Disclaimer: not mine
A.N: One shot. A little darker than my other Chlex stories. Wanted to write something Smallville but have hit a little writers block on "Horse of a Different Color."
He didn't know, this new editor that had been transferred from three regions over while Joanna was on maternity leave. He didn't know and she would be damned if anyone would tell him. It's not like they would have known what to say even if the lanky, middle aged man had asked.
There's a past somewhere back there, between Sullivan and the Luthors. What kind of past? We don't know.
Joanna had never questioned it, she didn't want to risk losing Chloe Sullivan, their star reporter. Not that anyone there was really a star. They were all fresh faced college graduates, working their asses off to get as many stories as they could published, waited for the call that, fingers crosses, wish I may, wish I might, would one day come. The call that would take them through the revolving doors under the sign of a revolving planet. Chloe was the only person Joanna had ever met to leave the Daily Planet for the Metropolis Daily, not the other way around. And these people were the only ones Chloe knew who still made wishes.
It was just understood, just fact, just known. Any story that has the barest touch of Luthor on it, stays out of Chloe Sullivan's way.
But this new editor didn't know. He didn't know the rules and the whispers and all the questions the young, fresh faced reporters were itching to ask. They looked as if they could smell the story on her, and she remembered feeling that passion.
It's just a fluff piece, Sullivan. I doubt Luthor will give you more than ten minutes, we aren't the Planet, after all.
And she went stiff and the news room went silent and the editor could swear everyone in the building had suddenly stopped breathing.
Her answer was short and sarcastic and everything you'd expect a 27 year old embittered women to say. I know this isn't the Planet.
And that's what brought her here, seven years overdue, sitting in front of the man that had never really hurt her, but broke her none the less. All he represented.
"I thought my receptionist was mistaken, but here you sit. Chloe Sullivan. Chloe Sullivan." He said her name twice, and mouthed it once more, trying to get it to flow off of his tongue smoothly, but the edges were too sharp and jagged. He seems to stumble over the name, she decided it was from lack of use. She remained silent and fantasized that it somehow made him uncomfortable. Of course it didn't, at least if it did, he didn't let it show.
"I figured we would have seen each other before now, interviews and such." He added conversationally.
"I've been actively avoiding you." She responded just as lightly.
He smiled predatorily. "I really can't blame you." He leaned over his desk, looking Chloe straight on, and said in a business like manner "So how's Clark? Still fucking your cousin?"
She knew her face must have turned white and she could feel her nails biting in to the smooth leather of the chair. All the breath had been knocked out of her and she pursed her lips together, an act that made her mouth disappear, or so her father had told her once.
"I suppose so." She managed to whisper have a few failed attempts to swallow. "We don't really keep in touch. " Her voice gained strength and volume. "But speaking of not keeping in touch. How's Lana? Still fucking any man but you?"
She had expected anger. Another stabbing insult that would rip her open before he kicked her out. She expected to wake up in the morning to find her paper had received a exorbitant donation and that, by the way, Chloe, you're fired. She didn't realize until that moment, that she had been hoping for that all along.
But Lex just smiled approvingly. "You haven't lost your bite, Chloe. I have to say that after all these years, I'm relieved. You've obviously lost a lot of other things." He informed her arrogantly, his eyes roaming over her almost too skinny and exhausted body. She silently hated herself for taking so much time on her appearance that morning, something that must have been apparent to Lex. She knew that looking unkempt would have only made this meeting worse, seeing how he looked impeccable as ever.
"So have you." She reminded him.
"What?" he seemed to honestly want to know, albeit snidely. "My heart, my soul, my compassion? How unoriginal. I've heard that one before, Chloe, I didn't think I'd hear it from you."
"No." She answered simply. She hadn't planned for the interview to take this route, but decided, in the instant, to let things take their course. The line of thought had been opened, by him, surprisingly enough, and she would have him hear her truth if it killed them both.
"We've both lost Clark. We've both lost Smallville. Jesus, Lex, we've both lost our home. And the whole soul thing…well, I'm not really in any position to judge, am I?"
"And the mystery of why the strong, willful Ms. Sullivan had been avoiding me for years is solved!" He stage shouted with mock excitement. "It's like looking in an expensive mirror!" He laughed humorlessly, "And here I was, worried to death that it was because I'm an asshole."
"You are an asshole." With that she began to gather her coat and briefcase. Her fight or flee instinct had been raging since she had strode into the LexCorp building, and now the need to escape was overwhelming. The want for confrontation lost in a split second.
"I'll tell my boss you were in a meeting. Don't bother trying to reschedule. And if you do, request a different reporter."
"Chloe, wait, I-" She cut him off with a glare and a wave of her hand.
"Lex, I honestly can't bare to be in your presence anymore right now. You may be able to look at me, the cheap, designer knock off mirror that I am, and shrug off what you've become, but I can't. I don't want to be reminded that I've lost everything I thought I could be." She reached the door and gripped the handle.
"And what's that?" He blurted out before she could retreat.
"Happy." She said without a pause, the word the subtle subject of the entire conversation.
"Is happiness impossible without Clark Kent? Because if it is, then I'll give up right now and let you leave. Just answer me that."
"It shouldn't be." She replied after some thought, turning around to look at him, leaning against the door. "But…fuck it, sometimes it feels like it."
"Have dinner with me." It was a demand, not a question.
"No." She retorted bluntly.
"Please Chloe, no more low blows about Clark and Lana. Dinner, let's remind each other of what we have to get back. On our own terms."
"Our souls." She stated.
"And hearts." He agreed.