Author: Perri Smith
Feedback: Is the stuff that dreams are made on. perridox@enteract.com
Category: Chloe/Lex friendship; adventure; angst
Date Started: 5 February 2002
Date Posted: 25 February 2002 [Edited 11 March 2002 for content, typos, and i know I still missed some. :p]
Spoilers: Everything through Leech is up for grabs. (This was edited in a semi-mad rush to get it posted before Kinetic airs. Beating up on Chloe seems to be popular.)
Disclaimers: Chloe, Lex and Clark belong to other people (Millar Gough Ink, Warner Bros., DC Comics, etc.) I'm not entirely happy about this, but what would I actually do with a Lex if I had him? Besides the obvious....
Distribution: Please do not archive or distribute without permission.
Author's Note: Probably the first in a series, but we'll see. Thanks go to Christina Kamnikar for bouncing back plot points as fast as I tossed them at her; to Teleri Beaty for making me take it all apart and put it back together, plus several really helpful observations on Lex; and to Elizabeth Lewis for walking me through the Fanfiction.net process. Curses go to Kathe, who sucked me into this Chlex thing against my will. :)
*****
*****
Reasons Unknown
Part 1: Wake-Up Call
He leaned over her, shaking her as much as he dared, calling her name over and over. "Come on, Chloe, wake up. Wake up! Damn it, you can *not* just lay around any more, you have to wake up. Come on, open your eyes, remind me what color they are, I'll get you new sunglasses or a new car or whatever you want if you'll just wake up!"
It seemed like longer than the hours it had already been before the girl's eyes finally slitted open. "Wha-- Where? Who?"
"Ah, those reporter instincts really do go bone deep; you've got a bright future, Chloe. Open your eyes."
He didn't know if it was the sarcasm or the command, but Chloe finally managed to look at him. "What--" She blinked, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. "Who...?"
"Come on, all the way back, Chloe. Look at me."
Her eyes were blank for another long, long moment. "...Lex?"
He breathed out, and smirked down at her. "Very good. Welcome back to the land of the living."
Chloe's forehead furrowed as she tried to focus on him. "What are you doing here?"
"You know, I'm pretty sure we've already had this conversation once. And I still don't know." She tried to sit up and Lex gently pushed her back, tucking her coat around her again. "Stay down for a while. You got hit over the head, remember?"
"Oh. I did? I mean, I was?"
"Yes."
"Oh." She thought about that. "Why?"
"Probably because you were with me. Open your eyes, no more sleeping."
"But--"
"No. Eyes open. Focus on my face."
It was a struggle, but she got her eyes open and kept them open. Very pretty light hazel eyes, at that. "'kay. Open."
"Good. Keep them that way."
"Yes, sir," she mumbled. "No wonder all your employees are scared of you."
"I certainly hope so. Who am I?"
"Thought we got that part."
"I'm making sure. Who am I?"
"Lex Luthor. Clark's friend. Dad's boss."
Interesting order, but he'd take it. "Good. Who are you?"
"Chloe... Sullivan. Chloe Sullivan."
"Age?"
"...15."
"Date?"
"...Not so you'd notice."
Lex rolled his eyes and sat back on his heels. "You're awake. Good."
She grinned weakly. "Kind of more awake, anyway. And getting some deja vu.... Where are we?"
"The same place we were the last time you woke up. An abandoned building, and I don't think I own it."
"Wow, that narrows it down a lot." He looked down at her sharply and she smiled sweetly; she was definitely coming out of it. And trying to sit up again. "What do you mean, last time I woke up?"
"I said to stay down." He pushed her back again, with one careful hand on her shoulder. "You woke me up, when we first came around, then you went back to sleep. And then I almost couldn't wake you up this time, so there will be no more sleeping. Or trying to sit up -- sudden movement isn't the best idea with a head injury."
"Right. I knew that. Thanks."
"I just don't want you throwing up on my pants. Also, there's the fact that we're in an enclosed room with little or no ventilation. It could get very disgusting in here."
Chloe smiled faintly and muttered, "That's one," closing her eyes.
"Excuse me? And keep your eyes open."
She started to shake her head, winced, and stopped. "Nothing. Fine. How long have we been here?"
"Call it seven or eight hours; it was about 10 at night when someone grabbed us and it's coming up on dawn now. What do you remember?"
Her forehead furrowed again as she tried to think. "Working at the paper, yelling at David for not getting his article in on time. Shutting off the computer, shutting off the lights, then going back for my algebra book. The next thing I know, I'm waking up here with the touring company of Stomp in my head and Lex Luthor yelling at me."
"I'm not going to apologize for the yelling; it did wake you up."
"That's really not very surprising."
"That yelling woke you up, or that I'm not apologizing?"
"Um, either one, actually. Can you maybe fill in the blanks?"
"Some of them." He crossed his arms over his chest again, wishing it had been colder out or that his car's heat didn't work so well, so he'd have another coat to wear. "I was coming home from a late meeting in Metropolis and I saw you on Main Street. It was dark out, and late, so I offered you a ride."
"You did?"
"Yes. And that's exactly the same look you gave me when I stopped. Has anyone ever told you you're paranoid?"
"Principal Kwan, the guidance counselors, the sheriff, Clark, Pete and grades 6 to 9 social studies teachers."
"Good. Then I won't bother." She made a face at him, but did it with her eyes open, so he simply ignored it. "So, as I was attempting to be a gentleman and give an extremely suspicious young lady a completely innocent ride home, I was stopped at a roadblock and ambushed by a couple of large guys with a hypodermic and something heavy. Since I'm a gentlemen--" Chloe snorted, then gave him an apprehensive sideways look; Lex lifted his eyebrows at her, but kept going. "--I would have preferred that they'd reversed who they used what on, but I didn't exactly get a chance to object."
"Very rude of them."
"I thought so." He shifted his shoulders against the wall, searching vainly for a more comfortable position. "I woke up when you started yelling, and my head hosted the Broadway cast of Stomp until I apparently passed out again from whatever they gave me. I came around again a while ago, and spent about ten minutes getting you to wake up. You know the rest."
"Such as it is, and why did you get the Broadway cast? Never mind," she said in disgust when he just smiled. She tried to run her hands through her hair, wincing when she hit the large, bloody lump on the left side of her head. He didn't *think* there was a fracture under it. "You still haven't answered my other question."
"Which one?"
Chloe gave him a 'duh' look. "What we're doing here?"
"Ah. Yes. Well, as far as what you're doing here goes..." He breathed out hard. "I'm pretty sure that's my fault."
"Oh. Well, it could be my fault," she offered, almost hopefully. "You never know who I might have gotten mad with my last editorial."
He grinned in spite of himself. "Trust me, I can't think of anything in this week's Torch that would give anyone a reason to hit us over the head and throw us in here. Wherever the hell here is."
He could, however, think of lots of reasons for someone to kidnap Lex Luthor -- none of which had the potential to end well. He hadn't done anything illegal -- violently illegal -- lately, and there wasn't anyone left from the old days to pull this. He didn't think.
Which left business or ransom. And no one who knew Lionel Luthor would bother with a ransom.....
Chloe wrinkled her nose as she looked around them, squinting up at the dim gray light from the dirty, rusted windows, high on the wall. "I think cold and dank pretty much sums it up. I guess I should be glad the sun's not up yet because I'm pretty sure it would make my headache even worse, but seriously. What's the fun of being locked up with 'Smallville's most eligible bachelor' if I can barely see him?"
"You'd still be fighting off a lot of people for the privilege," Lex informed her, half-seriously. "Look over here, I want to check you out."
"And it's only in circumstances like these that I ever hear that from a guy," Chloe said with an exaggerated sigh. "Could be good for the story, though: 'As I lay as his feet, Lex Luthor leaned over and gazed deeply into my eyes....'"
"Are you writing a news story or a romance novel?" He cupped his hand over her left eye, waited a few seconds, then moved it away. The pupil stayed fixed and dilated, slightly larger than the right. His stomach tightened, and he said lightly, "Congratulations, you're still concussed."
"Yay. Well, at least Clark isn't getting to have all of the exciting fun this time."
"Nearly getting burned alive wasn't exciting? Not to mention getting frozen."
"Yeah, kind of. But it wasn't fun."
"You've got some interesting definitions there."
"Welcome to Smallville."
Lex half-chuckled in appreciation, and she shifted on the hard wooden floor. "What am I using as a pillow? Because it feels like something that costs more than a computer and was imported from someplace overseas."
"A little less than a computer, actually." Chloe made another of those faces at him and he grinned. "Don't worry about it; that jacket's never had it so good."
"You say the sweetest things." From most women, it would have been delivered flirtatiously and Lex would have been bored. Chloe's voice was sour and entertaining; he'd have to make more of a point of talking to her. When she didn't have a serious head injury.
"Stay still, I meant it about not wanting to deal with vomit," he warned her, before getting up to prowl the edges of the room again. A room big enough and bare enough to echo. A row of narrow windows running across the top of the walls, far out of reach. Two large air vents, rusted closed and also too high to reach. One wide steel door, chained on the outside with something heavy enough that he could hear it rattle. Institutional dirty beige walls, scarred, dusty hardwood floors, cobwebs pretty much everywhere. No furniture. No blankets. No phone, no first aid kit, no computer hooked up to a T1 line or even a lousy 28.8 modem.
No cars or people going by outside, either -- they were stashed well out of the way. Lex didn't think they'd been out long enough to have gone far, so they were probably still in Kansas, and probably still close to Smallville. But no one in Smallville would have tried this. Someone from Metropolis? One of Phelan's buddies out for revenge? Maybe -- except that Phelan hadn't had any buddies. And why take Chloe?
He tried the door again for the sake of doing something, however useless. It didn't budge, didn't even move in its frame when he shook it, then threw all of his weight against it. Again. And again.
"Could we have less noise, please?" Chloe's voice was small with pain.
Lex worked on his breathing, unfisted his hands, forced his shoulders to relax. The room was spinning slightly around him again. "Sorry."
"S'okay." She waved one hand limply in his general direction. "If it had worked I'd have no complaints, you know?"
"Yeah. I know."
He walked back to her very carefully, and sat down with his back to the wall. Her eyes were slitted open, watching him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he said shortly. "There's nothing wrong."
Chloe gave him the exact same suspicious look Clark always used when he knew Lex was up to something. She was better at it than Clark, even through the handicap of a concussion. "Right. Then why were you unconscious for a while, too? You said they gave you something."
"They gave me some kind of tranquilizer, but it's worn off. I've got a huge and fairly painful bruise on my arm, but that's all." Except for the lingering nausea, the weird semi-vertigo and the fuzzy feeling around his thoughts. "So, since I'm not the one with the head injury, could you please lie back down before you throw up?"
He twitched the jacket closer around her again as she settled back, giving him another suspicious look, but not arguing. "You know, my stomach isn't even upset; you're the one obsessed with the idea of me hurling."
"I don't like being around sick people."
"Why not?" He looked down at her and she attempted an innocent expression that wasn't nearly as good as Clark's. "Come on, work with me. We're trapped here, I'm bored, I'm a reporter. Why don't you like being around sick people?"
He opened his mouth to say something glib and dismissive, that would end the interview and reduce Chloe to silence. "My mother was sick for a long time before she died," came out instead.
"Oh." She bit her lip, looking sad and guilty. "I'm sorry, Lex. I shouldn't have asked. I just figured...."
"That I don't like to deal with the inconvenience of sick people, and leave that to people I pay to deal with it?" He shrugged and crossed his arms, leaning his head back against the wall. "Well, you were right."
"Yeah. I can see that," she nodded, and added, so quietly he almost couldn't hear, "That's two."
He did hear, but didn't feel like pursuing it. The hangover from the drug really was fading, but his head was starting to pound again with frustration and impotent worry. He was Lex Luthor, son of Lionel Luthor, owner of most of the midwest and significant portions of the eastern seaboard. They bought politicians, owned sports teams, played God on a daily basis.
And he couldn't get himself and one concussed teenage girl out of a damn abandoned building. Or even figure out what the hell they were doing here!
Sir Harry, maybe, still pissed over the takeover? But this wasn't his style. He'd send his daughter out to seduce and destroy one of her old friends, that was fine. No problem. But he wouldn't resort to violence -- it was too declasse.
"How long do you think it'll take Clark to show up?" Chloe asked. Her voice slurred faintly on the last few words, and he glanced down at her sharply.
"Hey, eyes open! Editors-in-chief don't get to sleep on the job. Write a headline for that story or something." She fought her eyes open and he watched her until he was sure they were going to stay that way. "Good. And given Clark's usual track record, I'm actually surprised he hasn't shown up already."
"Well, even Clark can have his off days, I guess," Chloe allowed graciously. Lex chuckled out loud and sighed mentally, wishing Clark would make one of his miraculous appearances, and equally wishing the kid would stay the hell away from whatever this was.
*****
*****
TBC...