Lex, what the hell?' he thought to himself. Two minutes and he'd already said something stupid. Chloe pulled out a little notepad and pencil from her jacket pocket and scribbled something. "Well, Mr. Luthor," she said, tearing out a little piece of paper and folding it, "That's kind of a personal question, don't you think?" Chloe smiled before handing him the note, turning and leaving. Lex stood in the street with his jaw hanging, watching her walk away. After a few moments, he looked down and unfolded the piece of paper. Chloe had written her phone number, along with 'p.s. get well soon :)'