-- Chapter 7
Pouring herself a cup of coffee, Lois took a sip and walked back to her desk, putting the drink down and looking over at Clark, who was situated in his chair and staring at her. "What?"
"You know, you've never once in our seven months of partnership offered to get a cup of coffee for me."
"I... what... so?"
Clark rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Nevermind. Where did we leave off last night?"
"We were going to go over all the history and facts once again." Taking a quick drink, Lois put her coffee back on the desk before rubbing her hands together and sitting back in her chair. "So, Chloe Sullivan-Luthor is my cousin. Until months ago I had forgotten that she was even related to me. My dad and her parents had a falling out when my mom died.
"The General always blamed Gabe for my mom not quitting smoking, and subsequently her death, because at some point the two made a deal that when one quit, the other would. Really it seems like misplaced anger, but you won't find me messing with that. He never talks about it, but the one time I got him to say something I think he mentioned that it stemmed from them talking with a couple strangers in a grocery store. Random happenstance at its worst, I guess. That was... 1989, if I have my facts straight.
"As a result of that falling out, The General didn't want to talk to the Sullivan's, hear from them or even acknowledge their existence. After he sent Lucy to boarding school and we started moving from base to base, Chloe and her family faded into nothingness. As far as I could remember, I had no cousin named Chloe."
"I guess that would be my cue to start with the story telling."
Lois nodded as she sipped her coffee. "Right," she said out of the corner of her mouth.
Clark sat forward and rubbed at an eye before beginning. "Chloe and her dad moved to Smallville when we were in 8th grade. She was extremely smart and a lot of fun to be with. I got assigned to show her around the school, told her about my farm, showed it to her and we became fast friends. I introduced her to Pete the next day, they got along great, and things were good. Pete, Chloe and I became inseparable for about a year. When Lana and I started going out, they got along great as well.
"It took about six seconds with Chloe to figure out that she could do whatever she wanted to if she set her mind to it. She also had the ambition to go along with the mind, but had nothing to channel that ambition into. She tried the school paper for a few months, but got bored with it. Then Lex came to town."
Lois watched him as he pushed his glasses up on his nose before continuing his part of the details. "Right after Lex came to town, there was an incident between the two of us that resulted in him trying to be my friend. I gave it a shot, and we got along pretty well for a year or two, but Lex started doing things that I couldn't condone and I broke off our friendship. Chloe, on the other hand, did no such thing. She started spending less and less time with Pete and I and more and more time with Lex at his mansion. By the end of our senior year, she'd basically stopped talking to Pete and I because of our stance on Lex. She'd become a loner at school, not even talking to Lana anymore, who'd never said a bad thing about Lex, saying it was her decision to associate herself with whomever she wanted.
"After graduation, Chloe moved to Metropolis and went to Metropolis University, double majoring in business and economics with a minor in computer science. I'm not sure what happened in the three years it took her to graduate with honors, but when she did she was given a position at LexCorp. It didn't take her long to work her way up the ladder, reaching the position of Vice President of Operations before marrying Lex and running the company with him.
"In her personal life, she and Lex were rumored to be in a relationship as early as 2006, around the time of her 19th birthday. They didn't ever confirm that there was a relationship until four years ago, when they announced their engagement. The wedding was the social event of 2012, or so I'm told by the fashion editor."
Lois rolled her eyes. "I get that you don't understand what fashion has to do with anything, but we can't skimp on the details. So, after all the wedding hoopla, she and Lex stay out of the public eye for a while. They resurface eight months later to announce that she's four months pregnant. They have a boy, Logan Gabriel Luthor, on December 18th, 2013. She's been quoted in last year's November Vogue magazine saying that she'd like to have another baby. That was two months ago."
"I'm still not sure what the point of that interview was, even having read it six times."
Lois finished off her cup of coffee, setting the cup down on her desk before scratching at her arm and cracking her neck. "The point was to say the magazine had landed an interview with Mrs. Lex Luthor. She's not only a huge business name, but a big name in the fashion world, too. Chloe gives like, four interviews at most a year, and people all over the world know who she is and what the Luthor name means. Something like that lands you monster sized sales numbers for at least one issue. You know what sales mean in the print media business, even if it is just for one month when it comes to magazines. Plus, she knew she would get fluff questions from Vogue. What hardball question are they going to ask, who her favorite designer is?"
"I take it you have no interest in such a question?"
"Of course I don'tཀ Who cares about that? You land an interview with Chloe Sullivan-Luthor, hell any Luthor, and you don't throw softballsཀ I don't care if you're writing for Vogue, Reader's Digest or Fit Pregnancy, which are her three most recent interviews; you ask her tough questions that make her thinkཀ How can you call yourself a journalist if you don't?"
"They may call themselves writers."
Lois glared at Clark, watching as he withered a bit in his chair. Crossing her arms over her chest, she rocked back and forth in her chair for a moment before speaking again. "So, all that stuff aside, let's get back to the history and facts. We go back in time a little bit to when you got back from your 'travels'," she said with air quotes, "back in July."
Clark winced. "I still can't believe you figured everything out."
"Yeah, because I was going to be fooled by a pair of glasses. On with the details."
"All right, so, I get back and unveil to the world Superman. You figure things about him out, making my life both more and less difficult at the same time, and then I find out about Chloe. After high school I lost track of what she was doing, and find that she's now married to Lex and has a son. Total departure from the Chloe I once knew. Recently, we start hearing rumors from LexCorp sources that Chloe's got a pet project in the science division that the company's namesake doesn't like but can't seem to make go away."
"And that brings us to the present, where we're trying to figure out what the hell it is Chloe's doing that annoys Lex so much. Obviously she can't have totally succumbed to the curse of the Luthor name and all that it means if she's doing something like this."
Clark laughed, though Lois thought it sounded forced. "Yeah, obviously you don't understand the dynamic of the Luthor family as well as you think you do."
"Please, enlighten me."
"How things worked between Lex and his father was, more or less, a no frills upbringing with all the frills of money at his use. When I say that, I mean no frills in that Lionel rarely, if ever, showed much affection to Lex, instead telling him what a Luthor should be and do. He raised him to be an heir more than as a son. He may as well have been a kid plucked off the street, the way Lex used to describe it, except that a kid off the street wouldn't have had the same expectations placed on him.
"By the time Lex came to Smallville, they were playing a game of one upmanship, Lex always trying to prove to his father that he was good enough. When Lionel closed down the Smallville LuthorCorp plant after Lex's first year there as a lesson, Lex made his first attempt at starting LexCorp by reopening the plant under that name. It didn't work, obviously, but things just ratcheted up from there until Lionel's death not long before I left Smallville to do my training. Even though nobody has ever been able to prove it, I don't know that I'll ever be convinced Lex didn't do it. In the Luthor world, it would be the ultimate way to win."
"You thinking the worst of someone? He who brings hope to the masses? Wow, he must really be a lost cause."
"Lex had a chance," Clark said, his face darkening. "He could have chosen to rise above the influence of his father, try to fight the darkness that had built in him over the years. Instead he embraced it, quite possibly delving even deeper into it than his father ever did. The things that we've found in companies owned by LexCorp, that are run by him but not in a direct way that allows us to put him away... Lionel always wanted to push the envelope for the sake of LuthorCorp. Lex wants to tear the envelope, then tear another one just for the hell of it."
"And not only that," Lois said as she continued from where Clark had left off, "but he has a partner in crime that seems to be willing to do exactly the same, maybe for the same exact reasons. The kicker is that I'm related to her, and couldn't have told you that until I remembered I had a cousin named Chloe Sullivan not long after you got back."
"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think that Chloe has any idea that she's related to you. She never talked about family during our time as friends, at least not going any further than to say her mom had abandoned her and her dad had done his best to be there for her over the years since said abandonment. I guess her father adopted a policy much the same as yours, never acknowledging that you and your family existed."
"I just find it difficult to believe that I am related to somebody able to be involved in a company so heinous, not to mention married to a man that probably devises most of the heinous things his company undertakes. And, of course, if reports are to believed, she's gotten into something that Lex doesn't like, which either means she gone way off the deep end or is actually doing something that would be good for the world. Since the latter seems like it's more or less impossible at this point, that leaves the former. I mean, what the hell could be done that Lex would find in bad taste?"
"I don't know. All at once I wish I already knew and never had to find out. I wish that I knew what had happened to the Chloe I once knew, though. I wish I could have saved her from falling into this whole situation by finding a better way to live her life."
Lois scoffed, running a hand back through her hair as she once again noticed her coffee cup was still empty. "If you're going to go there, Clark, then I wish that we had been given the opportunity to know each other. Maybe my presence in her life could have made a difference. Who knows what could have happened? Unfortunately, though, I think we're all where we're supposed to be. Not in like a fate or destiny type way, but I believe that people have things in their lives that they're supposed to do. You, for example, are supposed to help people. I, in turn, am supposed to make sure that people don't fear what you do."
Standing up, Lois let loose a resigned sigh. "Unfortunately, I think another thing I am supposed to do is keep Chloe from making life on this planet of ours worse. Seems you're wrapped up in that, too. Maybe it could have been different, who knows, but we have to deal with what is and not what could have been." Grabbing her cup, Lois frowned at what she'd just said before looking at Clark. "That's everything, right?"
"More or less, yeah."
"Good. I'm going to go get some coffee."
Walking away, Lois thought she heard Clark sigh but shook it off, not really caring what it was about. Getting to the coffee pot, Lois poured herself some, covering her mouth as she yawned with her free hand. After taking a sip of her drink, she walked back to her desk and put it down, sitting down in her chair and biting her lip for a second. "Clark?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you think drove Chloe to be where she is?"
Clark looked a little confused for a second before making a face and answering. "I really don't know. Like I've said, she had a lot of ambition. It was evident from the first minute you met her that she wanted to do something with her life. She was never going to be 'one of those people that didn't make a difference' as she used to put it. I think when Lex presented opportunities to her to do things that would make a difference, she justified it in her head that the ends justified the means. She was probably in so deep she couldn't see her hand in front of her face before she knew what was happening.
"Of course, this is all just speculation. I have no idea what goes on in her head."
--
Reading over some figures, Chloe glanced up at the man standing in front of her. Her assistant was nondescript at best, but at least he stood quietly. The last one had insisted on speaking whenever he felt like it. "What?" she asked quietly.
"Your 9:30 meeting asked to be pushed back an hour to allow him time to finalize his presentation."
"No. If he can't be ready on time, his proposal is a waste of my time. Cancel it. Anything else?"
"Mr. Luthor wanted me to remind you-"
"I don't care what Lex wants. If he thinks it's important, let him tell me himself. Is that all?"
"One more thing, Mrs. Luthor. Lois Lane and Clark Kent are requesting an interview with you next week. If you accept, they said any hour and location is open to them. Shall I give them the standard response?"
Chloe rubbed at her forehead a second. How in the world had it happened that a cousin she'd never gotten the chance to know had ended up the partner of her one time best friend and sexual fantasy? She hadn't talked to Clark since, what, senior year? By then she had outgrown his 'Aw, shucks' tendencies and completely gotten over her sexual fantasy of him. Well, maybe not completely. He'd always made a good image to fixate on when she had to finish herself off after having sex with Lex. When she couldn't decide on any particular celebrity's image, anyway.
Pursing her lips, Chloe scratched at her ear while going back to staring at the figures she'd been reading a moment. "No, I think this is an interview I want to do."
"Are you sure?"
Chloe looked up, glowering. "What?"
The man's eyes widened, as if he'd just realized what he'd said. "I, uh, I mean are you sure you have time? Next week is your family vacation to the Alps."
"If they want the interview, they're going to have to do a little work for it." Of course, when they told their editor that they had an interview set up with her, the Daily Planet would cough up the money to fly them over for the day, if nothing else.
"Is there a specific day that you want to do it?"
Chloe thought a moment. "Two o'clock, a week from tomorrow."
"Yes, Mrs. Luthor. I'll set it all up immediately."
Her assistant left her office and Chloe sat down, finishing up with the figures she'd been reading and sitting back in her chair contemplatively. The team of Lane and Kent had been the hot ticket in Metropolis almost from its first day. Until she'd done some digging on each of them, she hadn't realized that Lois Lane was her cousin. She'd had vague memories of a cousin that was a year older than her, but that was it. She'd been quite surprised at that little turn of events.
Clark, though, was a blast from the past. She'd always pegged him for staying on the farm to raise 2.3 children with some skinny brunette. If it hadn't been Lana, she'd always thought that he'd have found somebody else to obsess over. She'd gotten tired of dealing with that obsession quickly. She understood that he had the girl next door fetish back then, and Lana had been kind of cute, but she'd never understood why he'd been so gung-ho about having to make it work.
She hadn't thought about any of that nonsense in years until Clark had surfaced out of nowhere, almost literally, getting a reporter's job at the Daily Planet. When he and his partner had started making big splashes, Chloe had decided to do a little background on each, to learn more about the background of Lois Lane, who'd been a terror to corruption and plight without Clark Kent, and see what Clark had been up to since high school.
The fact was that he had disappeared for years, placing maybe two calls a year to the farm for six years until suddenly he'd appeared in Metropolis, a journalist at the Daily Planet. It helped that before he'd disappeared he'd graduated from Central Kansas with a degree in journalism, doing the work in just a few years. But then nothing. He'd gone off the grid, more or less, not writing articles or doing anything that could bring attention to where he was.
The only way she'd been able to trace him was by having people go over every single call the Kent's had gotten after he'd left, and she'd figured out that the ones coming from the most random countries in the world were most likely him. She'd heard of people traveling after graduation, but he'd certainly taken it to another level.
Then there was the fact that he was Superman, of course.
How more people hadn't figured that out was beyond her. Of course, most people hadn't watched him pop up places he shouldn't have been able to be for five years while in Smallville, doing inexplicable things to help people. And, not surprisingly, her husband was one of the dense majority, unable to put two and two together.
Shaking her head, Chloe sighed as she thought about Lex. He was an adequate husband, doing his marital duty when she'd wanted to have a baby, and she was sure that he would do it again now that she had put it out in the press that she wanted another child. He did love Logan, in his own demented, Luthor way that he'd always wanted to escape. He was better than Lionel, though, and at least able to say that he loved his son, if not mean it. Logan wasn't seen simply an heir to Lex, but something that he didn't quite understand, as if he couldn't contemplate why he should love the little boy.
Love had never played a factor in her life with Lex. The only person in the world she loved was Logan.
To call theirs a marriage of convenience was to give marriages of convenience everywhere a bad name. From day one of their work together all the way back in Smallville, their relationship had been a partnership, plain and simple. Two strong minds working for the betterment of the world. Getting married had simply been a business transaction that furthered their partnership. They'd known one another for over ten years by that point and while they'd occasionally had sex for the sake of getting laid, it had been rumored that they were involved for numerous years.
They'd discussed it and come to the conclusion that they may as well play into the rumor. It was easier than trying to find somebody that understood the work they did, or at least didn't question what they did.
Of course, the matter of power had been in the back of her mind when they'd agreed to get married. When you marry Lex Luthor, you gain immeasurable power over things. She'd already been an executive in the company, but with the marriage she'd been able to take up a position on the board and start dictating how things should be done. Lex had a head for ideas, but had always lacked the sense to get things done correctly. His execution had historically been shoddy and transparent, to her at least, and that was not the way she liked things.
As such, she'd cleaned the place up. Notes from her time working her way up the ladder had helped immensely, giving her a clear view of who was and was not incompetent. She'd immediately fired the worst of the bunch, which had been no small number, and replaced them with smart people she'd seen in the company. Most of the people she'd replaced had been those with 'experience and loyalty,' according to Lex. She'd rather have brains in high positions than experience, and loyalty was made by promoting from within, not pulling in big names that sat on their assess because of their names.
Because of all her moves during her early days on the board, she'd gained no small amount of influence upon what was done within the company. She didn't have to fall back upon the brainless threats that Lex always used as a form of persuasion, though she didn't hesitate to do so when necessary. No, generally all it took for something to get done was a request, perhaps a reminder of why a person had a job. Subtlety was always preferred.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her office door. Looking at the door, she waited a second before answering. "Enter."
Her assistant walked in, hands clasped in front of him. Ever since the one had tried to kill her for supposedly screwing up the environment, she'd made it a rule that no assistant could hide his or her hands from her. She wouldn't be fooled by hands behind the back again. Unconsciously, she started rubbing the scar on her thigh that was a reminder of her rule.
"What?"
"I told Miss Lane and Mr. Kent that you were willing to meet with them a week from tomorrow at 2p.m. in the Alps mansion and they agreed. I also gave them your usual terms: no recording devices, a mandatory security sweep of their persons before entering the room with you and no questions about your son."
Chloe nodded. "Good." She paused a moment as she watched her assistant turn to leave and stopping him. "One more thing." He stopped and turned around, waiting silently for whatever she said. "Place a call to Steven Street for me. Tell him I need an up to date in depth background on Lane and Kent, and I need it by 3:30 tomorrow afternoon."
"Right away, Mrs. Luthor."
Sucking on her lip for a moment, Chloe spun her chair and pushed herself up out of it, crossing her arms under her breasts as she looked down at the city of Metropolis. Her city. She'd made it so the company owned half the city and had influence over most of it, taking the very good business of LuthorCorp and turning it into the almost unrivaled greatness of LexCorp. Only Wayne Enterprises and Queen Industries gave LexCorp real competition. She was one to give credit where credit was due: Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen were savvy businessmen. One day, though, she would make it so LexCorp was the one true business power from coast to coast.
Smiling slightly, Chloe turned around when she heard the door to her office open. Only two people had permission to enter without knocking, one being Logan's nanny and the other Lex, who rarely made use of that privilege. As such, she found herself looking at the nanny with Logan in tow. Motherly concern came over her as she wondered why they were there. "Is something wrong, Anna?"
"Logan has his doctor's appointment this morning, Mrs. Luthor. You said two days ago that you wanted me to stop by and remind you so that you could attend."
She rubbed at her brow for a moment, remembering she'd said that. It was a good thing she had. Walking over, she knelt down and found Logan napping in his stroller. She smiled at his sleeping form for a moment before standing up again. "Right. Good thing I thought ahead. How's Logan been this morning?"
Anna smiled, glancing down at the one year old before looking back up at her. "His perfect angelic self, Mrs. Luthor."
"Anna, you live in my house and take care of my son. How many times do I have to ask you to call me Chloe?"
"I've been taking care of children for thirty years, Mrs. Luthor, and have never been able to grasp the use of first names with my employer. I apologize if it makes you uncomfortable."
"No, no," Chloe said, walking over and grabbing her coat off the coat rack she had in the corner. "If that's how you do things, it's how things should be. I'm just glad that I could get somebody of your experience and credentials to take the job."
Anna smiled at her and tilted her head in that motherly way Chloe had become accustomed to. "You're a Luthor, Mrs. Luthor. You could have had virtually any nanny you wanted, employed at the time or not. I must say again that I was and am flattered that I was your first choice."
"You're the best in the business, Anna, and I wanted the best for my son." There was a knock on the door, which was followed by Lex walking inside, hands in pockets. Chloe watched him for a moment, reading his body language before looking back to Anna. "I'll be out in a couple minutes. Why don't you two head to the car." With a nod, Anna left the room. "To what do I owe the visit, Lex?"
"I think you know, Chloe."
"What, you don't approve of whom I chose to do an interview with?"
Lex smirked, walking over and leaning back against her desk. "You can only imagine my surprise when I get word from our P.R. department that you agreed to an interview with Lois Lane and Clark Kent. You are aware of their penchant for getting into things people don't want seen, correct?"
"Well aware. There's a public perception that we're unwilling to talk to real press, though, because you have your own personal media blackout going and my last three interviews have been in a fashion magazine, a magazine that skews towards older readers and a pregnancy periodical. I wonder why people think we're unwilling to face real questions? I'm smart enough to know what to say and what not to say, so letting one of the most well known teams in print journalism interview me isn't going to hurt anything."
"Isn't going to hurt anything?" Lex asked incredulously. "You do know that they've probably heard the rumors, right?"
Chloe shrugged. "So?"
"So why not do this interview at a time when people aren't saying we disagree on whether something should be done or not?"
"First of all, this is hardly the first time we've disagreed on how something should happen. Second, unless they actually know what it is we disagree about, I don't give a damn what they think. Hell, even if they do know I don't give a damn. What we're doing is for the good of the world, Lex. If we don't do it this way, it doesn't get done."
"Your ambition is getting the best of you, Chloe." Lex walked over to her, looking down at her. "Damn it, what you're trying to do is massive, even for LexCorpཀ I still say we do it small scale, if we do it at all, and you know how odd of a sentence that is for me. It's the smart way, though."
"Yeah Lex, because your way is ALWAYS the smart way. We either do this big or we don't do it at all." Chloe pointed up at him. "Where's that Luthor spirit, Lex? Where's that will to do whatever the fuck you want, everybody else be damned?"
Lex shook his head, backing away from her. "Why do you always ask me that?"
"Because ever since your father died you've acted like you lost your spirit to be boldཀ What, you lose your competition and you lose your taste for being on the edge? I've had to push you to do things for so long now that I think you've forgotten what it's like to have the initiative to do them on your ownཀ"
He didn't answer her, instead leaning back against her desk again and just glowering at her. She shook her head and pulled her purse off its hook. "And there it is."
"There what is?"
"The sulky little boy that just wants a hug from his daddy. It's your default look whenever we get into an argument. You'd think that you had something more invested in this relationship than you do, the way you get down when we fight." Chloe laughed mirthlessly, watching him eye her for a second. "Had I known this is how things would have been after I killed your father, doing something you couldn't do, I think I would have let him live. You were more interesting when you had something that made you keep your wits sharp."
Chloe pulled on some gloves, waggling the fingers on each hand to get them comfortable before looking back at Lex. "I'll be ovulating next weekend, so keep your schedule clear. I would prefer to get pregnant sooner rather than later."
Without another glance, Chloe walked out of her office.
--
"I can't believe she's giving us the interview."
Lois rolled her eyes before locking them on Clark. "That's the third time you've said that since we found out she agreed to do it an hour ago."
"That's because I can't believe itཀ"
"Well, you have eight days to get over your shock. If you can't recover from this apparently shocking news by then, I'm doing the interview without you."
"Yeah, because that would go over well with Perry. He already thinks we both lack objectivity in this because you're related to her and she and I were once close friends. I'm not exactly prone to argue with him, either, because I know that I want to figure out just how she got to this point when she was once a very kind person. I'm also well aware of the fact that you want to figure out how somebody you're related to turned out to be the kind of person she is."
Lois frowned, looking back at her computer. After a moment of silence, she decided it best to continue the conversation with an admission. "I won't lie, Clark, that thought has crossed my mind on a not so infrequent basis since I found out we're related."
"Exactly. It's why Perry was against us starting to look into her, suggesting we look into LexCorp as a whole instead. At this point, I don't see how you can separate one from the other, but that may be besides the point in Perry's mind."
"Unfortunately, it's exactly the point we're trying to hit on now. All evidence we've gotten from our sources this morning is pointing to her being the real power and driving force of LexCorp, so I want to figure out if that's true or not. Who knows? We could be blaming things on Lex that Chloe has perpetrated with or without his knowledge."
"Yeah," Clark said as he leaned back in his chair. "I guess we'll find out soon."
