CHAPTER 11: The Bad Penny
THE KAWATCHE CAVES
"This place is gorgeous," said a wide-eyed Lois, looking at the writings and drawings on the cave walls. "How come you never mentioned this place, Smallville?" she asked reproachfully as she tried to climb up aided by a ledge of the rock so as to have a closer look at the hieroglyphs. "Who would have thought Hickville had its own hidden treasure?"
"Careful, Lois!" he shouted, wondering what he´d done to deserve having to hang out with Lois the first free weekend in months and, above all, having her snooping around the caves.
"Aren´t you coming up?"
"I can see perfectly fine from here."
"Don´t tell me you´re afraid of heights," she laughed, keeping her grip on the rock with only one hand. "Remind me to introduce you to the beauties of rappel. I´ll ask the General to get us permission to do some practice on the base. We´ll toughen you up, Smallville."
"I´m not afraid of heights. Anyway, of what use would climbing be to me on the farm or in the bullpen?"
"You never know when something can come in handy."
"OK. Why don´t you climb down now? I think we have enough material already."
"My, Clark, why the rush? You´ve looked uncomfortable ever since we set foot in these caves. Do those paintings of a two-headed creature give you the creeps or something? I think they´re cool. Remind me to thank Lana next time we see her."
"Lana?" asked Clark, swallowing a sudden lump in his throat. "I thought you´d found out about the caves when you borrowed that book from the local library."
"No, I bumped into Lana while doing the groceries. She was the one that told me about these caves. Besides, aren´t they supposed to be under LuthorCorp´s control? I thought why not? We could have our research done and, at the same time, piss off a Luthor. I simply couldn´t resist the chance," she smiled ironically. "It´s a pity you´re no longer in speaking terms with Lex. Lana said something about a Dr... Walden? he once hired to study the hieroglyphs. Maybe I´ll pay Lex a visit and see if he can share something about his findings. You know, play a little on his guilty conscience," she added with a speculative look.
"No!" exploded Clark.
"Wow! I thought you didn´t care about him. You want to spare his feelings now?"
"I´m just worried about your safety."
"I´m a big girl, Clark. Besides, the Luthors kind of owe my family for what happened to Chlo´."
"You should let sleeping dogs lie."
"At breakfast I got the impression you were moving in for the kill. Has anybody ever told you you´re one lousy liar? You´ve been thinking about visiting Luthor; you just don´t want me to tag along. Maybe you should follow your own advice, Clark."
"I don´t know what you´re talking about."
"Lana´s free now. If she means to you as much as you seem to believe, why not forget about Luthor and see if you can rekindle that old flame? She gave me the impression of still being interested. I think she´d rather have you focused 100% on her than on a pissing contest with Lex to show who´s more macho."
"I don´t remember asking you for advice on my love life."
"Well, you appeared to need it and since I´ve had more experience than you in the field I thought I could share some pearls of wisdom with you. Besides, by helping you I would be helping myself. Being around a grizzly bear isn´t my idea of fun."
"Nobody´s forcing you to stay."
"I promised your mum I´d give her a hand with a few phone calls to rally some support for the new bill, and I´ve no intention of breaking my word. And... you and I have some work to do, buddy. I´m not going to flunk History because you don´t have the guts to fight for what you want. So quit mopping around and be a man," ranted Lois before walking out of the caves.
Clark was fuming because what really irked him wasn´t so much that Lois was always meddling with things that weren´t her business as the fact that she could read him so well. Perhaps she was right and, were circumstances different, he might consider putting behind the feeling of betrayal he experienced every time he thought of Lana, and try to woo her again. Funny how things could change in the wink of an eye; his love life was the least of his worries now. He wondered how long he´d be able to deflect Lois´ curious nature and how he´d manage to keep everything to himself around his mum.
He stomped out of the caves and walked to where the truck was parked. Lois was already sitting in the driver´s seat, her fingers tapping nervously on the wheel, and Clark felt a twinge of guilt for having to keep secrets from her this time. He shook his head, telling himself it was for the best. God only knew how things would turn out if he opened his mouth.
ROUTE 40- SMALLVILLE´S OUTSKIRTS- TWO HOURS LATER
Martha´s interview with Henry Small had helped Lois clear her head of a certain farm boy in a plaid shirt who had her completely on edge. She thanked God their research was almost done because she didn´t know how long they´d manage to curve their urge to kill each other.
"That went quite well, Mrs Kent, don´t you think?" Lois broke the silence in the truck´s cabin, shooting a sidelong glance at Martha, who was in the passenger´s seat.
"Yes. His contacts with the environmentalists will be helpful to pass the bill," she agreed, looking out of the window to check out how far they were from the farm. She´d been distracted all morning, anxious to see Clark again and talk things over with him before he did something all might come to regret.
"Is everything all right, Mrs Kent?" asked Lois, noticing the older woman´s restlessness.
"Yes... well... Lois, I... er... I meant to ask you... Have you noticed anything unusual going on with Clark?"
"Unusual?" she frowned her brow. "He´s been grumpier and he definitely needs to get out more. He´s moping too much if I may say so."
"Well, it´s been really hard for him to see Lex and Lana together... but I wasn´t referring to his love life. Does he confide in you?"
"Who? Clark? You´re kidding, "she snickered. "He´s like Fort Knox. He knows more about me than I´ll ever know about him. He even knows what my favourite underwear designer is- not that he´s ever seen me modelling it, mind you. No, Clark doesn´t talk much about himself. What I can tell you is that he´s been quieter than usual ever since we left Central Kansas. He was as white as I sheet when we set off; I thought his favourite dog had died on him or something. And then... I don´t know... call me crazy if you will, but I have a hunch he´s planning something."
"Like what?" asked Martha apprehensively.
"I don´t know...I´ve been getting a kind of Avenging Angel vibe off him lately... I told him he should forget about Luthor and work on his relationship with Lana if she´s what he wants. Talking about the cheerleading brunette, isn´t that her car?" responded Lois, pulling up on the farm´s driveway.
No sooner had Lois said the name of Clark´s eternal flame than she appeared on the stairs leading to the front door. It was evident even at a distance that she was distraught. Martha hoped this was their last fallout because, as much as she wanted Clark to be happy, she was convinced Lana wasn´t the one for him. Although Mrs Kent had never thought of herself as a resentful person, seeing her son standing despondent at the kitchen´s door she couldn´t help but experience a sudden flare of resentment towards this young woman whose insecurities and fickleness had made her son suffer so much.
"Something tells me that didn´t go so well," murmured Lois before opening the driver´s door.
Martha´s gaze followed Lana as the girl broke into a sprint to get to her car and drive away in a cloud of dust. The older woman wondered how this would affect Clark´s current state of mind and prayed it didn´t drive him to do something foolish about the contents of the manila envelope she had stumbled upon.
LEX´S PENTHOUSE
Chloe was taking a shower when Lex´s mobile started to vibrate in his pocket disrupting the quiet atmosphere which surrounded both father and daughter like a cocoon. Laura had fallen asleep halfway through the film and ended up reclining her head on Lex´s lap, taking the billionaire once again by surprise. Human touch after Lillian´s death had been alien to him, and the fact that a child could seek his warmth and trust him implicitly would never cease to amaze him.
"Luthor," he said in a low voice, turning off the TV and trying not to stir the girl. "Where´s Jackson?" he asked tersely. "Put him on the phone... I thought I´d been clear when I said I didn´t want any interruptions... I don´t expect you to be a machine, Jackson, but I trusted you´d pass my orders on to your subordinates if you had to do something as prosaic as going to the toilet. No, leave it. I´ll take care of it. And, Jackson, present yourself at LuthorCorp tomorrow morning." He snapped the mobile shut, closed his eyes and leant back against the headrest of the sofa taking a deep breath.
Chloe was blow drying her hair when there was a knock on the bathroom door. She turned off the device and fastened her bathrobe more securely before opening the door just a crack.
"Sorry to disturb you, Chloe. I´ve got something to see to. It won´t take long. Laurie´s dozed off on the sofa in the entertainment room. Would you rather I carried her to the nursery first?" Lex informed her, focusing on Chloe´s face in order not to add to her evident discomfiture.
"No, it´s all right. She always takes a nap in the afternoons and that sofa´s very roomy," she smiled trying to hide how vulnerable she felt around him with her damp hair, her face stripped of make-up and only a terry robe as a barrier between them.
"I´ve moved the coffee table away and scattered some extra cushions around."
"I don´t think she´ll fall, but that was a wise precaution," she responded, noticing his barely disguised restlessness as he darted a look towards the foyer. "Go. We´ll be all right," she allayed his concern, curious of what seemed to have cracked his impenetrable coolness for a short spell.
"I´m not leaving if that´s what you´re wondering, Chloe," he told her perceiving what might be going through her head.
"OK."
"We´ll be getting answers soon, Chloe, and we´ll nail them. Trust me. You´re safe with me. I won´t let anything happen to either of you," he assured the young woman, grazing her cheek with his hand, unable to resist the urge to touch her.
"I know," she replied quietly, holding his gaze and feeling the electricity course through her body.
"I´ll let you get dressed," he said walking away and reining in his urge to taste that mouth which was beckoning him with its slightly parted lips.
Chloe shut the bathroom door and leant her back against it with closed eyes. She was trembling and her body was quivering after the brief exchange. What would happen when everything that was standing between them was no longer there? Would she spontaneously combust the moment he touched her? Judging by the reaction that soft caress on her cheek had provoked in her, she had no doubt she´d burn.
Lex grabbed the doorknob and, taking a few seconds to school his features, he turned it to reveal the unexpected visitor standing in the corridor.
"Hi," said the guest demurely.
"Hi. Are you feeling OK?" he asked, noticing the red-rimmed eyes.
"I didn´t know where else to go."
No surprise there; he´d heard those very same words dozens of times in the last six years. He thought about the two women who were now in his life just a few metres away and wondered how long he´d be able to keep their existence a secret if he let this visitor in. There were two options open- either he could shut the door in her face and ruin the smooth break-up he´d accomplished a few days ago or welcome her in and risk having her discover the truth and divulge the news to the world- namely, to a tall dark farm boy. Somehow the bloodshot eyes told him the latter wasn´t likely to happen at the moment.
"You know I´m always here for my friends, Lana," he replied, stepping aside to let her in.
"Thank you, Lex. You´re the only one I´ve got left," she confessed with a sob.
"Lana, I´m sure that isn´t true. Is this about Clark?" he sighed with a hint of exasperation in his voice.
"I was wrong, Lex. I thought that... he was what I wanted... I´ve been deluding myself for so long, putting my life on hold for someone who´ll never trust me. Now I realise what I´ve let pass me by," she replied, raising her chocolate doe eyes to meet his.
`Oh no. I´m not playing this game again,´ he told himself, seeing where the conversation was going. "Getting over someone who´s been the centre of your universe for so long can´t be accomplished overnight, Lana. You have to give yourself time to grieve.´
Urged by her innate curiosity and the nagging feeling that something paramount was about to happen, Chloe took a detour on her way to her quarters in time to hear a feminine voice say: "I know what I want now. I want to give us a second chance, Lex." Whatever qualms about eavesdropping the blonde reporter might have had flew out of the window the moment the words left Lana´s mouth. She took a step forward to have a look at the woman who was trying to reintroduce herself in Lex´s life, and she was assaulted by a sudden pang of jealousy and possessiveness when the brunette dared touch his cheek.
Lex grabbed Lana´s wrist to remove her hand gently and, shaking his head, he replied calmly: "I understand your bitterness, Lana; but I don´t have time for these games. I won´t fall in this trap again."
Chloe released the breath she´d been holding and unclenched her tight fists, grimacing when she felt the way her nails had buried in the skin of her palms. Finding the brunette just a breath away from the object of her desire had triggered an avalanche of memories from her adolescence in Smallville. Lana Lang- that was the young woman´s name. Chloe could see a very romantic scene at the Kents´ barn play before her eyes as if it´d happened only yesterday. She could still remember the feeling of betrayal which had pushed her towards the deadly web weaved by Lionel Luthor.
"Mommy," mumbled Laura´s sleepy voice, putting an end to Chloe´s trance and stunning the two interlocutors into silence.
"Ch... Chloe?" stuttered Lana wide-eyed, looking from the blonde young woman in a deep purple robe to the man she´d hoped would take her back.
"We need to talk," Lex told his former fiancée gravely.
AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER
As the doors of the lift dinged close Lionel´s first born bid a definite farewell to what could have been the biggest mistake in his life. Ill-timed as Lana´s visit had been, the unfolding of events had lifted a weight off his shoulders and killed any ideas Nell´s niece might have had of winning his heart- he didn´t have time to put up with immature games or to engage in cunning plans to wound Clark for his lack of faith in him and their friendship. He was determined to focus his energy on the one person who had believed in him and loved him just as he was. This was the second time Chloe´d come to him for protection and he was damn if he´d fail her again because he knew he´d be a dead man in life if he were to lose her and their baby once more.
"I don´t like her," Chloe snapped to Lex´s back while he removed the stopper from a decanter and poured them two snifters of brandy.
"Are you sure?" he replied smugly, ambling to the sofa where she was sitting.
Chloe knew she´d been tense and curtly during the whole tête-à-tête but thought she´d behaved admirably controlled all things considered. The brunette had turned up at the penthouse intent on seducing him, for crying out loud!
"You don´t trust her either," she said matter-of-factly, accepting the drink. "If you did, you´d have told her the truth," she added, shooting a glance at Laura, who was busy with her building blocks.
"I don´t owe her any explanations. And you´re right. Lana´s always been fickle in her allegiances."
"Do you think she suspects anything?"
"Laurie looks a lot like you, Chloe. She might not connect the dots. Do you regret the fact that I´m her father?"
"She has your eyes. And, no, my question didn´t have anything to do with being ashamed of you or who you are, Lex. "
Looking into the crackling fire to hide from her the emotion he was sure must be reflected in his eyes, he responded, "You shouldn´t worry so much about Lana. She knows better than to betray me."
"A scorned woman can be a very treacherous creature," she stated, looking at him over the brim of her glass. "Are you sure she isn´t a Shannon Bell in the making?"
Another man would have choked on his beverage, but he´d learnt how to appear cool and unflappable when taken by surprise.
"I´m no longer the man who could drive someone like Shannon to murder. I treated a lot of women abominably, Chloe, and I have no excuse for that. Everything changed with you. Is this a subtle ruse to find out how many there have been after you?"
"I´d be a fool to believe or expect you to have remained a monk all these years. What kind of an egotist would I be to demand faithfulness of a man who believed me to be dead?" she stated calmly, setting down the empty snifter on the end table.
"That night at the opera... I had hit rock bottom," he started to explain.
"There´s no need for you to justify your actions, Lex," she told him, getting up from the sofa and chiding herself for her uncharacteristic lack of control over her emotions. Her voice was telling him she didn´t care, but her heart was saying something different. He had to be blind not see the way the thought of he and another woman was affecting her
"Chloe," he stopped her, grabbing her hand and standing up to be able to look at her in the face.
"I have to get dressed," she mumbled, feeling her heart racing in her chest as the vanilla of his perfume invaded her nostrils.
"There were no more one-night stands after her and... nothing ever happened between Lana and me," he confessed, observing Chloe´s expressive face closely. "I´m not saying I´ve remained celibate..."
"Why are you telling me this, Lex?" she cut him off.
"I just want you to know there´s no reason to be jealous. There´s no one to be jealous of."
"And who says I´m jealous?" she tensed.
"You should have looked at yourself in the mirror while Lana was around. For a minute there I was tempted to ask her if she´d got vaccinated against rabies," he said smugly. "I know what it feels like," he added softly, grazing her right cheek and tilting her chin up to bore his eyes into her. "The moment I found out you were alive.... that another man had seen you naked... that he had touched you... that he´d known what it was like to be enveloped in your warmth and never want to leave you... I was blinded by jealousy. It doesn´t matter he´s dead; I´m still jealous of every kiss that he robbed you and of every morning he woke up to find you lying asleep by his side."
"Lex, " she panted as his thumb traced her lips before leaning into her with the intention of tasting the sweet nectar of her mouth once again.
Chloe closed her eyes and was assaulted by a sensory overload- her fuller breasts, her taut peaks chafing against the terry robe which covered her nudity, the pulsing of her feminine core, the warm dampness that was pooling there and the way her skin burnt wherever his hands or his breath touched her. He´d promised he´d stay away and here he was, his lips hovering millimetres away from hers and she couldn´t think of anything else. He was going to kiss her and she was going to let him. She expected it. She craved it. However, fate had other plans in store; the very moment his lips brushed hers the buzzing of Lex´s mobile phone broke the spell.
The billionaire pulled away and, half-cursing half-welcoming the interruption, extracted the mobile from his pocket to look at the caller ID.
"Chloe," he managed to voice, noticing the way she fidgeted with the lapels of her robe in an attempt to cover the creamy swell of her bosom. "There´s nothing to be ashamed or guilty of. We´re both human and there´s no denying we want each other," he went on saying, feeling the insistent vibration of the phone in his hand. "Maybe this wasn´t the right place or time," he added quietly, shooting a glance at Laurie, who was finishing an intricate construction with her blocks. `But that place and time will come sooner than you expect it,´ his eyes seemed to say. `God knows I would have found it hard to settle with just a kiss,´ he finished in his mind, holding her bright emerald gaze as he flipped the mobile open. "Luthor."
"Make the arrangements. We should meet," replied a cool voice at the other end of the line.