Chapter 9 – Blood, Truths, and Tears
Chloe walked out in front of Lex and sighed as she looked at shards of the front windows dangling from where they were still not completely broken. A sign from across the street had blown through one she could suspect. Glass everywhere, furniture ruined and rain still whipping into the foyer of the restaurant. Her mind started going over all the paperwork that was about to add some more time to her life.
She glanced over her shoulder at Lex, already with a broom in hand and trying to carefully set up what he could. She had spent the night with him was her first thought. Not exactly the way someone would picture, but all the same. Honestly, she had worried dreadfully when the sirens first went off, but as the night wore on, he acted more like Lex, not Lex Luthor. Shaking her head, she thought she was being paranoid overanalyzing the evening.
"Chloe? Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?" She whipped around to see Clark standing in front of her. "I saw your car outside as I was 'going' into work. What's going on?"
She could hear the exasperation in his voice and shook her head trying to stave off his thoughts.
"I got caught here last night during the storm," she trailed off. "Oh God, look at my car." She pushed past Clark, now eyeing the remainder of what was her car. Turning back around, she noticed Lex walking up behind Clark. Trying to motion to Clark to back off, she just cringed.
"Nice, you could sell it for parts," Lex shook his head and tried to make the statement come out as a joke that fell flat as the icy stare from Chloe obviously meant she wasn't in the mood. The one side of the movie marquee laying in the center of her car, crushing the top into a V shape was not what she pictured when Bates had said it would be a little wet.
"Shouldn't you be sweeping something?" Clark asked as he stared at Lex.
Lex seemed unfazed by the insulting question. Staring back at the young man who now apparently had totally given up on him to the point of protecting Chloe from a penniless convict, he smiled. "Clark, I don't see your truck anywhere and judging by the powerlines hanging and fizzling on the street, I can't imagine it was safe to walk. How did you get here so soon after the storm passed? And on your way to work? Are you walking to Metropolis?"
Clark just glared back at Lex and ignored his snide remark. "Have to find something to twist to fit what you think is happening. I don't ever have to explain myself to you again."
Chloe pulled on Clark's jacket and spun him around. "Clark," she shot pointedly.
Lex nodded slightly and huffed. "Never mind Chloe, I'm on the clock now. Let me know if I can do anything for you." Lex glanced in Clark's direction with no ill will on his face and dropped, "Clark," as Clark rolled his eyes and stared at Chloe.
"You believe this line he's feeding you? Chloe come on." Clark paced behind her as she circled her car, careful to not step on other debris. "You can't believe that he is actually that fucking sincere."
Chloe stopped in the middle of the street, carefully standing between debris, across her car from Clark. "No, but the man regardless of his lack of total spine showed he wouldn't let me die last night. There is a shred of dignity in that body somewhere, and you aren't giving it a chance."
She stepped back over to the curb and stared up at Clark. "Besides," she whispered, "He has a point. You can't just pop in here like that and expect for people to just buy your lame excuse for just being here, especially him. Just go home Clark. Don't go into the Planet – we can't make it – the roads aren't clear. Or go help someone – someone other than me."
"What's that mean?"
Chloe closed her eyes groaned in irritation. "It means I have work here, I'm stuck here, and I'm fine," she pointedly ended the conversation and turned toward what had conceivably been the door as sirens approached.
Clark stared at her as she walked back through the door that was about to fall off its hinges. He watched as she moved about the Talon giving instructions to Mark and Bates for what they could do before Lex approached her. Listening, he wondered how far Chloe may have fallen. Hers was a dangerous game that played to Lex's advantage last night.
"Anything I can do," Lex asked.
"Yeah, I'm starving and have to go make some phone calls in the office. Is there a way you could whip something together for us for breakfast, for all of us?"
Silently, Lex set the broom in the corner and disappeared into the kitchen. Clark stood on the street in disbelief until he saw Chloe frown at him and disappear behind the same doors, to the office he assumed.
**********
"Slow down son, what are you rambling about?" Lionel tried to stretch out on the soft couch in the small condo he now had far from the holds of Metropolis and Smallville. Putting his hands behind his head, Clark was taken aback by the now strangely acting Lionel Luthor.
"Chloe is falling for Lex all over again. She had a crush thing for him back when she and he put you behind bars. Your whole plan is going to fail if she crumbles under him like he's hoping. He wants her to fall where he can take advantage. You need to get her out of the situation."
Lionel rubbed his now longer beard and pushed out of the seat, walking around the small living room, ornate, but much tinier than Clark would have expected. Looking in Clark's direction, Lionel wasn't sure what to make of the new development. Clark explained they had been trapped together for the evening, but under the conditions, were probably not thinking of romance.
"I want to show you something," Lionel calmly remarked as he disappeared into another room. Clark followed him and watched as the older Luthor dug through several boxes that were unmarked and wondered what could possibly be more important than worrying about Chloe. "Here it is."
Clark followed the man back into the main room as he inserted a CD into his computer. Pointing the computer toward Clark, Lionel leaned back into the couch again, knowing to the letter what was on the disc.
PDF files asked to be loaded and Clark glanced at Lionel, who motioned for him to happily click one. Clark couldn't make out the titles, they were just lists of letters and numbers. Watching one open up, he was shocked to see Lex's fine scrawl on something that had obviously been scanned.
A,
Hope this finds you as well as can be. Believe me, the warmth of being where you are is immensely better than the horrible rains we have had this year. Your father is well. He asks about you everyday that he writes. I sent him the picture you sent me through the courier a few days ago. Nice touch with the security by the way.
I can't make it this week. Controlling dad's appeals in court at the same time as hoping the South American markets don't fall apart around a rampant drug lord is keeping me busy. I hope you understand.
It's not quite the same discussing the end of the Roman Empire with myself anymore. I miss your childlike ways of looking at history through those fictitious things they call textbooks. Clark is ever charming; still mad as hell with me although I have tried to meet him halfway. Don't you ever get tired of his 'antics'?
I'll see you soon. Don't give up on me yet.
J
Clark flipped to another file that was another letter from Lex to Chloe, all hand written apparently and personal. Looking at the lists of codes, he found several with the numbers at the end reversed and opened it.
J,
One more week. I can't believe there's only one more week of this shit. I can't stand being here anymore. These people, no offense, make the farmers look incredibly bright. When you decide to put me into hiding again, could you please pick somewhere that doesn't make my brain feel like its dying a slow, tortuous death? That would be really helpful?
On the flipside, I enjoyed the book you sent me. It had some very interesting details on the area and why these people get so conflicted when The War is not World War 2. People here really need to move on.
I enjoyed seeing you day before yesterday, even if it was for only a few hours. I had forgotten how much I missed that. Although, I'm not really looking forward to going back to square one when I come back. You sure things have changed for the better? If so, why the whole act we have to put on, besides the whole being in high school thing for me. It's not like people haven't noticed your lack of…ummm…dates lately.
Just think about it. And hopefully we can finally get past all this someday and get on with it. Barring Clark freaking out beyond compare. Sorry, he's being an ass. He'll come around.
Love, A
Clark was stunned. He flipped to another letter. 'A woman laughed like you in the Talon yesterday and I nearly lost it,' Lex wrote in his handwriting. The words that suggested something far more than the small partnership they had developed to bring Lionel down.
"So were they…" Clark couldn't finish his sentence knowing what he could picture and hopefully it not being anything of the sort.
"I honestly don't think so. Lex is a smart enough man to not make an amateur mistake like bedding a teenager." Lionel stopped and closed the laptop before making his way to the kitchen to pour himself a drink. Clark followed, grossly concerned now more than ever for Chloe's safety. "However, I think there was more than a partnership there at the end." Lionel fell silent as he stared into his glass before smirking and throwing the remainder down the drain.
Clark glanced at him funny.
"The non-alcoholic stuff is not quite the same. It's not quite anything."
Lionel walked back into the living room and watched as Clark paced the room as he did whenever he was concerned about something he couldn't fix immediately. "Son, you've got to calm down. If she knows that you know, I have the distinct feeling that the betrayal you felt when she found out your secret will be minute compared to this."
Clark whipped around and stared at the man and then at the computer again. "Have you read them all?" Clark paused afraid to put the words out there. "Did he love her?"
Lionel closed his eyes and pressed his head back into the cushions, afraid that the young man would ask the question. "I have read them all. They were very friendly in nature up to the last couple. Something slight had to have changed. But I again stand by knowing my son. He wouldn't have crossed that line."
"No, he waited until after Lana graduated."
"Be that as it may; we could all see that from the beginning. Unfortunately Chloe ended up being a tragedy instead of getting what she wanted. Lex continued on his plan without ever giving her another thought."
"Did he love her or just play her?" Clark sat down across from Lionel and reached for the computer as Lionel smoothly picked it up and sat it beside him.
"Son, reading anymore won't give you answers. Many drone on about history and ethics." Lionel cocked his head to the side and smiled, "She couldn't get him to bite on any ethics. She said his ethics would bite him in the ass. But no, he didn't play her and Lex rarely, if ever, understood the word love enough to use it. I fault myself for that."
"Did she love him?"
Lionel sighed heavily and looked up from his stare on the floor. "Undoubtedly." He watched the expression on Clark's face continue to shift to more and more concern for his friend. "But I have to say that his…reluctance to admit his feelings to himself as well as her feelings that are probably still there, floating dangerously at the surface, are the two reasons that Lex is playing along."
Clark sat back in the seat and groaned. Now he understood why Lex didn't run as soon as his brace had gone off during the storm. He wasn't tied to the building. He had been shot before and made it further than most; he was staying for Chloe.
"But, don't think he's just there for Chloe. He's got more going on in his head than he's admitting and more than what Chloe can get out of him. The advantage is that Chloe sees something that even you have lost in your Lex, hope." Lionel stood up and started into his bedroom. Calling from the other room, he hoped Clark would get the message. "I would love to delve deeper into this tonight, but my lady friend is stopping by tonight for a silent movie and…"
Pulling his tie tighter around his neck, he heard the door close after a quick whisp of air.
***********
Glass had finally arrived after three weeks. Chloe arrived in her new car as Lex opened the front door for the glass repairman. He had to shake his head in shock that someone with Chloe's pull and probably now her money took so long to get something done about the front of the Talon. Not that losing one's car on the same day didn't take precedent. Still, it was hard to make massive sheets of plywood look inviting even if they were painted green with the restaurant's name on them. Smiling, he was personally proud of that one piece of artwork he completed a week ago.
But it was time for them to come down. "Hey, is the owner here?" The gruff man with the clearly labeled, 'Bud,' on his shirt smacked on gum and looked over the rest of the property.
"She's right behind you," Lex smoothly answered and took Chloe's coat as she started to shimmy out of it. She had been smart today to wear a pants suit, with the weather near freezing again today. "Hey."
"Hey," Chloe looked up from the clipboard as the 'gentleman' started rambling about caulking temperatures and the lack of manpower. Lex watched as the man discussed the details of the installation to Chloe and wondered why she needed to stand there and listen to it. She paid him; he does the work. She didn't need to know the details. He watched her roll her eyes as he wiped down tables.
"What is it?" He asked as she passed him in a huff.
"Nothing, except his other hand is out today and so the glass is here BUT can't be installed. I'm fucking sick and tired of all these people and their crap excuses."
"Then call someone else to do it or pay him his portion and I'll help put the glass in."
Chloe stopped in her tracks as she rounded the cashier area. Turning her head in almost a robotic motion she stared at Lex. "And when did you ever lend a hand when something didn't get done the right way the first time."
"I didn't, but I had a few more resources at my disposal…then." The two continued to gaze at each other until Chloe looked back over his shoulder and at the gruff man in the gray shirt. He was on the phone, more than likely trying to find alternates to get the job done where he could get paid. The bottom line was all about money.
Chloe rolled her eyes, "Fine. Whatever, just don't forget everything else you have to do."
"Chloe, you ok?" She stopped counting the drawer and shook her head.
"I'm tired. I haven't written a decent damn article in a week, so I don't get paid. I freaking live here but not really and the heating bill is through the roof since that plywood had to go up. So no, I am decidingly not ok." She looked up at Lex who cocked his head to the side as if she was attacking him. "Sorry."
Chloe pushed the door to the kitchen and the back office open and disappeared as Lex walked over to the man who was still talking on the phone, now in Spanish. 'He's trying to hire goddamn illegal's…never done that before,' Lex sarcastically thought to himself.
"Bud," Lex tapped the man on the shoulder, "how about we just go on and get started on the glass." He watched the man hang up the phone and eye Lex with confusion.
"Aren't you Lex Luthor?"
"Yes." Bud looked at him again and nodded, somewhat hmphing at the same time.
"Ok, well come with me and we can get the plywood out first. You may want a jacket outside. It's damn near bone chilling."
Chloe eyed the two men a couple of hours later as she walked from the kitchen to the storeroom. Whether he was faking it all or actually was trying to be a better person, she didn't care, but he was working.
*****
"CHLOE!" Chloe's head popped up from the desk in the back room and she leapt from the chair hearing Mark screaming her name from across the empty restaurant.
Running out in to the main foyer, she stopped, gasping and covering her mouth at the sight. "God, what happened?" She screamed across the foyer as she raced over to the sight of the accident.
"I heard something like screaming then a crash. And this. Bates is calling 911." Mark moved to Bud's side to check him for wounds, but only saw some superficial wounds, but he was knocked out cold from the fall.
Chloe's hands shook as she knelt next to Lex in what could only be his blood that had dripped slightly onto the floor. She didn't know whether to touch him or just talk to him. His eyes were still open but the gash was deep with the glass protruding from what could only be his stomach.
"Lex, talk to me." She tried to keep calm as she unconsciously took his hand in hers.
She could hear his words trying to force their way through his throat as what she could only picture was blood rising in his throat. Gurgling through the fluid, she heard, "It hurts."
"I know. 911 is on its way," Chloe continued holding his one hand as his grip tightened around her fingers. She propped his head up from the floor on her knee and tried to smile down at him. "Quit trying to look Lex."
"It just came down," he fought out the words, breathing in almost a hissing sound as he squinted and closed his eyes. "It was balanced in my hand and it fell."
"You're going to be ok," Chloe slowed her words as she watched more blood soak into his shirt. The glass seemed to sink further into him the more times he would breath. Pointed she figured, it would soon lodge, too delicate to move.
Chloe kept watching his shirt darken as blood continued from around the wound. "Anything I can do over there?"
Chloe looked up and then back down at Lex. "Yeah, is he going to be ok?"
"Yeah."
Chloe stopped and looked at Lex as his eyes began to roll into the back of his head. "LEX!" Chloe's hands shook as she removed her hand from his and slid them under his shoulders propped up on her. "BATES!"
Bates ran over across the Talon floor as she noticed the blood was now starting to pool on the floor below Lex. He knelt down next to Chloe and waited for her as she started to cry over Lex's face. "Chloe," she heard in a bare whisper.
Looking down into his blue eyes, she saw his eyes roll back in his head as he struggled to move his mouth and trying to avoid the guttural noises that the pooling saliva and blood was causing. "Chloe, fix me."
"Lex, we called 911."
He reached for her hand. "No, I know what you can do." Chloe's eyes locked onto his in horror. Her breathing changed and he could feel her starting to shake in his hand. "It wouldn't be the first time you saved me. Please," he choked as blood trickled from his mouth.
Chapter 10 – Resurrection
Chloe was frozen. She listened to the words that Lex dropped. He knew. Thoughts ran through her head of the experiments that she knew now that he had been doing on the meteor infected. Her disappearance. Thoughts choked her conscience. She couldn't move except for feeling Lex's head start to fall to one side on her hands.
Looking down, blood ran from the corner of his lips down the sides of his face, leaving tracks all the way around his head. She looked over at Bates, who now had a towel under his head and around his body. "We have to move him."
"Chloe, he could die."
"He's going to die anyway this way. Look, just trust me. If we can pull the glass we could have a chance." She reached for the shard sticking out of his abdomen and hoped that it wouldn't send him into any more shock. Bates and Mark still stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "Look, he's right. I can fix it, but I have to get the glass out."
Bates carefully rolled his sleeves up and took another clean towel in his hand. Gripping the piece of glass, he pulled at the same angle that the glass looked like it went in. Chloe watched Lex as his mouth gaped open in pain and more murky liquid ran out. "Lex, you have to stay still," she whispered as her hands could feel the stiffening on his shoulder blades on her.
Hearing her voice, he closed his eyes again, but without losing consciousness this time. "It's out," Bates announced as he wrapped the glass in the towel and pressed against the now quicker oozing of the wound.
Chloe looked out the door and the windowless front and couldn't see or hear the ambulance yet. Looking at Mark and Bates, they could tell her torn concern for Lex and herself. "Listen, when its done, you've got to take Lex to clean up and take me to his room. Get the blood up as fast as you can. Throw something over it if you have to. Understand?"
The two nodded not knowing what exactly she was going to attempt to do. She looked down as Lex's head as it rolled again to the side and she set it up straight between her thumbs and his eyes opened. "Are you…are you…"
Chloe heard the mumbles that couldn't quite form a question. Closing her eyes, she pulled her hands out from behind his head and let him fall against her knees as her blood covered fingers now pressed against his abdomen, more blood running between her fingers.
She squinted, trying to convince her body to create another miracle. Clark would most certainly argue with her for saving Lex when he didn't want to even save himself just a few months earlier. Then she remembered the night of the tornado. He hadn't ran; he protected her, entertained her, was the person that she remembered from years before.
Bates moved back as the light grew like a thousand light bulbs around her and Lex. And then it was gone. Bates jumped to catch Chloe before she fell back against the floor and then sat in awe with her tiny body in his arms. Lex moved; he moved, sat up, and wiped the remainder of the blood from his face with his sleeve since the shirt was already useless.
Turning around, Lex saw the ghostly features of Chloe's lifeless body. "Take her up to the room. I'll clean up." Bates, without missing a beat, took the orders from the inmate, scooping Chloe up in his arms and disappearing into the apartment with her. Lex stared in Mark's direction.
"Is she going to be ok?"
"She should, I hope," Lex answered not quite sure himself. The pale gray features of her face worried him.
"Do I want to know how you know?" Mark asked accusingly before handing Lex a bucket of a bleach mix.
"No," Lex shortly answered as he started on the floor.
The floor looked as best as expected by the time the emergency personnel showed up and took care of the man that was installing the glass. When the paramedics finally got him to come to, he couldn't remember whether Lex had been injured or not. The man's concussion was obviously going to make the glass installation a little longer.
Lex watched from the kitchen window as Mark explained what had happened and that no one else was hurt. Still covered in his own bloody shirt, he remembered while scrubbing his hands how hard blood was to remove from skin. The scene caused his chest to clinch slightly, remembering the times he had washed other's blood off his hands. It seemed like a strange lifetime ago that he had committed such things. And the smell; he felt as if he would be sick if he couldn't get rid of it soon.
He glanced back out of the kitchen window and saw the paramedics coming back for their final bag. Mark started into the kitchen. "Coast is clear. Go clean up and see about Chloe."
"I have to…"
Mark shook his head. "Lex, I know you want to check on her. Go. I can sweep up broken glass. Besides, I don't think we're going to be open for a couple more days." Mark pushed through the kitchen door and Lex watched him eye him again.
Returning to his apartment, he saw Bates just stare at her. "I wasn't sure what to do with her," Bates said as he moved toward the door. "Let me know if there is anything else I can do." Bates closed the door to the apartment and left Lex standing in the middle of the living room staring at the young woman wrapped in a blanket on the uncomfortable couch that she had bought for him.
He pulled a chair up next to the couch and looked at the way Bates had curled her up and then saw her hands, covered in his blood. She had once aimed a gun at him and now had saved him even though she was possibly more upset with him now. She couldn't be like this for what he didn't know would be how long.
Picking her up in his arms, he pulled the sheet back on the bed and laid her on top. Disappearing into the kitchen, he returned to her side with the same chair and a bowl of warm soapy water. He dipped the washcloth in the water and began at her elbows. The blood smeared and the smell returned when it was moistened. Cringing at the streaks that it left on her arm, he wrung out the cloth and started again.
The process continued for another few hours as he cleaned under her well manicured fingernails until he couldn't see remnants of his saving. As if pouring the bowls of pinkish water down the drain was slowly washing the guilt of asking her to save him, this time or any other.
Throwing the sheet over her, he watched as his hands slid her bloodied pants off and a set of his bottoms slipped on over her legs, careful to keep the sheet clearly covering his view. The shirt was much trickier, but he simply turned and flinched guiltily when his fingers grazed her breast through the bra.
Carefully folding her clothes, he wasn't sure what she would want to do with them. He knew what he would do if he was her. Sitting in the chair next to her again, he had prepared some soup and a bottle of water, not knowing what would happen when she woke, or when.
He had done the experiments on her. He knew her power to heal. And yet felt guilt for taking what could be her last opportunity. He sat and watched the clock as the hours ticked away. He read some of his latest book from the shelf and thought about what he was going to say, considered typing it up and leaving it on the laptop for her to find.
He shook his head and smirked to himself at the 'plan' he had just a few months ago. He was going to simply lure Chloe back to his graces by playing the good inmate, by following the rules, and then springing his true self on her just as he is allowed to leave. It was the perfect plan except for the final straw. Looking at her sleeping, or what he could only figure was her sleeping, his plan had a slight kink, or two. He wasn't sure what exactly he going to do once free and he was falling for the woman that couldn't stand nor trust him.
He didn't know how long she would be asleep. He grabbed a blanket off the end of the bed and went into the living room. Laying down on the couch, he stared at the ceiling and closed his eyes in thought.
******
Lex woke in the most uncomfortable position. Scrunched into the chair, his feet were propped up on the end of the bed with his arms crossed. He honestly had become worried that she wouldn't wake up; he had never had the gall to actually use her blood in any of his developments so he knew nothing of the after effects. With his eyes still closed, he heard a moan that he wasn't quite sure if it was his. Carefully opening his eyes, he saw one eye of the blonde staring up at him.
Peering outside, he tried to resist smiling back in her direction, not knowing how she would react. "Evening," he whispered.
Chloe turned slightly to her side and barely opened the other eye to actually see an opened water bottle already in front of her. "Thank you," she bated as she tried to sit up. She could feel his arm under as she sat up in the bed. After several long gulps, she cleared her throat. "How long?"
"Three days." Lex shook his head. "I would have never asked if I knew the repercussions. How long was it the last time?"
"What do you mean?" Chloe could still barely see straight but noticed her clothes had been changed and she was comfortably gathered in warmth of blankets all around her.
"The gunshot wound. It had to be you regardless of what my father told me. No plastic surgeon can create a miracle like that regardless of my healing abilities and no vials were left over from Queen's experiments."
The room fell silent as Chloe continued on the bottle of water. Noticing the end nearing, Lex retrieved another from the fridge and sat down next to her as she swung her legs out over the side of the bed. Looking up at him, Chloe couldn't help but ask. "Two days. It gets longer every time. Clark is afraid one day I just won't wake up."
"As he said yesterday," Lex quietly added.
Chloe's head shot up quickly before she swayed slightly, causing Lex to rake her arm to steady her. "Yesterday?"
"He was looking for you after not being able to get a hold of you. I explained what happened and he was pretty pissed. But I bargained with him telling him that you were better off not being moved, so I suggest you call him when you feel up to it." Lex lowered his eyes and shook his head. There were very few things that he and Clark agreed on anymore except for Chloe. "Clark and I decided that you aren't going to use your powers again after he explained to me what happens."
Chloe sneered and put the water bottle down. "I know that you and Clark agreeing on something is a monumental turn of the positive but you can't dictate my life for me, neither can he." She pushed herself off the bed and shuffled across the floor, noticing the immense drag of material of the pajama bottoms.
Lex sat and watched as she disappeared into the bathroom and couldn't quite find the words to tell her. Hearing the bathroom water starting, he went and warmed another can of soup for her, knowing her liquids most likely needed to be replenished.
Chloe stood in what used to be her bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that Lex had simply sat vigil at her bedside for three days and convinced Clark that she was ok. The last part was strangely the hardest part to accept. She was actually amused at both men saying they wouldn't let her use her powers again. It was a strange feeling being the one that always seemed to keep Clark and Lex as close as they could together. She would have to talk to Clark soon.
Still, Lex was something different. It was the second time in as many weeks that he had been there for her and not because he had to be. A hospital or returning to the farmhouse could have easily had been the other option, and yet Lex took care of her. She looked at the overly large rumpled shirt she had on and noticed her bra was still there. She felt flushed not knowing how exactly Lex changed her. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to know. Regardless, she was alive and knew Lex was hopefully slowing turning a corner whether for himself or her; at this point she didn't care the reasons.
She silently sat down at the table across from him and started eating slowly. Pushing his spoon through the bowl of broth, he couldn't meet her eyes. It astonished him at the sheer power of her mortality being something that would move him. A few months ago he tried to casually strip that away. "You just mean too much to me and Clark to lose you the next time. But I know we can't order you."
Chloe dropped her spoon and gaped at Lex's strange confession. "You can't? You used to act as if you could." Lex let the accusing words pass him as Chloe realized how the statement sounded. "I didn't mean it like that."
"Yes you did. And you would be right." Another strange silence fell in the room as Chloe continued eating. "Why did you save me the first time?"
He could see Chloe visibly swallow. "Because I had never seen that much hurt, pain…honest love in his eyes for you." Chloe stopped and looked up at Lex. If he wanted to put it out there now, he finally deserved to know. "Your father had some very unorthodox ways of showing love by hiding it, denying it. And maybe he was a bastard to you and your mom for a long time, but he changed. But you didn't want to see it. He tried to talk to you, but you already convinced yourself not to accept it. You played judge and jury to him and never saw what he wanted. He wanted another chance and you threw it back in his face." Chloe huffed at the look that Lex flashed her. "Yeah, he told me what he said to you and you blew him off. And at that moment when he said what you did in return, I wished I had let you die."
Chloe pushed away from the table and slipped into the shoes that she had been wearing days earlier, picked up her things, and closed the door behind her.
Chapter 11 - Economic Equilibrium in Love
The yellow paint on the side of the house had faded over the last couple of years since the Kents had vacated the property. Chloe noted that she would let Clark know to repaint the house, just to make it look like it took longer than a couple of minutes.
She sat in her car and heaved larger than normal breaths. She hadn't meant for what she said to Lex to have come out quite the way it did. She meant it as a warning or what she had felt in past tense, she wasn't sure. Her head felt as if a haze had settled in and taken over her thoughts.
Leaving the Talon, she knew that Lex would probably backpedal in his cautious way the next time he saw her. They seemed to have been playing the game of one step forward, two steps back for weeks now. Now she wasn't quite sure where they stood. Looking up from the seat of the car, the answer lied in the man in the blue shirt.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Clark asked as he opened the door to her car and helped her out gingerly.
"Not quite whole but swimming. I have to use the little girl's room. I think Lex emptied out one of Cooter's ponds into my bladder. How do people drink 64 ounce drinks?" she joked as she walked into the house and immediately disappeared under the stairs into the little half bath.
"Then I guess asking if you want something to drink is out of the question," Clark joked back as he pulled another bottle of water out for her anyway. From the last times she had used her powers, the one thing she craved were fluids, as if the dehydration slowly ate at her body hour by hour.
Handing her the bottle and getting a rueful look in return, he sat down across from her at the dining room table as she started to peel a banana. "I saw Lex yesterday."
"So, he told me. Told me you two decided it was in my best interest not to let me use my powers again. How gallant of the two of you."
"Chloe."
Chloe held up one finger as she chewed and inhaled the last part of the banana. "No, I understand. But I really don't need two men thinking that costumes of shining armor look good on them everytime something happens to me."
Clark sighed deeply as he got up and threw the banana peel away and then leaned back against the cabinet. "You know, I wouldn't have believed the change or supposed change that you talk about with him until I was there yesterday. I x-rayed that building from the back for a good couple of hours before going in. I wanted make sure he wasn't faking your care just for me to catch."
Chloe's head turned to the side as her chest rose, almost in silent protest. "Clark, I know you don't…"
"Let me finish," Clark stopped her. "I wasn't spying and I didn't trust him. What better way for Lex to experiment on a subject he had previously than to collect data on it after its last use? But no, I watched him – he read to you for hours, some book on art history. Took your temperature, rewarmed blankets in the dryer. I hadn't seen that kind of vigil since my folks. He did more than I did for you."
Chloe leaned back in the rigid chair and stared across the kitchen at Clark. He looked almost defeated as if he had lost something in Chloe from seeing that side of Lex. A small smile crept across her lips; she felt it in one corner and then the other. "It's working. I had to die to get it, but its working."
"What do you mean?"
Chloe looked up from her hands and saw Clark sit back down. "He's getting his humanity back. Now we have to be careful."
"Wait, you're still playing a game with him even after everything that has happened?"
Chloe stood up and stared at Clark. He flip flopped more than almost dead fish on a dirty beach. "You're the one that told me to not get too close, not let my guard down, and now you're acting as if I should throw my hands up in the air and forgive him for everything. No, he hasn't it earned that right yet. Yes, he took a huge step in the direction of proving himself but there's more. There are stages. He's shown he still has feelings when you strip all the rest away, but now he's got to learn to control them and not just bury them like he did before."
Chloe started out of the house, the wheels spinning on her next move. Now, she would test his ability to deal with more personal consequences. She could hear the squeak of the chair and knew that Clark was following her back out to her car. Clark grabbed her arm gently and turned her around. "You can't be leaving now. Rest here tonight and I'll make sure you drive back safely tomorrow."
Closing her eyes, she knew he was right. "Just let me get my bag out of the trunk." She had learned to carry an overnight bag almost everynight since the storm, having stayed a couple other nights there at the farm with Clark as the Talon was still being worked on until the late evenings. "Did he tell you anything else?"
Clark faltered on the front steps and then silently sat down next to her on the couch as she stared blankly at the fireplace. "No, but after that night in the storm you spent with Lex, I went and asked Lionel what he thought Lex would do."
Chloe turned in shock at Clark's presumption to bring Lionel back into the plan more than he wanted to be involved. "Why? Lionel may have a stake in what happens to an extent but he wanted to be mostly left out and just informed, nothing more."
"He didn't get involved Chloe. I just wanted to know what he thought Lex would do."
"And?"
Clark bit his lip. He wasn't sure if Chloe or Lex even knew about what Lionel possessed then or even now. The letters had been from a different time in Lionel's life and a much less adult time in Chloe's life. Lionel had been a different person then, they all had been.
"And? Clark, you open this up and don't finish?"
"He showed me some letters that you and Lex wrote back and forth that summer while you were in hiding." Clark watched as Chloe's face turned pale and her breathing heavy. "He ummm said … Lex was in love with you … then."
Chloe listened at the ending as if Clark hurried to the end of the sentence, as if it was painful to say. Thinking back over the mess of letters that she remembered from Lex, she couldn't pinpoint the exact time that Lionel would ever get that impression. "No surprise that Lionel would have gotten those. No stone left unturned, even for the man behind bars. But how is that pertinent to now?"
"He thinks Lex is still in love with you and that's why he hasn't left." Chloe's brows furrowed as she listened to the words. She could feel her bottom jaw shake nervously. "Think about it Chloe. He has literally nothing to live for; why would he stay if he knows as soon as he is released he has no where to go, nothing to do, no possessions. He's staying for you."
Chloe got up and started pacing around the room, almost talking to herself. "I had hoped after all those months of being in the mansion and watching Lana rip your heart out. None of you saw mine ripped out and tossed on the floor of the mansion everytime I had to go there to plan her wedding. And for what, to screw him over to get him to be normal again. As normal as Luthor could be."
Clark sat on the couch and continued to listen to Chloe babble through her insane thoughts and wild ideas, some of which weren't even coherent to him. He watched her stop and take a breath.
"How do you know he was in love with me? We never wrote letters like that – more like diatribes on what I was reading or what inane business decisions he had to make. Chess moves, etc."
"Because he said so."
Chloe's eyes widened. "When?"
"Lionel said it was never sent; it was an envelope his men had found underneath the panel of Lex's bedside table; it was still sealed until Lionel opened it." Chloe sat in the chair across from Clark and felt weak. She watched Clark disappear and then return with a disc and the laptop. Loading up the disc, he handed the laptop to Chloe.
The letter seemed to have more scratchouts and line throughs than words that encompassed the page. It was short and scribbled as if nervous or in a hurry or drunk or all of the above.
A,I know it's a long time coming and I hate to leave it like this. Maybe someday… outside of Smallville … Away from madness … Away from my name … we could. In an answer to the question last time – yes, of course I care. I … You mean …. I'll never forg … I love you. L
Clark could hear Chloe's breath slow and eventually stop. Taking her arm in his hand, he pulled the laptop out of her lap and laid it on the coffee table. "What did you ask him?"
"My last letter before I was kidnapped and you found me, I had told him how I felt." She glanced over at Clark. "You didn't read them all?"
Clark shook his head. "No, just enough to know that maybe you are doing the right thing." Chloe slumped over in the chair and slid into the floor and into Clark's arms. She couldn't tell if she was relieved or scared about the knowledge that Clark finally seemed to understand.
The two sat quiet for several minutes. Chloe now knew what she had suspected for the longest time. The problem was deciphering whether that was the reason that Lex had been so harsh to her once the Lana game had started. Did he suddenly feel like he had been pushed into Lana's arms or did he really go willingly?
Was he playing a game with Chloe all along and hoping that the day Chloe visited him in the mansion to warn him about Lana, she would really cave and ask him again? Was he still holding a candle for her and that was the reason he never captured her for 33.1 and made it easy for her to find her mother's whereabouts.
Lex had always been calculating, but was he really this calculating? Had he kept that little piece of knowledge to himself, hoping to use it again someday in another way? Chloe's random thoughts of her economics course throbbed in her head. Was it a Prisoners Dilemma where they would both stand to lose or had Lex been coordinating his moves along with hers all this time, just where they end up with the lesser punishment for both in the end?
"Can you take something to him if I ask you to?" She sat up and quickly looked at Clark, gone were the tears of just a few minutes before.
"Yeah, what's going on?"
Chloe stood up and pulled a pad and a pen out of her bag and started scribbling down boxes and letters that Clark didn't understand. Looking over her shoulder, she stopped and then turned to another sheet and drew another set of boxes of, what Clark thought, looked the same. "Chloe?"
"He's playing a game still. He was then too." Clark shook his head. "He said he loved me – never meant for me to know and then knew I would go after him with Lana. He actually expected me to cave on that day. But then when I didn't, the rules changed, we, Lionel and I, played our hand, Lex played his."
"Chloe, what are you rambling about?"
She stared at the dominated cross section she had drawn and circled one pair of numbers. "That is a dominated strategy. Two against each other don't merit any good outcomes. But I took his dominance away. Therefore, he's coordinating – and waiting for me to fall into place with him. The dinners, the soothing, the taking care of me, he's found that if he goes back to what we were like when we worked together against his father, that both of us come out without regret."
Clark sat down at the table and pinched his eyes. "Chloe when did you jump from computer nerd to strategist? So? You both come out winners. He's still going to be released someday without anything."
"No, he'll have something. Just not what he was expecting – because he may be trying to coordinate with my moves to make it easier for him in the end. But I know something now that he doesn't think I know. You've just given me more ammunition."
Clark was still confused. "But wait, I thought this was about how you two feel about each other. Maybe the simplicity of Lana's infatuation with him was easier to deal with." He stood over her and stared at the laptop that still had the simple note from Lex. How did Chloe turn something so simple into something complicated?
Chloe continued to write a note on the sheet of paper in front of him as she tried to listen to Clark's confusion. "It was. It is. And he thinks he has already won when I kind of told him I loved him before he dragged me out of the mansion. But now this comes along and changes the game again."
"You told him you loved him?"
"Yeah," Chloe said quietly. "I never stopped – that's why it took so long to pull the trigger when I shot at him. And I was kind of glad you were there to make it miss." Chloe swallowed and then shook her head from her thoughts. She had to get on track.
Chloe handed the note to Clark and watched as his eyes grew and strange looks flew across his face. "You can't be serious." Chloe's smile that he had been missing for months it seemed appeared as her hands went up to hips in delightful satisfaction.
***********
"Coming!" Lex opened the front door to a suit and tie clad Clark Kent. He hadn't heard from anyone except the officers and Mark since the incident with the glass. Today had been the first day back open and he had fully expected Chloe to show up and check on the progress of the reopening, but she was no where to be found. "Clark. Getting home from work? Why exactly do you stay in Smallville and work in Metropolis?"
Clark just stood in the doorway nervously before Lex swung his hand back and opened the door more. "I was told to bring this by to you." He handed the beige envelope to Lex and started back toward the door.
"You want to have dinner? I was just reheating some stuff from downstairs," Lex rolled off his tongue before he realized what he asked his oldest friend and worst enemy.
"No, I need to get going." Clark stopped as he opened the door. Hesitating, he knew he wasn't a player in whatever was going on with Chloe. "Lex, she told me what she said to you at the mansion the night of the fire." Lex turned and stared at Clark, sliding his one empty hand in his pocket, looking smooth as he did years ago. "Lex, please tell me that this isn't Lana all over again – tell me there's something more than an agenda."
Lex dropped the envelope he had yet to read on the coffee table and walked over to Clark. His hardened features that graced his face most the time around Clark now faded somewhat. If he knew that Clark wouldn't flinch or hit him, he would have grasped the man's arm to make him believe.
Clark watched as the corners of Lex's mouth seemed to twitch in order to make some kind of words. "I'm truly sorry about Lana." Lex took several more breaths, trying to make more words come out, but fell speechless. He saw Clark stare at him as if he was trying to read the lines on his face. "For what it's worth." He cracked a small smile, "I have a lot of apologizing to do."
Lex looked down at the floor and then walked over to pick the envelope up. Clark stared and wondered if he would be better off not following through with what Chloe wanted. "As much of a giant gesture that was on your part just now, you didn't answer my question Lex."
Lex ripped the envelope open and didn't return any eye contact to Clark. "Chloe's always been the one – the only one that could make me too weak to tell her how I really felt."
"Then right here, profess it– she's not here. Do you love her?"
Lex shook his head and squeezed the bridge of his nose. Clark hadn't seen the stress on Lex so obvious in a long time. He saw his question almost hang in phrases the air was so thick in tension. Lex let out a sigh as if he tried to blow the words back away from him. "It's more complicated…"
The door slammed and Lex looked up to see Clark still in his living room, fuming. "No it's not. You told me a long time ago to tell Lana how I felt. Be a man and take your own damn advice."
"It's not that simple now."
"It was never that simple with you, you had to manipulate and screw with everyone's mind trying to get what you wanted out of every angle," Clark moved closer to Lex as Lex dropped the opened envelope down on the table again.
"I'm not that person now," Lex tried to speak calmly. "At least I hope not."
"No, you hope that you changed enough to manipulate yourself out of this situation. People are going to quit feeling sorry for you Lex – I quit a long time ago. It just took Lana a little longer."
"I said I was…"
Clark couldn't handle the calm demeanor. He wanted to strangle Lex finally for professing everything he wished he had heard before. "Then why ever do it at all? Couldn't get close to Chloe because of your past with her and your father? So, dump on the next best thing, still trying to get to me. You were a coward then and you're still a coward."
"I never took Lana from you to get secrets out of her about you – believe me I could have done anything I wanted with you – Fuck, Clark, I know half of your damn abilities and never said anything. It was power, and losing my father to you. I was his son!" Lex was screaming now, backing away as Clark made his way across the living room.
Clark gritted his teeth, knowing there was some truth to that, even now. "So you took Lana as a prize to get back at me?"
"NO! She fucking came to me Clark – I never lied to you about the pretenses that she came to me. She came to me about the Talon after you shoved her down that road and she never turned back – not until something happened at the wedding. But then it was done – everything was laid."
"So why continue the damn marriage?" Clark grabbed the front of Lex's shirt and shoved him against the bookshelves, causing the books to fly in different directions.
Lex looked down and noticed his feet had left the ground most substantially. Staring back at Clark with a sheen of sweat rolling down his face, he knew only the truth remained before his head went through the shelf. "Because with Lana in the house, I could still see Chloe. She wouldn't have come otherwise."
Clark's jaw dropped as he let go of Lex. Lex's body dropped to the floor with a thud followed by several more books. Clark covered his mouth and thought about the game that Lionel and Chloe had explained to him. How it all worked in perfect harmony to get everyone the desired result. He halfway laughed realizing now what Chloe had been talking about a few days earlier was true.
Clark didn't look back in Lex's direction; he was pretty sure he had banged him up well, but not completely intentional. He hoped it wouldn't get back to Chloe. Gripping the doorknob, he opened the door and closed it behind him, hearing a sigh from the other side of the door.
"I still love her." Clark wasn't sure if Lex knew he could hear him or not, nor did he care.
*********
Lex sat in the floor next to the couch and felt the back of his head where a knot was starting to form. Pulling open the envelope, he pulled out a sheet of paper and read the letterhead before beating his fist against the table.
J Wanted to let you know before you heard from anyone else. Enclosed is the letter I got in the mail a few days ago. I will be leaving for London for six months by the end of the week. I really wanted to check in with the place before I left, but packing has taken over my priorities at the moment. Please remember that any ideas need to be run through Mark and I will still be conferring with him on a weekly basis. I will be at your hearing in two months. Continue to work hard. A
Lex flipped back to the letterhead and read just the first line, "Thank you for your interest in the Public Relations Specialist position for Queen Industries London Division."