AN: So, after catching parts of Smallville reruns at work while on break, my muse has decided to work on this story again. As I have about five unpublished chapters, I'd thought I'd update one. Hoping to finally finish this story even though I don't know if i have any readers in this fandom any longer. If I do, would love to hear from you. A review can always help placate the muse!
It was eight forty-five and the Talon was now empty except for Lex and Lana and had been for the last twenty minutes. Lana was behind the counter putting dishes away.
"So what do you think about closing at seven-thirty on Sunday's," Lana called out over the counter to Lex who was wiping down the tables to help her out.
Lex thought about it for a moment before replying.
"Why don't we try eight o'clock first," he told her finishing with one table and moving onto another. "We'll try that for a few weeks and see what happens," he said not wanting to go to overboard with cutting back the hours.
"Well you are supposedly the business man so I guess you know what you're talking about," Lana said standing up from behind the counter. As she did so she found the wet rag flying in her direction. "Hey!" she exclaimed as the wet rag hit her.
"You want to toss that back so I can finish these tables?" Lex asked her a smile on his face.
"You threw it, you can walk over here and get it," Lana told him putting the wet rag down on the counter. She already had her revenge in mind but it meant that Lex had to be closer to the counter.
"I'm not sure why I'm doing this," Lex told her as he walked toward the counter to retrieve the wet rag so he could finish cleaning the tables. "It's not as if I actually need to be doing this. I'm only cleaning these tables to help you out."
"You're the one who sent my help home," Lana told him trying to sound upset but not managing it at all. She would have done the same exact thing anyway.
"Gee a guy tries to do the decent thing and . . ." Lex started to say. He never finished the sentence as a spray of cold water hit him. "Hey, what are you doing?" Lex said putting his hands up in front of him and moving away from the counter.
"Getting you back," Lana said laughing. She let go of the trigger and let the hose go back into the sink. "Here, dry off," Lana said, tossing a towel in Lex's direction.
"Thanks," Lex said catching the towel. He glanced up at the clock. "Why don't you lock the door and then we'll get this place cleaned up," he said drying off as he glanced down at the water on the floor.
"But its only eight fifty-five," Lana said jokingly even as she got her keys out and started walking toward the front door.
"If anyone complains, blame it on the owner," Lex told her as he headed to the supply closet to get the mop so he could mop the water up off the floor. "It's not like this town doesn't blame me for everything already any way."
He opened the supply closet but didn't get any further as he heard Lana's exclamation.
"Hey, watch it. I'm sorry but we're locking up for the night." Lex turned around to see a guy forcing his way into the Talon.
As the guy pushed the door open and came in, Lana took a few steps back from the door. Lex started to walk toward them, when he saw a blur of movement behind the guy. Seconds later, he felt someone grab him from behind.
"Hey, what gives," Lex said as he struggled against the guy that held him. Looking toward the doorway, he could see that the first guy that had pushed his way into the Talon had a hold of Lana. "If it's the money you want, just take it," Lex told them worried about Lana getting hurt. Whatever the Talon actually had in the register wasn't worth it.
"It's not the money we came after," The guy who had a hold of Lana said.
Lex had a bad feeling about this. If it wasn't the money that they were after, it meant they weren't simple robbers. They had come here for a purpose and he had a feeling he knew what that purpose was.
"Then let her go. She doesn't need to be involved in all of this," Lex told them, assuming that it was him they were after. Probably as leverage to get something off of his father. Something that he knew his father would never give in and give them even if it meant his son's life.
"Aren't you full of yourself Luthor?" Lex heard the person behind him say. "It's the girl we came for, not you." From behind Lex, Ed looked over at his brother. "What should we do with him?"
"Take him with us," Fred replied. "We can't leave behind a witness. We'll let the Boss decide what to do with him. Let's go," he ordered nodding toward the back of the Talon.
The two brothers had parked the van in the alley near the back door. At this time of night, no one would see them load their two prisoners into the van.
The sound of the phone ringing brought Jonathan Kent out of his deep sleep. Groggily, he reached over and picked up the receiver, wondering who would be calling this late at night.
"Hello."
"Dad, is Clark home?" came the sound of his daughter's voice. He couldn't quite read the emotion in her voice. She sounded scared, upset, and hopeful all at once.
"Yeah, he is," Jonathan told her. "Sweetie, what's going on?" he asked, the anger he had felt toward her totally disappearing with his concern.
"Lex never came home from the Talon. He called and told me he was going to stay and help Lana lock up because the other waitress had a family emergency but he still should have been home an hour ago. He also isn't answering his cell phone."
By this time, Clark was standing at the doorway of his parents room having heard the telephone ring.
"Clark, have you heard from Lex at all recently," Jonathan asked as there came a knock from the front door.
"I'll get it," Martha said climbing out of the bed. She grabbed her robe and headed toward the doorway.
"No. Not since this afternoon," Clark told his Dad as he moved aside to let his Mom pass.
"Clark hasn't heard from him either, but I'm sure there is a good explanation," Jonathan told his daughter trying to calm her down. "I want you to sit tight there. I'll be over as soon as I can. I'll have Clark go out and start looking."
"Okay, Dad."
Jonathan hung up the phone and climbed out of bed.
"What's going on Dad?"
"Lex never came home from the Talon tonight and he's not answering his cell phone," Jonathan told him as he grabbed a shirt of the nearby chair.
"That's not like Lex."
"We need to find out if Lana made it home." Jonathan said.
"She didn't," Martha said. "That was Nell at the door looking for Lana."
"She call the police yet?"
"No she wanted to see if Clark had heard from her first."
Jonathan sighed. Something was definitely wrong if both of them had gone missing.
"Okay, we definitely need to get the police involved. Have them check out the Talon and see if there are any clues as to what happened to them. Martha, why don't you and Nell do that. I'm going to head over to the Luthor place to be with Cecily and calm her down. Clark why don't you start looking and see if you can turn anything up," Jonathan told his son.
"Okay. I'll start at the Talon. That's the last place we know for sure they were at."
Jonathan nodded.
"I want you to leave the house with me. With Nell here we can't take any chances and you just disappearing is going to raise a red flag. Let me get dress and I'll meet you downstairs."
"Okay, Dad," Clark said knowing his father was right although that didn't make it any easier to wait. Something had clearly happened to Lana and Lex for them to both go missing like that. He wanted to get out there and start looking for them.
"I'll go call the police and try to calm Nell down," Martha said.
She and Clark left the room and Jonathan got out of bed and went to the closet to get his clothes. It didn't look like he was going to get much sleep today.
The doorbell to the Luthor castle echoed through the downstairs. Cecily jumped up from where she was sitting on the steps and rushed to the door. Even if the guard hadn't already alerted her that he Dad had just come through the gate, she still would have known it was him.
She threw the door open to find her father standing there just like she expected. She threw her arms around him not even letting him get through the door.
"Any word from him?" Jonathan asked as he held her close.
"No," she told him. "I'm really worried."
"Lana's missing too," Jonathan told her.
"Do you think something happened at the Talon?"
"I don't know. Martha and Nell are contacting the police and Clark went out looking for them."
"Can we go out? Drive the roads. What if he had an accident on his way home and he probably would've given Lana a ride home."
"Okay," Jonathan told her given in. He knew the last thing she would want to do is hang around doing nothing. If he didn't give in to her, she would probably go off on her own. "Grab a coat. It's cool out tonight."
Cecily grabbed a coat from the hall closet and was putting it on as the two of them headed out of the castle and to Jonathan's truck.
As he pulled the truck out of the Luthor driveway, he glanced over at his daughter. He could see the worry on her face as her eyes scanned the countryside they were passing through.
"We'll find them," he told her, trying to reassure her.
"I'm sure they'll be found," Martha Kent told Nell as she sat a cup of warm herbal tea down in from of her neighbor.
"I just know something terrible has happened. Lana's never out this late without calling. Something had to have happened."
Martha was about to say something when Nell's cell phone rang. Nell quickly got it out of her pocket and answered it without looking at who it was. She was hoping it was Lana.
"Hello," she said anxiously.
"Miss Potter, listen closely. I have your niece. She's safe for now but if you send police after me I can't say for sure that she'll stay that way."
"Who is this?"
"Oh you know me. You're responsible for taking something very special from me. You could say I'm repaying the favor."
"What do you want?"
"Simply revenge," the man on the other end of the phone said and then hung up.
Nell looked down at her cell phone. It simply said blocked number.
"Nell, what is it?" Martha asked.
"Whoever just called said he had Lana and that he wanted revenge. He said I took something special away from him."
"Do you know what he was talking about?"
"No," Nell said breaking down into tears. Martha put her arms around the other woman and let her cry. She wasn't sure what to say. Wasn't sure there was even anything she could say.
Scott Murphy hung up the phone. He could tell he had succeeded in scaring Nell Potter. Now he had to figure out where he wanted to go from here.
Originally, this all should have been just about over. His plan had called for grabbing the girl, holding her for a few hours while he made the call to Nell Potter and let the aunt worry about her niece for a while. Then he was going to have Fred and Ed drop the girl off somewhere in the middle of nowhere and make an anonymous call to the police telling them where they could find the girl. Long enough to let Nell Potter know what it felt like to feel like you were going to lose her little girl. To give her a taste of the pain that she had caused him.
Things were different now though. They didn't just have Lana. Lex Luthor had to go and get in the way. Now he had to figure out what to do with him.
The door to the room opened and Fred walked in.
"The two prisoners are secure. Ed is standing guard just in case," Fred told him.
"Good," Scott said.
"What are we doing about Luthor?"
"I'm not sure yet. Having him changes everything."
"Ransom him?"
Scott let out a laugh at that idea. He knew Lionel Luthor better than that.
"Lionel would let us kill him before giving us any money."
"We could just kill him. A bullet through the head solves a lot."
"No, too many leads. Believe me, if Lex Luthor turns up dead then Lionel will put everything he has into finding his killers."
"But he won't pay ransom for him."
"Lionel's a complicated man," Scott told him thinking about the man who owned part of his business. "We've got to get rid of him, but we need to make sure it can't be traced back to us. To any of us."
