~Bing!~
Clark looked up wondering who was coming to the 20th floor, after all only a few people had access to the floor during work hours and even less when not work hours. Clark wanted to groan when he saw who it was; it seemed that Mr. Luthor had beaten Kitty back from lunch something that he was certain that Mr. Luthor took notice of. She was well over her hour limit for lunch, as if she worked throughout the day anyway and deserved a lunch to begin with.
"Jorge" Mr. Luthor greeted Clark noticing that Kitty wasn't there and looked to have not been there for quite a while.
"Where's Kitty?" Mr. Luthor enquired before Clark spoke.
"It's Clark, sir and Kitty went to lunch"
"Hmmm" Mr. Luthor said before going into his office and making a note in Kitty's file that he had been working on since the woman had been given to him by his father. The woman may have friends in HR but he was the owner and president of the company and if they planned to have a job they would do as they were told.
"Had you had lunch?" Mr. Luthor said after he had written that Kitty was taking extended lunches.
"Uh, no sir" Clark said before noticing that the bald man had come out of his office and now stood in front of Clark's desk.
"Unacceptable" Mr. Luthor stated as if that would make the situation any better, with Kitty gone he wasn't allowed to go anywhere just in case someone called or came up to speak with Mr. Luthor.
"And what is this?" Mr. Luthor said pointing to the now full cart that he had brought up before Mr. Luthor had gone to lunch, Clark had hoped that the man would have stayed in his office at least until Kitty came back so he could walk his translated articles back down to Chloe.
"Uh, the articles that needed to be translated" Clark said figuring that lying to the man would only get him into more trouble than he currently was if the look on Mr. Luthor's face meant anything.
"Didn't I tell you that they needed to be in the translation department?"
"You did, but I also told you that the Arabic translator was myself" Clark said already tired of dealing with the man standing in front of him. How many times did he have to correct the man about his name and how many more times did he need to explain that he was the Arabic translator? Mr. Luthor was about to open his mouth to speak when the bing of the elevator went off and Kitty stepped out with a few bags in her hands and her sunglasses still firmly placed on her face.
"Kitty" Mr. Luthor said turning a bit and eyeing the woman standing by the elevators with a shocked look on her face.
"Mr. Lu….Luthor"
"Kitty is there a reason that you have been gone well over the allotted hour?" Kitty glared at Clark as if he was the one that told that she had been gone as long as she had been.
"I….it…I…" Kitty said at a loss as to what to say to Mr. Luthor, she knew that things could get messy should she arrive after Mr. Luthor had but she figured since the man was having a lunch meeting with one of his favorite shoe and bag designer that it would take him pretty much to the 2 o'clock hour which would mean that he would be leaving soon after to go to the meeting for the Fashion district meeting that was at 2:30. She had after all looked at the calendar and noticed the appointments so she had figured that Mr. Luthor wouldn't be back to his office until he was finished with his 2:30, seems she had guessed wrong. Mr. Luthor stood there unimpressed with Kitty before he turned away from the woman and back to Clark who hadn't made a move since the two had arrived back from their lunches.
"Jerome take those back to the translation department" Mr. Luthor said a serious look on his face, he was really going to have to have a serious chat with his junior assistant along with Chloe Sullivan to get things figured out. He had no doubt that the man could translate after all Saki Maramoto had called him and told him about his assistant that spoke to him in Japanese and he could guarantee that it wasn't Kitty.
"It's Clark, sir" Clark said before locking his computer and grabbing the cart and then making his way to the elevator happy to be leaving the floor.
"Straight there and straight back" Mr. Luthor warned as Clark stepped on the elevator. Once the doors were closed did Clark speak knowing that the other man couldn't hear him.
"I don't think so" Clark said before riding the rest of the way to the below ground floor that the translation department was on.
"Clark bar" Chloe said speeding out of the office once she heard the squeaky wheel of the cart that Clark had taken up with him.
"All done" Clark said before going over to his old cubie and sinking down into the chair that was still stationed there.
"That bad?"
"Worse" Clark said with his eyes closed about ready to pass out from hunger or sleep he wasn't sure, but either way it went he didn't want to return to the 20th at all for the rest of the day.
"I swear" Chloe said before going to her office and grabbing a soda for Clark, she hope the other man dunk them; he needed sugar after all.
"Here" Chloe said hanging over the soda and watching as Clark opened it and drunk the whole thing down in one sip.
"Thirsty" Chloe joked before pulling up another chair waiting for the other man to leave the department; after all he probably had orders to return ASAP.
"I'm not going back, I'm on lunch" Clark said before turning to Chloe a grin on his face.
"A must, after all I know Kitty got a lunch and so did Mr. Luthor" Chloe said getting what Clark was saying, which meant that if Mr. Luthor came a knocking she could say that he was there with her.
"Right" Clark agreed before Chloe changed the subject entirely.
"So when do the 'rents arrive?"
"They should be here already; or they should be leaving either later on tonight or super early tomorrow morning"
"Don't forget"
"Strawberries, and be glad that our farm is one of the only in the area that has year round strawberries and organic ones at that"
"I know, I've been bribed a time or two by my father to do something that I wouldn't normally do for those babies"
"Well then, come down to the Market and mom will have your basket waiting for you"
"Sweet deal and as if I would pass up the chance to meet the parents of my most favorite worker in the department, but don't tell them that I said that." Chloe said loud enough that everyone in the department could hear her words. The workers laughed before getting back down to work while Clark and Chloe chatted about a few things.
~Ring, Ring~ the phone on the desk where Clark sat at rang, most stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. It was no secret in the department that Clark had been 'summoned' up to the 20th floor and had never returned, his potion of translator tossed aside to be Mr. Luthor's junior assistant.
"Can I get a break" Clark told the phone as if it would answer him; Chloe decided to help Clark out just a bit, so she told Clark not to speak and she picked up the phone and then spoke to the man on the other side of the phone.
"Mr. Luthor" Chloe greeted the man knowing that the next words out of his mouth would be about the location of Clark. If Chloe didn't know any better she would think that Mr. Luthor may have a bit of a crush on Clark, as if it wasn't hard to do.
"Where's Jake" Mr. Luthor asked the blonde knowing that Clark had to be down there since he had already called security to see if they had seen the man.
"I don't know a Jake, sir" Chloe said playing the dumb blonde card and wondering if Mr. Luthor would believe her of not.
"You know who I'm speaking about" Mr. Luthor said with a bit of a growl, he knew exactly what Chloe was doing and it wasn't going to work.
"Clark is at lunch" Chloe stated since it seemed her 'dumb blonde' routine didn't work.
"I didn't authorize that"
"It's a federal rule" Chloe said a nasty tone to her voice, did this man think he could do whatever he wanted to Clark and get away with it?
"Where is he?"
"At lunch, he'll be back" Chloe said hanging up the phone and then leading Clark into her office knowing that Mr. Luthor was on his way down to the department as they moved locations.
"Can the man leave me be for five minutes?" Clark grouched before smiling at Chloe when she handed over some junk food that was loaded with sugar, fat and other items that his mother would have a stroke over.
"Mr. Luthor"
"Mr. Luthor"
"Mr. Luthor" Clark and Chloe both heard as the man in question made his way over to where Chloe's door stood open showing that Clark was in fact sitting in her office with sugary treats surrounding him with Chloe tapping away at something work related.
"Harold" Mr. Luthor greeted to Clark before the other man looked at Mr. Luthor and then continued to eat what was in this mouth and Chloe spoke.
"It's Clark" Chloe said before tapping away at the keys of her computer. Mr. Luthor watched the pair before deciding that he didn't like how friendly the pair of them were, Clark was *his* and no one else's.
"Yes, whatever. Didn't I tell you to come right back?" Clark said nothing uncertain on what to say.
"Well, I'm waiting" Mr. Luthor said waiting for an answer.
"You did…." Clark didn't get to say anymore before Mr. Luthor jumped in.
"I did and why are you here sitting on Ms. Sullivan's couch with junk food surrounding you?" Mr. Luthor said a sneer on his face at seeing the food that seems to orbit around Clark.
"I'm at lunch" Clark said now about ready to snap the man's head off, was he looking to get told off again?
"And as I told Ms. Sullivan, I didn't approve it so you were to return back to your desk"
"I did" Clark said now being smart; he had returned to his desk just not the desk on the 20th floor.
"No you haven't" Mr. Luthor said not realizing that he was walking into his own grave on this one.
"No let me show you" Clark said before he saw the smirk that made its way to Mr. Luthor's face, Chloe had a smirk of her own and winked to him once he began leading Mr. Luthor to his cubie.
"Here we are" Clark said getting to his desk; it even had his name on the outside of the cube. Mr. Luthor was decidedly unhappy with Clark and his actions.
"My office now" Mr. Luthor said making his way towards the door to the department before turning and noticing that Clark hadn't followed him like he thought he would have. Mr. Luthor prowled over to where he could see part of Clark's body standing in the doorway of Chloe's office.
"Saturday at the Farmer's Market….you know where we'll be" Mr. Luthor heard Clark say before he cleared his throat to make sure that he had Clark's attention.
"Mr. Luthor"
"My office, now….not later" Mr. Luthor said before waiting for Clark to get in front of him and then following the man to the door of the department and then to the elevators and then of course straight to Mr. Luthor's office where Kitty sat outside of a wide smile on her face and here she thought she was in trouble.
"Sit" Mr. Luthor said pointing to the chair and then taking a seat himself. Clark took a seat and about wanted to roll his eyes when Mr. Luthor took a seat at his desk and folded his arms in front of him on his desk. Like he was some wayward school boy getting scolded by the principal.
"Now Caylin" Mr. Luthor started out, waiting for Clark to correct him. Instead Clark sat there zoning out about when his parents would arrive and how best to tell them that he would be quitting his job at Julian, he was tired of the job already. He hoped that they wouldn't be too disappointed but he figured they could understand his reasons for leaving. He wasn't junior assistant material and he certainly hadn't signed up for the work that he was being given. After all he had a Bachelors of Science in Language Studies with an emphasis on Arabic, Japanese and Italian, with a minor in history; he was the first and only student at Stanford University that had accomplished the feat, and Stanford was a place that excelled in excellence. Mr. Luthor waited for Clark to correct him; it was then that he noticed that his assistant wasn't even paying any attention to him.
"Michael" Mr. Luthor out hoping to get some sort of response from Clark, it seemed that Clark finally snapped out of whatever he had been thinking and automatically corrected Mr. Luthor on his name.
"It's Clark, sir" Clark said before he saw the look of confusion on the man's face, had he been that zoned out?
"Yes, yes…whatever. I am very disappointed in you. I had hoped that you would understand the importance of your position." Mr. Luthor started out knowing that Clark would feel guilty if he played the 'there are people that would kill for this position' card that he knew would get some sort of response out of Clark. Clark said nothing knowing that Mr. Luthor wasn't finished with speaking, he could see where the man was going and he was just waiting to burst the man's bubble. He didn't want this job, it hadn't been what he had been hired for and so trying to make him feel bad would only backfire on the bald man.
"There are hundreds and possibly thousands that would kill for the job you have" Mr. Luthor said giving Clark a look that told him how important the job really was.
"And yet you decide to disobey me and not return ASAP as I told you to do"
"I was…" Clark started to say before Mr. Luthor raised his hand and Clark stopped speaking. Fine, he could talk all he wanted but the bottom line was that it wasn't his concern.
"I need you here not down in the translation department, end of story" Mr. Luthor said realizing that he would need to leave soon for the fashion district meeting he was speaking at.
"Be here when I get back and we will discuss this further" Mr. Luthor said before pointing to the door and then watching as Clark stood up and made his way out of the office and to his desk that seemed to have a large pile of work that hadn't been there before.
"Get to work, loser" Kitty called across to him just before Mr. Luthor exited his office with his coat back in his hands.
"I expect you both to be here when I return" Mr. Luthor said before eyeing Clark as if daring him to not be at his desk when the other man came back. Clark paid the look no mind and slumped into the chair at the desk, he wasn't going to call it his any longer because he had decided to quit. Chloe would be angry but he knew that the hospital would be more than happy to hire him back and he was pretty sure Chloe would work up some contract deal for him to do the Julian translations not on LexCorp's property. Mr. Luthor left with a glare to Kitty and a significant look to Clark.
"Whatever" Clark mumbled before pushing around some of the papers and seeing what Kitty had given to him while he had been away from the desk.
"Look more appointments and more crap" Clark said to himself before deciding to at least try and work on the more important meetings that seemed to need special attention.
"I'm so out of here" Clark said before picking up the phone and speaking quickly to someone that was so not speaking English. Kitty glared at Clark for a bit before deciding she had better things she could be doing like looking at the latest release of Jimmy Choo shoes. For the next two hours Clark made appointment after appointment and logging them into the shared calendar that Mr. Luthor, Kitty and he had while Kitty shopped for shoes and as always talked on the phone to her friends inside and outside of the building.
"I'm finished" Clark said finally happy that he had cleared all of the mess that Kitty had left on his desk. It was then that the bing of the elevator went off with Kitty waiting in anticipation on it being Mr. Luthor, while Clark dreaded the thought of having to deal with the bald man for much longer. He had a total of 30 minutes before he could leave for the day and what would probably be the last day in the building. He would turn in his resignation letter to Chloe over the weekend.
"Mr. Luthor" Kitty greeted the man which had Clark slumping into the chair even more. He so hoped the man would just leave him alone for the last 30 minutes of the day.
"Kitty, have my appointments been set up for next week" Mr. Luthor asked Kitty as if she had set them up herself.
"Yes sir, they're in the calendar" Kitty said proud, taking the glory for the appointments even though she had no idea what half of them were even about.
"Hmm" Mr. Luthor said before entering his office and then logging onto his computer. He looked the appointments over and noticed that they were set up the same way that the others had. It seemed that Kitty had given the junior assistant something that he had told her specifically to do. He would have to speak to her about that soon, after all the junior assistant was going to be busy doing the Wedding Edition of Julian, he wouldn't have time to be making appointments and other things that were Kitty's job to do.
"Casey" Mr. Luthor called out sitting behind his desk ready to complete the conversation he was having with the junior assistant.
"To your doom loser" Kitty snarked before smirking at Clark and then continued looking at a pair of shoes that 'daddy' would just have to buy her. Clark sighed before entering the office and taking a seat in front of Mr. Luthor's desk. Mr. Luthor eyed the man before him and had to wonder if he was putting too much on the man, he never complained so that must have meant that he was okay with the works he was being given.
"Now Casey"
"It's Clark, sir" Clark said keeping his tone even, even though he wanted nothing more than to cuss the man out and make his way, with his things and never to return to the building again.
"Yes, of course" Mr. Luthor said a bit of humor in his eyes, most assistants by this time would have given up being called by their name, but not this one. No this one was with him step for step.
"As you know I am very disappointed in you for not doing as you were told. You should have cleared your lunch with me before going on it. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, sure….do I have to get approval to go pee too?" Clark said not biting his tongue on this one, he was tired of being Mr. Luthor's go to guy since his current assistant was incompetent. Mr. Luthor raised his eye brows, surprised at Clark's words.
"You do" Mr. Luthor said keeping up step for step with Clark.
"So why don't you do that to Kitty? She forever not at her desk"
"That is a luxury that Kitty has for being my assistant"
"I see, so you treat the junior assistant like scum, no wonder people always quit"
"Clive"
"It's *Clark*, sir" Clark said putting emphasis on his name, and then checking his watch to see that he had ten minutes before he could leave.
"And you leave when I tell you to" Mr. Luthor said noticing that Clark was looking at his watch; it just wouldn't do for the man to leave without notifying him of the fact. Clark looked up stunned, so this was how things were going to play out. Forget giving a letter to Chloe over the weekend, he was quitting now. He had been putting in 12 to 13 hour days for this man and he had enough nerve to tell him when he could eat, pee and leave.
"Then consider this my notification….I quit" Clark said before standing up and making his way to the door of the office and then going over to the desk he had been placed and grabbing the few things he had brought to work; which was a coffee cup, a photo of his parents, cousin and a few friends. Once Clark had gathered his things he took the badge from around his neck and placed it on the desk long with placing the cell phone that had been his pocket on the desk as well and then made his way over to the elevators and pressed the down button. Kitty never noticed that Clark had left his badge, keys and cell phone on the desk and that said man was making his way now down to the 1st floor to exit the building. Clark's whole ride home he fumed over the words that Mr. Luthor had spoken.
"Just isn't going to happen" Clark said pulling into his parking spot at his apartment complex and noticing that his father's truck was sitting in a visitor's parking spot.
"Thank goodness" Clark said before getting out of his car, items in hand and then making his way towards his apartment where he was certain his parents would be.
"Clark, honey" Martha greeted her son as he made his way through the apartment door.
"What's wrong" Martha said noticing right away that something was going on, her son looked as if he hadn't got a good night's sleep in a long time.
"I quit Julian today" Clark said waiting for either of his parents to scold him for doing so.
"Good"
"About time if you ask me" Jonathan Kent said from the living area where the TV was on and he seemed to be watching some kind of basketball game.
"You're not disappointed?"
"Honey, why would we be disappointed in you? You are much better than being some assistant to as ass like Lex Luthor" Martha explained, when she had heard that her baby had an interview at the magazine she had worried that Clark wouldn't be chosen due to their high standards for personnel, but when Clark had come home raving about the department director, she held out some hope that things would work out for Clark. She knew her son hated working at the hospital, but it seemed he went from one bad situation to the next, only this time he had the eyes of a Luthor on him.
"You're really not disappointed"
"No, now come here son. You're missing a good game" Jonathan said by way of changing the subject. For the rest of the evening the Kent family planned out when they would arrive to the Farmer's Market and how things would work out.
"We got money on the way here" Jonathan said showing Clark the large wad of money that were small bills and loose change.
"Here" Clark said jogging into his room and grabbing a small cash box that he had kept from an event that he had been participating in while at Stanford.
"Excellent" Martha said before grabbing the money from Jonathan and loading up the cash box and then placing it near the front door so that they could grab it on the way out.