Chapter Two: Wrestling With Grief
"Everybody get out," Lana suddenly said. She pulled her robe closer around her body and hugged herself tightly. The security personnel were uncertain, and sort of looked around helplessly at each other, unsure of what to do. "I said get out!" she repeated loudly.
"You heard her, move your asses," Graciela told them, herding them away. She shuffled them all out, and then closed the door behind herself leaving Lex and Lana alone. Lana picked up the remote and rewound the video, watching the last 30 seconds again, and paused it on Jennifer's smiling face.
"Lex," she said, finally finding her voice. "That woman has our baby."
He walked over and put his arms around her, trying to stay calm. "Lana, don't worry," he started. The fury inside of him was like a ball of fire that he was barely able to keep control of. He tried to think of something reassuring to say, but when she turned to look at him, he stopped. The coldness in her eyes was something he hadn't expected.
"Why would she do this?" she asked.
"I don't know Lana, but. . ."
"She's a meteor freak isn't she?"
He sighed, knowing where this was going. "It looks that way."
Lana nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving his. "Have you seen her before?" Her voice began to take on a harder edge.
"No," he answered. "Lana, I know what you're thinking. . ."
"Because you know it occurred to me, that if you have met her before in some capacity, it would actually make sense for her to come here and take our baby."
"You think she was an inmate?"
"Was she?"
"I already told you that I've never seen her before," he answered with a raised voice. "And besides, why would I let you hire a woman that I knew was dangerous? I would never let someone like that around my children."
Lana shut her eyes and seemed to digest that. "How did we miss this?" she asked in a small voice.
"I don't know," he said gently. The fury in his belly subsided for a moment, allowing his brain to think more logically. They purposely avoided hiring anyone who had ties to Smallville and might be meteor infected, so how did Jennifer slip through? She was born and raised in Grandville, and her record seemed clean. Maybe too clean? He would have to check on that. For now . . .
"Why don't you get some rest, and let me take care of this," he said, hoping that she would actually go. She hated to be patronized, but surprisingly she agreed and walked towards the door.
"Lex," she said, turning back to him.
"Yeah?"
"Find my baby."
It was an order, not a request.
As it turned out, Lana actually was tired. She felt completely drained, and unable to function properly so she did exactly as Lex suggested. Sleep was not an easy bedfellow though, so she mostly rested briefly in between bouts of crying. Graciela was there, as always, to take care of her and fielded the many phone calls that Lana was getting from good hearted idiots who gave their condolences. She wasn't in the least bit interested in that.
"Mrs. Luthor will be pleased that you called," Graciela said into the phone while rolling her eyes. She meticulously took down names and messages, so that Lana would know later who gave a shit and who didn't even bother. Politics was important in this world, even during grief.
Lana never bothered to get dressed. She knew it probably looked bad that she was so incapacitated, but she didn't care. Nobody else had to be in her shoes did they? Every so often she could hear Julian or Alexander crying, but she couldn't worry about them right now. As the hours passed by, all she could think about was Kate.
Rebecca Faulk arrived at the mansion at a quarter after ten a.m. She immediately ran to Lana, crawling into the bed and hugging her tightly. There was nothing to be said, so they simply stayed like that and cried together.
The two women had been friends for several years and were so involved in each other's lives that they had even been present during the births of some of their children. They met in an unusual way.
When Lana was four months pregnant with Katherine, she attended the opening of a new exhibit at the Metropolis Museum. It was something she felt very proud of since she had been involved with the work. After about an hour, she began to feel tired and drifted away from the larger crowds, walking slowly through the exhibit and holding a glass of champagne that she wasn't going to drink. A pretty blond woman walked up to her, and Lana smiled in greeting.
"Have you slept with my husband?" the woman asked seriously, taking Lana back a bit.
"What?" she asked.
"Sex. Have you and my husband had sex?" the woman clarified. Lana opened her mouth and then closed it, not sure of what to say.
"I don't know who your husband is," she finally replied.
"Stephen Faulk."
The name didn't ring any bells. "Then no," Lana answered, and the woman suddenly brightened, giving her a smile.
"Oh good. Then we can be friends. My name is Rebecca, but you can call me Becky," she said, extending her hand. Lana took it, still reeling from shock. They stood together in awkward silence for a moment, before Rebecca turned to her again. "Oh, me either," she offered, pointing at Lana's ring set.
Lana gave her a tense smile and then laughed a little. "Good to know," she said.
"Yeah." Rebecca looked out to the crowd again. "You know, it's nice to get that out of the way. It's so annoying to make conversation with a woman only to find out later that they screwed your husband in the back of a limo once."
"I'm sure that's true."
"Well, you know how these people are," she continued, wagging her finger around at the people. "It's nothing but a great big orgy. That's why they never marry each other you know. They almost always marry outsiders so that they don't have to deal with past lovers everyday."
Lana looked around at all of the women's faces, and she suddenly wondered how many Lex had slept with. She didn't think she wanted to know. Noticing her look of concern, Rebecca patted her arm and smiled. "Oh don't even try to think about it. It'll do nothing but give you a headache. All of these women are insanely jealous of you anyway. You married him didn't you?"
She thought about that for a minute. "Do you know Lex well?" she asked.
Rebecca shook her head. "Not really. He and Stephen once negotiated shipping contracts, and he came over to the house to sign papers. We didn't even talk. Other than that, we've been at the same functions for the past two years or so. It's all the same people every time really." She sighed and then grabbed Lana's hand. "Let's go eat, I'm starving."
And their friendship started like that. Rebecca was a sweet girl, if not at least a little neurotic. She'd been a sheltered debutante when she caught the eye of Stephen Faulk, and got married when she was barely 18. They had two sons, Nicholas and Gavin. Lana had a lot in common with Rebecca, and though she had other less important friends, she came to rely on Becky the most.
"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," she said, smoothing Lana's hair away from her face. "I had to take care of the boys."
Lana shook her head. "No, I know. You have to take care of them first." She wiped her eyes and grabbed a tissue from the nightstand. "Where are they now?" she asked.
"My mother is with them."
"Good. That's good."
Lionel checked his watch as he rushed down the hallway to Lex's office. It was half past two. He passed several police and task force operatives on the way, who nodded at him but he didn't return the gesture. He'd been in Canada when the call came in about Katherine's abduction, and he hurried to get home as soon as possible.
On the way, he tried not to think about Kate but couldn't help himself. Being a grandfather was quite a different thing than being father to a child. You didn't have the same stress and expectations, and it was easier to just look at your grandchild and see them for who they were, rather than for who you wanted them to be.
Katherine was exceptionally bright. She began walking and talking before her first birthday, and was reading by the time she was three. Every afternoon at 2 o'clock she came to see him, dragging a book along so he could read it to her. It took forever to get her off of "Alexander and the No Good Very Bad Day." From some children's television program, she got the nickname Pop, and decided to call him that rather than Grandfather. Well, it was better than Gramps.
One afternoon when she was late to her reading session, he decided to go and find her. Knowing that she played in the Gallery a lot, he went there and sure enough that's where she was. Just before he announced his presence, he realized what she was doing, and just watched for a moment.
Kate would squat down nearly to the floor, and then jump as far as she could. She huffed and grunted, and every so often uttered a "wow" for jumping so far. He couldn't help but laugh as he walked up behind her. "What are you doing Katherine?" he asked. She didn't bother to stop, and in between jumps said, "I'm hopping."
"And why are you hopping?" he asked her with a smile on his face. Her answer was so matter of fact that he laughed again out loud. "Because I like to hop." Lionel followed her as she jumped all the way down the Gallery, and it occurred to him sadly that Lillian would have loved to have had a granddaughter.
But now they both were gone.
Lionel walked into Lex's office just as he was speaking to the assembly of officers and agents.
"I'm offering ten million dollars for any tip that leads to the capture of Jennifer Stevens and the safe return of Katherine. I want every lead followed, I don't care how many people, or how many man-hours it takes." Aides ran off to work the phones and get the news out to the press while the rest of the people dispersed with their own work to get to.
"Lex," Lionel said as he walked over. "I came as soon as I heard." He hugged his son, who returned his affection stiffly, as he always did. "Has there been a ransom demand?" he asked.
Lex turned away from him to pick up Jennifer's file. "There's been nothing. No phone call from her at all."
"Her? The kidnapper is a woman?" Lex handed him the file, and picked up the remote to show him the video. Lionel's eyes went wide as he watched the nanny disappear with his granddaughter. He stuttered stupidly over his words before finally saying, "We have to call the State Department, there are certain sectors that can deal with a case like this."
"They've been called Dad," Lex told him, sounding a little tired. "I have people looking into it, trying to find out more about Miss Stevens. The F.B.I. are set up here just in case she calls to ask for a ransom, and I know how you feel about that, but . . ."
"Well, you'll pay," Lionel said, interrupting him. Lex looked at him with a shocked expression on his face. "You'll pay to get Katherine back, of course. Whatever it takes." Just the thought of something happening to her out there was too horrible to comprehend. She was barely four years old.
"Whatever it takes," Lionel repeated.
By the time dusk settled in, Lex began to feel real panic. He'd been sure that by now Kate would be home already, but there was still no word. He sat down at his desk for the first time that day and closed his eyes. So far, he'd managed to treat this as a problem that needed to be solved, but her face starting creeping into his mind.
His eyes moved to an empty spot on his desk and he jumped up. A framed picture of an orange-spotted lizard was missing, and he had to find out who took it.
The story behind the picture was one of his favorites. It had been on his desk one day when he came home the year before, and before he had a chance to ask about it, Lana walked in laughing.
"You won't believe what your daughter did today," she'd said. "She drew a picture this morning right after you left of a blue dog and put it on your desk. A few hours later, she comes in and the picture is missing."
"Uh oh," Lex said with a grin.
"Yeah, Kate was not amused," Lana continued. "She asked Linda, 'Where did my picture go?' and of course Linda didn't have a good answer for her, so then she goes to find Graciela. 'Where is my picture?' she asks again. Still no answer, so she says, 'Well, I'm going to have to have a talk with my Daddy when he comes home about people touching his things.'"
"Did she actually say that?" Lex asked, laughing.
Lana nodded. "So then, the whole house goes crazy, and I don't know where they dragged it up from, but two hours later she finally gets it back. But get this, she decided, a blue dog isn't good enough for your desk after all. I mean, a blue dog, what's that? So She did an orange lizard with yellow polka dots, and that's what you have now."
"Well I guess it better stay where it's at then."
"I guess it better."
After asking around for it, Lex was told that Lindsay had it and he went to go find her. He liked Lindsay, she was his wife's little sister, but this was not the day to go fucking with his things. Kate would be home soon, and she would want it to be where it belonged. He found Lindsay in one of the children's playrooms stacking blocks with Alex.
"Did you take Kate's picture from my desk?" he asked her. Both kids were startled and looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Um. . ." she said nervously.
"Lindsay did you take it or not?"
"Yes," she said slowly.
"Give it back, and don't touch anything on my desk without permission again." He said this louder than he meant to, and tears filled her eyes as she got up to get it from the coloring table. As she handed it to him, she started crying and Lex felt like an asshole. Since she was doing it, Alex started and they both began sniffling and sobbing. Perfect, Lex thought.
Feeling bad that he let himself lose control in front of them, Lex sat down and scooped Alex into his arms. The baby wrapped his chubby arms around his father's neck and cried into his shoulder. Lindsay had her back to him with her head in her hands. For the first time, he realized how much Katherine's disappearance was affecting them both.
"Lindsay," he called gently, but she didn't acknowledge him. With practiced efficiency, Lex reached out his other arm and pulled her to him, holding her close to his chest. She wrapped her arms around his middle and held onto him tightly. Even now it was a shock that he had a family, and he had to constantly remind himself to be good to them. These are yours, he'd tell himself. Be nice.
Alex had calmed down considerably, and was now sniffling. Lex dropped a kiss to the top of his head, and because he would have done it to Katherine if she had been there, he kissed Lindsay too.