A/N: I don't own The Lady of Shalott or Camelot... Alfred, Lord Tennyson does... Don't worry, you'll understand... Chlex (of course)... sorry for the angsty beginning...

Worthy

By S. Ann Smith

Part one: The Lady of Shalott

'You don't know what it's like to feel everyday that you aren't worthy. That you aren't deserving. You don't have to live the life I live. To carry the burden I have to. The burden I was blessed to carry endlessly forever without stopping. The burden of being alone while everyone lives their lives loving and being loved around you. The burden of living day-to-day, realizing that today is worse than yesterday, and tomorrow will be worse than today.'

Chloe's fingers hovered over her keyboard. Usually Lana and her would be making dinner for Gabe, but Lana wasn't here. for that matter, neither was Gabe.

Chloe was alone, and that's what scared her

There was steak thawing in the sink, and since she wasn't allowed in the kitchen-by popular demands against her cooking. She had nothing to do, except ponder her existance, and nothing to eat unless she counted the potatoe chips and those chocolate covered coffee beans she ate an hour ago.... Nah!

She re-read the words infront of her:

'Today is worse than yesterday, and tomorrow will be worse than today.'

It was the truth of course, though she'd never admit it to anybody outside the slightly morphed brain she called her own-or nobody who would tell of course. But unfortunately she didn't know anybody of the sort and was left to brood inside her morphed mind.

She was snapped out of her dillusional brood by the ring of her doorbell. Who would ring her doorbell? she wondered. She closed her laptop-incase it was anybody who would read it, lock her in an insane asylum, and evidently leave her there for all eternity-not a good thing, and opened her English book, she needed to get her homework done anyways. She answered the door, and was shocked at what she saw.

"Hello Mr. Luthor. I'm sorry my dad, and Lana aren't here right now. What can I do for you today?"

"That's alright, I'm sure you can...occupy my time until they return, perhaps with some verbal sparring? And of course leading up to the point where you invite me in."

"That's what all the demons say before they kill the innocent girls." She smiled. "Are you one of those things that go bump in the night Luthor?" What the hell was she doing?

"I'm not going to answer that last question to a minor." he smirked "But I am serious, invite me in." She laughed at his desperation, and moved out of they way for him to come in. Lex smiled, and sat down on her spot on the couch. He looked into her English book, and his trademark smirk soon appeared on his face.

"Tennyson, hum?" CHloe nodded, quietly searching the cupboards for coffee of somesort. Dammit! She shouldn't have eaten those chocolate covered coffee beans. Come on! There has to be caffine in this house somewhere!

'Lying, robed in snowy white

That loosely flew to left and right--

The leaves upon her setting--

Thro' the noises of the night

She floated down to Camelot" Lex chuckled to himself, as if he was lost in some distant memory. "I always liked Lancelot." Chloe turned to face him, look of shock emminant on her face.

"Really?" she raised her eyebrow, "I would have thought you would've been more partial to Mordred." she smirked looking into the ckupboards above her.

"No." He said it like it was the most rediculouis notion-oh god was she thinking like an old dead poet? "What are you looking for anyways?"

"Coffee." she blurted frustratedly. "And there is no coffee in this house!"

"That's surprising," he smirked. "I can help you ease that problem-I do own half of the Talon."

"Don't tease me with coffee." she huffed. She had hit a caffine withdrawl low, and would now be bitchy until her needs were met.

"I don't tease." She tried to ingnore the sexual lift in his voice, and continue the amazing coffee search-even though she alreadyu had lost. And searching more would only frustrate the caffine deprived person she called herself-even though nobody would ever want to associate with her when she was caffine deprived.

Luthor had won the battle-of-the-coffee, as her mind was now calling it. Chloe didn't like losing.

"Fine. You win. But you're buyuing." she grumbled as she searched for a piece of paper. She left Gabe a note, and followed Lex out the door to his car, and enevidably to her precious coffee.

If Luthor was buying, she was getting the biggest, most expensive coffee she could find.

She wasn't going down without a fight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

TBC

A/N: The Lady of Shalott was an... aquaintance of Lancelets.... Lancelot, Launcelot, or Lancelet... Personally I like Lancelet better, because it is close to the norm, yet not.. anyways, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the poem in theVictorian Era, So I couldn't own it.... I wrote this in Math Class Yesterday (13*03*03) and that's why it's short... The next part will have a different piece of Literature in it, as the ch title will mention... The Angsty stuff at the beginning tie in with the poem, as the Lady of Shalott was cursed and had to stay away from the world... see I'm not crazy-don't answer that......

~S