36
"Clark, I don't know why you insisted on coming with me," Chloe said, sighing as she undid her seatbelt.
He shrugged and let his hands ease up from their grip on the steering wheel. Apparently, he could move the seat of the truck back enough for driving. It wasn't all that comfortable and most of his stomach was squeezed a bit underneath the steering wheel but it was doable. "I thought J'onn said we had to be near to each other all the time."
"And that makes it sound like a Siamese twin thing," she said. "Clark, Kara and Jimmy and Lois are all already up there with my stuff and we could have used Lois's SUV. It would have been done in about two hours without you. Hell, we could do it faster but it would look funny if Kara popped in there and five minutes later all my stuff was gone."
"I know."
"So why did you pull the alpha male bit and insist that you get to come along."
He sighed and tapped the steering wheel. "Because it feels wrong making you do all the work."
"Excuse me?"
"I just, I'm the fiance..." and that sounded kind of weird out loud but he liked it. "...and I should be helping you move and doing all that stuff with my, what did you call them? Phenomenal cosmic powers. I making you do all the packing stuff."
"Jimmy, Lois, and Kara agreed to be my minions for the day so it's not all that bad. Second, you really shouldn't-"
He rolled his eyes, "Lift anything, go anywhere, breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide."
"You do that?"
"Pretty sure on the last one. I mean, I need air but I'm not sure what I breathe out," he shook his head. "Don't distract me. It won't work."
"It always works. I need something shiny or possibly Lana-shaped."
"Not funny," he groused. "I just hate feeling like this invalid or this burden for everybody."
"You're not."
"I feel that way. I'm not a moron. I know that I can't lift anything as pregnant as I am, and that's still weird to say. It's just that I can be the guy who lets you borrow his truck and drives the stuff home. I know Kara and the Manhunter will just move all the boxes anyway. I just want to do one normal thing today. Come on, this morning I was combing through the pile of those torture devices you and Kara picked up at the K-Mart."
"See, bras are not fun."
"I hate that word," he said. "But I need to do one normal, completely human guy thing right now or I'll go crazy. I'm not asking to go to a Shark's game and sit on the fifty yard line. All I'll do is wait in the car for half an hour in a back alley. This is how sad my life is that this is the possible highlight of my week."
Chloe glared at him, "So the mind-blowing sex where you floated totally didn't register?"
"You know what I mean," he said. "That was awesome but not exactly, um-"
"Normal? I'm a mutant and you're an alien. How was it going to be normal?" She defended.
"No, not you. You're great. That glowing trick? Totally does the same thing for my ego that me floating does for you. But I just want to do something normal today, please, Chlo."
She sighed and nodded, kissing his cheek. "If you felt that bad about all of it...well Jimmy can always pretend he understands football and you can watch games when you get back."
"He does get confused between first down and a touchdown."
"But he tries," she said, patting his shoulder. "That totally settles it. Lois, Kara and I will do girl things somewhere in Girlvania, possibly with nail polish, and you and Jimmy can eat Nachos and grunt at barbarians and jockstraps."
"Yeah, now you're getting it."
She chuckled and hopped out of the car. "I'll be back in about half an hour. Keep the heat on, but really, you should just go to the farm and let us handle it."
"I'm good."
"Fine, but if anything happens, Kara has her ears perked up for you. Just say her name."
He smiled, "She's getting very good at the hearing. She can pick up on my heartbeat like I could with hers when she was sick in Metropolis. She'll take good care of me." Chloe quirked her head at him. "What?"
"You really do love her."
"Of course, she's my family, but she annoys the Hell out of me."
"That's about how I explain Lois and Lucy," Chloe replied shutting the door. "Okay, Kon, you're in charge because you're clearly smarter than daddy."
"Hey!"
"Look, he clearly never liked Lana all that much. I think his kicking and getting you couch exiled was part of a master plan."
"He was five months old."
"My son's a genius," she quipped. "Listen to him and stay out of trouble." And with that, she headed up the stairs of the fire escape and to her apartment.
Clark shook his head and fiddled with the radio, finally settling on an alternative rock station he liked. He was hoping that he'd hit on that Life House song in the next few minutes.
"You know, Kon," he added conversationally. It was amazing how one could get used to talking to someone who couldn't answer back in just four short months. "I really, really love you because, buddy, you've made a mess out of me. Oh no, you totally have. I know, look at me. No, superficial stuff doesn't matter. Yes, there is that story about the ugly darnash Aunt Kara told us. Uh-huh. Still, I used to be the strongest man-let me emphasize that beautiful word- man on the planet. Now? Well, I'm still strong, you know, and invulnerable, mostly, but I'm a total wreck.
Oh, and even though sex is evil and wrong and you will never have it, just like Aunt Kara is really a nun in my happy fantasy life, I kind of hope you do. I hope that you have the same luck I do and get to know the wonders of having those things whose name I will not speak. Yup, that will teach you to have sex. I'm thinking of joining a monastery myself after you're weaned. I think it's a good plan, but then your mom does this thing with her tongue that you can never really know about seeing as how you'll grow up to be a perfect eunuch and never give me heart attacks. Anyway, your mom is really persuasive so I wouldn't give up on the sex, but I'm rethinking it.
Kara's right. I'm never sleeping with Squirrels again. It's a bad plan, a non-plan really."
Clark sighed and focused his X-ray vision, frustrated when it flickered just a little before activating. He wasn't going to tell Chloe about that one. It was just his problem. He didn't need to see through everything, anyway. It's just that he liked to and that he'd miss watching Kon when it went. Of course, if J'onn were right, then Kon might just show up any minute anyway.
Looking at his son, Clark smiled. Kon, per usual, didn't really listen to his rants, but was curled up asleep, his hands occasionally fluttering as he slept. "It's an excellent thing you're cute," he replied. "I wouldn't do this for just anyone, you know."
"Clark, who are you talking to?"
Clark felt a chill sneak into his bones that had nothing to do with the the cold Christmas-time weather. Looking up from his stomach, like that wasn't incriminating enough, he turned toward the driver's side window. Standing on the other side of it was Lex Luthor.
Lex was smiling that same charming smile that graced The Planet's Page Six week in and week out. It was a dazzling one, to be sure. Something that he'd used to bed half the debutantes in the country and all of the ones in Europe by now, but when you really knew him, you could see the cold hauteur underneath. The charm Lex was exuding was no more real that Clark's birth certificate. "Clark?"
Clark had a few options that he was evaluating then. One, he could gun the engine and pretend that he hadn't noticed Lex, which probably wouldn't work since they'd made prolonged eye contact. Two, he could try lying. Considering his track record with lying, the gunning for Mexico option seemed better and then Lex went and proved how big a moron Clark was.
He started to open the door, "Seriously, are you alright?"
Clark tugged the door back and was surprised at the effort it took. Yesterday, he could shatter wood and, today, for a few brief panic stricken moments, he though Lex was going to overpower him and open the door. With the way he looked now, there was no lie good enough to hide a full view of his stomach. Finally, thankfully, he slammed the door shut and managed to lock it, which he'd forgotten to do after Chloe'd left.
Lex frowned, "Roll down the window."
Clark did as he was asked, "Uh, hi Lex." And it amazed him how everything being so off-kilter could send him back to high school. He was good at accusations and righteous indignation. He should work from that vantage point. Practically squeaking hello was not a good way to convince Lex to mosey on through.
"Clark, what are you doing here?"
"It's The Talon and I like muffins."
"No, this is the alleyway behind The Talon and your sitting alone in your car talking to no one."
"Sometimes I think out loud. It helps me work through my problems," although it had been unable to help him solve the whole pregnancy thing. Apparently, you couldn't talk your way out of that one.
Lex nodded and then narrowed his eyes at him. "How's Lana? I've heard so many rampant rumors from the news and my contacts in Washington."
"You're what?"
"Oh, I have a vested interest in watching Martha work. If things had gone differently, that would have been my senate seat after all. Besides," he said, looking down pointedly to get a better view of Clark's stomach. "I'm interested in the whole Kent family."
Clark swallowed and pressed himself as close to the steering wheel as he dared, hoping it would hide Kon better. "Lana's feeling much better," he lied. "The doctors have put her under constant supervision and she and the baby are going to be just fine. We're expecting her to go into labor any minute actually."
"That's wonderful to hear. I've been so concerned for her. I know what a mess we made with our divorce, but we've gotten so much closer these last few months at fundraisers. ISIS is such a wonderful organization."
Clark gulped. She couldn't have. J'onn swore she hadn't and they'd destroyed every record she'd ever collected about Kon, Kara, or him. "I suppose it is."
"It's mission statement, it's vision-helping the meteor-infected. That's remarkable of her, don't you think, after all the times something less than human has hurt her." Lex's gaze intensified and Clark shivered.
"Meteor mutants aren't like that, not all of them."
Lex smiled a cruel smile. "Chloe, you mean? She's even more exceptional than Lana, isn't she? There isn't another mutant in the entire Smallville menagerie-"
"Don't you say anything like that about her," he growled and was surprised when he still had enough strength to snap the steering wheel slightly.
Lex's smirk grew. "Of course, we're perfectly normal and upstanding members of society. The mutated population of Belle Reve is a fluke."
"Chloe's not like that. She's not ever going to be like that or like you."
"Oh, throwing that back, are we? I think everyone knows just what I am thanks to the first shower but I'm not like the masses either. I'm a Luthor and I'm better."
"Right, in the torturing arts, you guys are masters, congratulations."
"Touche. I merely meant that I've never seen a mutant who can heal as she does, not just herself, but she can raise the dead. The secret of immortality in one annoying blonde package."
"You're delusional. Chloe hasn't manifested anything. You're doctors told you so and you let her go."
"And I have a free range program, Clark. Do you think I want to put all of my subjects in tiny cages?"
"Yes."
"No, that's pointless. The most interesting ones? The ones I want to follow the most closely? No, they're much more fun to watch stumble through their lives, pretending to be everything that they are not. I've enjoyed watching Chloe's relationship with that idiot photographer fall apart because of what she is. I've loved watching her back off from every lead of Lowell County and have her cousin be promoted ahead of her. I wasn't even all that surprised when she quit."
"You blacklisted her."
"Mostly, but Chloe...don't kid yourself, Clark. I know what goes on in my city and in my hometown. I know more than enough about Chloe. Ironically, I might not have put all the pieces together if she hadn't healed me herself, but I have. She stays free because I let her. I think that's an important lesson for you to learn."
"That you're a vicious sociopath who's gunning for Chloe? No, I learned that two years ago."
Lex laughed and patted Clark's shoulder in a gesture of the camaraderie they no longer shared. Clark scooted back but not before he felt the tiniest hint of something touch his skin. "You really don't want to touch me."
"Fair enough," Lex replied, pulling his hand back. "But no, I wasn't referring to that lesson, which you've gotten wrong."
"No I haven't."
"Yes, you have. The lesson that you need to learn, Clark, is that the people and things that live in Smallville are at my mercy."
"You're not in charge of anything yet, not really. Just a company you stole from your father."
"The original bastard. I've noticed he's welcome at your table."
"Barely and not because I want him there," Clark admitted truthfully. "You're not in control of everything like I think you are."
Lex laughed again. "No, I very much am. I control your horizontal and your vertical, Clark."
"What?"
"Tell the line to Kara, she'll get it and then you'll know," he replied. "It's odd."
"What's odd?"
"Chloe, leaving her job, moving out today and onto Kent farm. I've been to your house, Clark-"
"Our mistake for ever letting you on it."
Lex rocked back a little and when he spoke again all the mirth was gone from his voice. "I can't imagine Lana would be happy to have Chloe horning in again. She was very vocal about how Chloe was trying to take over the pregnancy, make it about her, drive you two apart. And now she's moving in. Is it a bed built for three?"
"She's sharing a room with Kara," he said. "Lana wanted her friend there while she was sick and for the delivery and recovery afterwards. It's not that odd."
"No, I guess it's not. Tell me, are you two fucking?"
"Excuse me?" he demanded, reminding himself not to crush anything.
"You heard me. You know, don't you, how could you not? You know what Lana and I were doing. Whatever kind of relationship you two tried to cobble together for the sake of your son, it's a farce."
Clark was so very angry then and it was a good thing that his heat vision had apparently burned itself out at the reservation. Those words it close to home because it had been a farce, just not from his end. He'd tried very hard to make all of it work for Kon's sake and because, once upon a time, he'd loved Lana desperately. But now, the thought of her, of her willingly poisoninghis child.
She made him even madder than Lex did.
"Go away, Lex."
"Do you want a trade? I'll let Lana come live in the mansion. She used to be over there every night anyway and we both know it. Then Chloe can start paying you the rest of the lease she owes me, make it so that farm of yours turns a profit."
"Shut up!" he growled and then Kon kicked, really kicked and it hurt. Clark gasped and doubled over as best he could.
Lex smelled the blood in the water and kept pushing. "Broken down farmer, just like your father, and both of you so over impressed with yourselves with how great you are. Jonathan loved to sermonize and be holier than thou. What do you think he'd say to you now, Clark?"
"Just shut up," he hissed and Kon kicked again and something sounded wrong. God, did something tear?
"Now you have a bastard child, the laughing stock of Washington, and the mother was warming my bed. He probably wouldn't even be able to look you in the eye anymore. His approval was so very conditional, wasn't it?"
God, everything hurt, the pain was flaring through him and Kon still wouldn't stop. Why would he? This was the most upset Clark had ever gotten, because Lex was telling the truth. He loved his father more than anything, but his father would be ashamed of what had become of him, of what he'd been reduced to. His eyes clamped shut in pain, all Clark could see was his father's back turned to him in a hospital room in which a very different Kent baby had died.
"You're not good enough for him either and you know it."
"Fuck you!" He shouted and this time he did hear something tear. He wasn't imaging it. Kon kicked again and the whole windshield shattered, the glass falling inward cutting the skin of his face and Clark wasn't even surprised to find that he wasn't invulnerable anymore.
It hurt.
He fell to his side and started screaming, "Get Kara. Please, Lex, if you've done one decent human thing in your miserable life, get her. Kara!"
And then it was so blurry from there. There was pain and people passing in and out of his field of vision. Lex was still there. He and Chloe were arguing. He grabbed her arm and then the strap of her ugly purse-the one that reminded him of a fraggle that she'd got at some lame thrift store in Metropolis with her mother-and then they were yelling again.
Kara was sitting beside him and she was saying things so low that only he could hear because his hearing wasn't gone. It was still acute and, thank God, Kon's heart was still very strong.
"Shh, little cousin, it's not what you think. I...it's not started yet. One or two things, small veins, just a handful tore, but it's not time, I promise. Chlo, get rid of him!"
"I'll do it," Lois said and where the Hell he and Jimmy had materialized from Clark had no clue.
Lois grabbed Lex by his elbow and started manhandling him to the front of the alley, "Come on, Cue Ball."
Clark was just collected enough to peer out and watch Lex as he left. The other man was no longer cocky or confident. He was worried. Lex was glancing back at Clark. From his vantage point, he couldn't make out his stomach, but he could see him writhing. Was Lex sweating?
"He's going to be alright, isn't he, Kara?"
And it worried him that he knew to ask the nineteen year old barista that,
"Just go, Lex, or Lois will be the least of your problems," his cousin shot back.
"I...please take good care of him."
"Just get out, Lex!" Chloe shouted as he and Lois disappeared around the corner with Jimmy trailing behind them. "Clark?" Chloe asked, "I just need you to be still for a minute, please."
"No, don't."
"It's not what you think. It's little things. It's not time," Kara told Chloe. "But Kon would do better if..."
Chloe nodded and he could already feel the warmth spread over his stomach as she healed both of them. "Shh, Clark, I'm going to take of my family. It's okay."
"I...but," he objected weakly, fading into unconsciousness.
But not before he thought about Lex's final words. They'd been those of a concerned friend, which Lex had once been, as much as Clark tried to deny it. Their tone, however, was wrong. Lex hadn't sounded like a concerned friend at all. He sounded as he had those times when Clark had caught him on the end of an intense phone call with shareholders.
He sounded like a man terrified of losing his investment.
And that, more than what Lex had hinted at or what the other man had seen, scared Clark more than anything.