Chapter 36 – Saving Sullivan
Lionel flipped the lights on in the rest of the cell revealing to Lex the position that his wife was in. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Finishing your 33.1 project. It was just convenient that you gave me the perfect specimen." Reaching over to the mike, he called, "You may proceed."
Lex started toward his father as his father pulled a gun on him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I told you that someday you would make everyone hate you and from the tears in her eyes, I see that she thinks that you're in on it." Lex stopped and looked at his wife. "Lex, she saw you and I walk in here with our arms around each other. What does she think?"
He read her face and tears. He read her lips. "You bastard," she mouthed as she turned away from him as the doctor picked up the first utensil and sat down in front of her outstretched legs.
Lex felt ill. He couldn't do anything but watch his father take his firstborn. "An eye for an eye son." Just as he said so, Lex cringed watching the doctor move toward his wife, who still didn't look at him. Concentrating on her, he didn't notice the gun had moved until the shot rang out.
Looking at his father, he had shot the doctor in the back. He raced for the door and ran into the room. Chloe screamed as she pushed the doctor's body off her with her foot. She glanced over and saw Lex crying as he ran up to her. Grabbing her off the table, he pulled her to the floor and covered her with his body and coat. Peeking out behind the neckline of his coat, he could just see his father turn the gun on himself and shoot. Jerking away, he chocked.
"What happened?" Chloe popped her head up as she heard the gun go off, "Lex, are you ok?" She started feeling his back for bullet marks and then looked up. "Lex, your dad."
Lex turned around and uncovered her slightly. He winced as he looked at his father, or what was left of him. Chloe buried her face in his chest. "Are you ok?" Lifting her chin, he was nervous. "Chloe I didn't have…" Chloe covered his open mouth with a kiss as he could feel her tears touch his cheek.
Clark and Lois entered the room with the rest of the gang and covered their mouth. Lionel was …everywhere. Lex pulled Chloe up and walked out into the room with her and out the door. Clark and Lois followed the two.
"You ok cuz?" Lois wrapped her arms around Chloe.
"I'm fine all things considered. What happened?" Lex, Lois, Chloe, and Clark stood confused as the small group followed them out.
"I couldn't let him hurt my little baby." Chloe looked up from Lex's arms. Moira looked confused and afraid that her daughter was in Lex Luthor's arms. Lex loosened hus grip as Chloe pulled away.
"Mom." Chloe wrapped her arms around Moira as Moira started kissing her on the top of the head.
"It's going to be okay. It's over."
Lex passed up Chloe, rubbing her shoulder and patting Moira on the back as he went back in the room where his father was. He closed his eyes in thought and huffed.
"I'm sorry man," Clark stated.
"I'm not," he replied, not looking at Clark. "This is what should have happened a long time ago." He paused for a moment. Turning and looking at Clark, he sighed, "Are we ok? I mean you seemed really angry out there earlier. I had …"
"We're ok. It's just for the longest time, it was so hard to believe you. Anyway, this time you didn't pull the trigger and that's what matters." Clark stood with Lex for a little longer as he could see Lex reliving memories fast and furious. "Let's go. You need to take care of Chloe."
"Good riddance dad." He turned and left the room.
"Well, that takes care of everything." Lex moved out behind his computer as he hung up the phone. He sat down on the couch next to Chloe and her mother. Clark, Lois, and Senator Kent sat on the couch across. "It seems I did a lot more things than I thought in my brief 'separation.' I let my father out of prison and started up some wild secret project."
Jonathon leaned over and looked over the documents that Chloe and Lex had put together in the last few days. "Are you still keeping tabs on these people? Lex, they don't trust you as it is – you need to leave these people alone."
"It's just customary surveillance – nothing more. They are all trying to live as normal lives as they could before my father started collecting them and deserve to go back to those lives. I just helped them."
"By employing them in your plants? Sounds like another one of the Luthor schemes." Jonathon threw a daggered look back at his son when Clark whispered for him to cool it.
"No scheme Senator Kent, they're just more protected there," Chloe interluded as Lex put his hand on her knee to tell her to kindly stay out of it. He watched as Jonathon backed off the topic and moved on.
"So, what now for them?"
"They all have homes, can go back to their families and live normally. If trouble begins again for them, now they're taken care of." Lex sat back in the seat and put his arm around Chloe, who smiled at Jonathon. Lois felt that something was fishy but it had been years since Lex pulled a fast one, so she let her fears go. "Now, I hate to be a rude host, but I think Chloe and her mom would like some time alone."
Lex walked out of the room with Lois, Clark, and Jonathon and then returned to see Chloe and Moira in deep conversation. Sitting down on the couch across from them, he marveled at the amount the two could share in such a short amount of time. He got up and walked over to ring a maid. The maid entered and slightly glanced at Lex.
"Jasmine, please set up the guest room and call the Saks in Metropolis for whatever a woman would need." Chloe looked up and grinned from ear to ear. Turning to see her, he mouthed, "what size?" Turning back to Jasmine, he saw that she slightly smiled at him. He actually got an emotional overture from a servant. "Size 10," he stated as he pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her.
"Sir?"
"Go, take the helicopter and get her shopping done. I'll call and let them know you're coming. And get something nice for yourself." Jasmine stood and waited for the punchline but turned and walked quickly as she didn't want to hear Lex renege on the offer.
Lex returned to the couch to catch the end of the conversation. He heard Moira explain that the ability had also caused her the catatonic state that she was in the last time Chloe had seen her. He saw how Chloe's heart dropped when she explained that she would return to that state if she wasn't medicated.
"Who funded the project?"
She leaned forward and looked at Lex, peering at him disdainfully. "You did – you locked me up – you made me take pills and do things, and then one day you were gone. You didn't return until you were with your father in the caves in Idaho. That was when you moved us. So forgive me – I may have helped you back at Luthorcorp by killing your father but I don't trust you."
"Mom!"
"Honey, the Luthors have been the bane of my existence since I was taken from you when you were eight. Now, I understand that he saved you and your father and that's noble. And I realize that was when he dropped all of his projects and we were all left to fend for ourselves just to collected up again by the evil twin. But honey," Chloe clasped her hands around her mother's. She halfway smiled at Lex who was rubbing his chin and visibly uncomfortable.
"Mom, I trust him. I have not wanted to for a long time," she glanced at Lex as he squinted in confusion and hurt. "But I know that he would do anything for me. And you. Mom, I love him – we're having your grandchild. Mom, give him – this Luthor a chance."
Moira shrugged and hugged her daughter. "Ok, I'll give him a chance."
Lex got up from the couch and squeezed Moira's shoulder as he passed her. He could see her give him a passing smile of hope and suspicion. "Hello. Yes, I need the file on Moira Sullivan before you destroy all of them. Send it over immediately as well as any records of the treatments that she was receiving at all her locations. No, just hers – the rest need to be burned. Thank you."
Chloe smiled at Lex as he hung up the phone and signaled he was leaving where she and her mom could be alone.