Title: Turnaround (1?)
Author: Sarah Ellens PG
Spoilers/Timeline: Takes place in Covenant.
Summary: Lana's thoughts as she leaves for Paris. A bit of Clark/Lana closure stuff in the beginning, but it's not the focus. Lex POV coming up next.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Feedback: Of course!
Distribution: If you want it, just have to ask.
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When everything was going to hell and there were tornadoes coming towards her car, meteors crashing from the sky, or mutated freaks holding her hostage, there were few things Lana could count on. However, these things included knowing that if she were in mortal danger, yes, Clark would come in the nick of time to rescue her, but emotional despair? Don't expect him to resurface for at least twenty-four hours.
When she had made her decision once and for all to go to Paris, she had been completely fed up with Clark and his knack of disappointing his loved ones, and she wanted nothing more than to finally forget all flannel-wearing farm boys from Kansas and move on once and forever.
Then, suddenly, he throws her a last glimmer of hope, and Lana can't even imagine what sort of huge secret he could have that would solve everything and finally connect the pieces of The Great Puzzle That Is Clark Kent, but she would rather hear what he had to say than waste her year in Paris regretting never knowing.
So she reluctantly agrees to dinner, half-afraid he will stay something to make her want to stay and half-afraid he will say something to make her want to leave even sooner.
But of course, when the time arrives, Lana is trapped in a glass cage á la Smallville's latest terror-inspiring villain and Clark's potential confession is the last thing on her mind. However, later that night she can't help but roll her eyes—at least her sense of humor is still intact, she muses—that once again, Clark has saved her from bodily harm and spared himself opening up at all.
Giving in, she drives to the Kent farm with a sense of dread, already feeling her newfound sense of freedom and purpose slipping away as she indulges in putting faith in Clark one last time. She almost wishes Clark would just say he couldn't give her a ride, sorry, he had to bail on Chloe at noon, perhaps could she reschedule her flight to better fit his schedule? Lana laughs inwardly at this, feeling only a sliver of guilt for putting down Clark.
When she catches a glimpse of a leggy, blonde maybe-cousin behind her and Clark, she knows immediately that even if he could provide excuses for everything he's done wrong, it would be too late. If he hadn't trusted her enough to tell her the truth when she asked for it way back when, it shouldn't be a magical fix-all now—or a last desperate attempt to keep her in the same small town.
A wave of relief washes over her as she steps back into her car, smiling warmly at Clark as he promises they will talk on the way to the airport tomorrow. No matter what he says, she has decided, nothing will change. She'll still be on her way to a new life and he'll still be the boy she loved in high school—at one point in her life, but not her entire life.
Then Clark doesn't show up.
She waits until the last possible minute she can afford before has to leave to catch her flight. It's not exactly that she's surprised Clark bailed. She just thinks it's tacky; he didn't even call or make excuses before like he normally does. Besides, she is mostly disappointed in herself as well for getting her hopes up.
Lana had always had a soft spot for sappy romance movies. Chloe attributed her love of chick flicks to her inner cheerleader refusing to be suppressed, but Lana figured it was just a love of happy endings she knew she would never know.
So she chalks up her wistful hope for a romantic airport scene the day she leaves for Paris to crying over too many Meg Ryan films. She sees a passionate couple stealing her goodbye scene and remains so lost in her self-pity that she barely notices the man trying to get her attention.
"Lex," Lana states, surprised.
"I just wanted to say bon voyage," Lex replies easily, and there is something in his eyes that Lana can't seem to decipher. Not that she's ever been able to read the enigmatic billionaire like a paperback novel, but she definitely doesn't recognize whatever is lying under the surface this time.
Lana sets down her bags and her spirits lift a little. "Shouldn't you be at the courthouse?"
Lex looks down at her with what she is sincerely grateful for is not pity, but that same undefined emotion. "My father can wait. Lana, I couldn't let the last person you saw from Smallville be the shuttle driver looking for his tip."
Lana can't help but smile. "Lex, um, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me."
"It's pretty clear your destiny lies far beyond the Smallville city limits. I'm just trying to help you get there." Lana is sure at that moment that this is a slight rib at Clark and the thought occurs to her, when did Lex stop playing matchmaker and start being a naysayer concerning her and Clark?
"I don't know what I did to deserve such a great friend, but I'm glad that you came into my life." Her smile widens and she's happy to see him looking happier as well.
"Maybe I'll bump into you on the Champs-Elysees," he replies, startling her again.
"You're gonna be in Paris?" Lana asks hopefully.
"I haven't been in a couple of years, but now I have a reason to go." Lex simply says, offering her a playful smile.
Lana grins and wraps her arms around him tightly. As she shuts her eyes and stays in his embrace for perhaps a minute longer than the just-friends-sort-of-business-partners-maybe-confidantes boundary implies, she thinks only of how glad she is that this is going to be her last memory of the day she finally got out of Smallville.
They part a few moments later and Lex gazes at her for a second. Lana wishes desperately that she could put her finger on whatever he seems to be telling her without words.
"Don't be a stranger, Lex," she says softly and his face suddenly lights up like she's never seen before.
"I won't," he replies firmly.
And Lana finds herself believing this more than she's ever believed in naïve farm boys in flannel.