~Let's not even pretend that I own any of this.~
~Okay. Now who are our favourite couple going to invite to a wedding? - "We don't have any normal friends, Lex!" ~
Lighting the Fuse...
LEX
She came back to me.
I was not letting her go again. Not that she was ever out of my sight, exactly.
CHLOE
When I wake up the next morning, he wraps his arms around me so tightly, even before he opens his eyes, and from the curve of my neck asks, in a small voice, "marry me?"
"Yes." I kiss the ear I can reach.
We have a lot to talk about. It fills up the hours until the courthouse opens, and we can go and apply for a licence.
LEX
Chloe wants to see the 'stalker-boyfriend' pictures. And she tells me the story behind each one. When she finds the two battered ones of her and that dickhead, she rips them up.
"I was hurt and angry about that crappy magazine."
"I don't need to know..."
"You do." She puts her fingers on my lips. "I just kissed him, and it wasn't you. So," she smiles, "you needn't have him killed."
"Memo to self - call off hitmen." I had settled on the idea of a mugging, but I overcome my baser instincts. I just hope Chloe thinks I'm joking. Robert Anderson has had a very lucky escape.
We're getting married at the mansion. Back where it all started. Easier to keep out uninvited guests. And most people still think I'm likely to go up in flames if I step into a church.
CHLOE
My father is woken up to find his daughter back in the country -and- engaged. He looks resigned rather than surprised, and his only comment is "about time." Then he hugs me, settles for shaking hands with Lex. Rushes off to phone the rest of the family. The news will be all over Metropolis within the hour.
Phone Clark. I'm going to need to talk to Perry at some point, explain why I'm in Kansas instead of at my desk in London. Promising the Planet an exclusive will mitigate things - I hope.
The guest list has been...interesting. Clark's Best Man, of course. And Lex wants Bruce as chief usher. I want Pete and Lana there.
"He didn't invite me to his wedding." complains Lex.
"You were my 'and guest'. -And- you were in Sydney."
"That's not the point."
We're keeping it as local as possible. Nell Potter's doing the flowers. Lex realises that we have to invite Pete - his mother is the Judge.
LEX
The phone call I've been dreading.
"Hi, Dad..."
Short row about the fact that I am -not- having my wedding broadcast to the world. Know that we're going to have the sound of descending doom in about three hours. Alert security.
CHLOE
It's going to be the house-party from hell. In three days time, we'll have the Kents, Lionel Luthor -and- Pete Ross under the same roof. Martha's my stand-in mother of the bride. Then we have the Sullivans. Not many of them, but they're kinda noisy at parties. Try not to think of my cousins and Lionel in the same room.
Lex toyed with the idea of a white suit, but I vetoed that. I said it made him look like a pimp. I need to make a shopping trip to Metropolis for a dress - proper girl's outing, with Martha. I was going to ask Lana as well, but when she came waddling round the Talon counter, I forgot all about that, settled for shrieking.
"Six months gone, and we think it's twins."
I've asked an old friend to do the wedding photos.
***
~"Are you sure you won't be needing my assistance, sir?"
"No, Alfred. Someone has to stay here, monitor things. This is just a wedding."
"It's -Lex Luthor's- wedding, sir. The man who caused such...distress to your old school."
Bruce suppresses a grin. Remembers an arrogant kid being thrown out of yet another school, strolling out like he didn't give a fuck. Turning back to murmur to the silent boy who'd crept out to see him go - "Don't touch the soup."
The sight of his sadistic chemistry teacher hallucinating giant lizards had been worth being hungry.~
***
~Fighting with a map, a cell-phone and a hired car on the I-90.
"Can't find the place on here, Em...oh, yeah, it's tiny. Miss you too, hon." Gives up on the map, navigates by other senses, and what the hell is he doing in the middle of nowhere? He owes Sully big time, but he's several states from home, and he's not used to such open space.
Big alarming dude with a gun at the gate, checking him off the list, and the house is stunning. She's marrying some serious money here. Grins because he remembers the way her face lit up when she talked about -him-. Small blonde flings herself down the steps at him.
"Peter!"
The bald guy on the steps behind her is instantly recognisable to anyone who's business is faces. -Very- serious money. For someone with a reputation, he submits tamely enough to being dragged down to meet this newcomer. Obviously adores Sully. It certainly explains the secrecy - three days is real short notice. Even with a damn good upgrade on the plane.
CLARK
Finally. Chloe came back. Lex has been a wreck since she went. Not that you would know, unless you knew him very well. Too proud to go after her and tell her what he felt. A noble speech about letting her find herself. Then a bottle of single malt. Sitting in the middle of a pile of photographs, and I couldn't believe he'd do that, after everything. How typical is that? My friend the stalker. Except he was holding something so tightly, he'd cut himself. That was when I found out about the ring. We didn't talk about it, because Lex doesn't do confessional. Now I've got an invite to the wedding. And I'm taking Lois.
LOIS
It's been a long drive from Metropolis. I'm not sure why I'm doing this - Clark has gone all mysterious, says that it'll be worth it. I don't like weddings. Out in Pleasantville or wherever it is, staying with his friend. He assures me there's plenty of room, and it will be comfortable, but what sort of house does a farmboy consider spacious?
Oh.
CHLOE
Clark hasn't told Lois who he is yet. Not the other part of who he is, I mean. They are still in that wary stage of 'does s/he like me?', but Clark has that goofy look about him I remember from the Lana days. He lost Lana because he couldn't be honest with her.
If he loses Lois the same way, I will hunt him to the ends of the earth.
"Tell her, Clark. Before she finds out. Before you lose her."
CLARK
"We're not even dating, Clo."
"Why not? Is she blind?"
"No." I'm embarrassed by this. "She's got a major crush on Superman."
Chloe whoops with laughter, and I can feel the old teenage blush I thought I'd grown out of. Goes shrieking past me as she spies another friend.
CHLOE
"Yo, Webcam!" I wave him over. "Meet Clark. He's my hometown boy. Clark, this is Peter."
"Hey." They shake hands, and I grin privately. More in common than they think, those two.
LOIS
I always fall for that innocent routine of his. When am I going to learn? When Clark asked me to go to an old friend's wedding with him, he didn't reveal the identity of the friend. Now the heads of Wayne Industries and Lexcorp are in the same room, chatting like the old school buddies I suspect they are. And Clark -knows- them, strolling over, collecting up the gangly guy with the camera, who works for a top NY paper, apparently, and is doing the photos as a favour. And the future Mrs Luthor came as a surprise - a small blonde woman, running out of the door in bare feet to greet us. She can't be more than our age. Jeans and t-shirt, and a scruffy tapestry waistcoat. You had to be rich to look that much like a student drop-out.
You had to be obscenely rich to have a wedding this private and simple.
I feel a bit strange here. All these people have a history that I am not part of. Why am I here? Anyone could have done a society piece. Clark and I aren't even dating...
Whoa, back up there, Lois. Dating the farmboy?
***
~Bruce looks at Lex. He still has that arrogant swagger he always had, but he's lost that smirk that used to drive people homicidal. Instead, his eyes follow Chloe round the room. He tilts his head when his old school buddy steps up beside him.
"Bruce."
"Lex." Looks about him. "Are we going to have the pleasure of your father's company?"
"Probably." Lex knocks back his scotch at the thought. "Have you met everyone yet?"
"Well, I know Chloe. And that must be Clark." Tall dark-haired man grinning tolerantly at the woman haranguing him about something. "Is that Lois Lane?"
"Yes."
"For a man who hates the Press, you have some strange friends."
Lex smiles at him, a darkly wicked expression.
"I don't hate -all- the Press - I'm marrying a reporter, remember? But - strange friends? What is so strange about inviting an old school-friend to my wedding?"
Bruce wishes he hadn't brought it up. Knows exactly what Lex is thinking. The other man's smile widens, and he calls across the room.
"Clark, come and say hi."
"Lex..."
But Lois is already off the blocks, in Clark's wake.
Bruce glowers. He would throttle the bald bastard, if he didn't think that it would break Chloe's heart.
***
(Later that morning...)
CLARK
I stare at Lex in horror.
"You left them alone together?"
"Relax, Clark. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Terminal meltdown. Lois is the only person I've met with a similar degree of intensity. If they hate each other, you'll need to redecorate."
"You are exaggerating?" But he increases his walking pace.
LOIS
She's not what I was expecting. And I have to know how she met Lex Luthor. Something stirs in the back of my mind. Something about the founding of Lexcorp. But she gives me a wide grin.
"I love your work."
"Thank you, Miss Sullivan."
"Call me Chloe. I was at school with Clark."
Pieces dropped into place at a rate of knots. So Clark's high-school friend was...I yelped.
"-Chloe- Sullivan? I love your work, too!"
Chloe sat on the sofa.
"So, how's Clark holding up in the big city newsroom? And do you want some private childhood stories?"
"Tell." I thumped down beside her. Two identical tape-recorders came out onto the table. We looked at them, looked at each other, and laughed.
CHLOE
I've seen pictures of Lois, but I've never met her. She interned for the Planet the year I was in NY, and our paths never crossed. She's feisty, obsessed and hyper. Stubborn as hell, apparently, mean when deprived of coffee, and totally determined to be the best journalist the Planet has.
I think we're going to be friends.
CLARK
There was - cackling.
"...so then Clark just sat there with his mouth hanging open..."
Lois' clear voice carried down the stairwell. I flinched.
"Not the frog story."
"...and there really was a frog in it!"
"Tell me this one later." Lex grinned, stopped grinning when another voice said,
"Oh, I've got a great story about this lizard..."
"Move." We all but ran upstairs. Looked with trepidation into the living-room.
Two women, feet drawn up on the sofa, turned identical guilty expressions to the door. Both had spoons. A very large carton of Rocky Road stood between them.
"We've created a monster." murmured Lex.
LOIS
I would have expected a massive diamond or something. But it's just a little worn silver band.
It's such a sweet story. Lex Luthor marries his long-time sweetheart. Yet I get the feeling that Chloe isn't telling me everything. The way Clark doesn't. Maybe it's one of those smalltown things.
Watching Lex Luthor has been a revelation. The reserved cold-eyed tycoon of Metropolis has become a nervous young man who looks like he can't believe his luck. Following Chloe around like a puppy. One of those very scary breeds that needs a muzzle.
Smallville has none of the austerity of an army town. It's retained a hokey charm. How much of this is due to sheer act of Luthor, I'm not sure. Clark insists that we go and meet some of his other old friends in the town.
Lana Ross, very pregnant, giggling as she tries to rock herself out of her seat, being pulled to her feet by her husband and Clark.
Pete Ross and Clark indulging in that macho back-slapping thing.
Nice people, and I'm being drawn into the whole Rockwell ambience of it. Ick.
***
~He's trying to gauge the light properly, when Sully puts her hands over his eyes. Reigns in the instinct to jump about eight foot up in the air in surprise.
"Hey, Pete. How you doing?"
"Life is good." He puts his hands on her shoulders. "You look okay, you know."
"I know. Thanks for doing this."
"I am the best." Puts his nose in the air. "Wouldn't want any no-talent happy snapper in on this, would you?"
"Dad will probably have a camcorder." She warns him. Laughs at the wince. "Lionel wanted a live LNN broadcast."
"God." Looks around him. "Is he here?"
"Yeah. He and Lex have this weird dynamic - I think they're fighting in the dining-room today." She grins. "It's not even the Luthors freaking me out - I have to cope with Dad's speech."~
~Okay. Now who are our favourite couple going to invite to a wedding? - "We don't have any normal friends, Lex!" ~
Lighting the Fuse...
LEX
She came back to me.
I was not letting her go again. Not that she was ever out of my sight, exactly.
CHLOE
When I wake up the next morning, he wraps his arms around me so tightly, even before he opens his eyes, and from the curve of my neck asks, in a small voice, "marry me?"
"Yes." I kiss the ear I can reach.
We have a lot to talk about. It fills up the hours until the courthouse opens, and we can go and apply for a licence.
LEX
Chloe wants to see the 'stalker-boyfriend' pictures. And she tells me the story behind each one. When she finds the two battered ones of her and that dickhead, she rips them up.
"I was hurt and angry about that crappy magazine."
"I don't need to know..."
"You do." She puts her fingers on my lips. "I just kissed him, and it wasn't you. So," she smiles, "you needn't have him killed."
"Memo to self - call off hitmen." I had settled on the idea of a mugging, but I overcome my baser instincts. I just hope Chloe thinks I'm joking. Robert Anderson has had a very lucky escape.
We're getting married at the mansion. Back where it all started. Easier to keep out uninvited guests. And most people still think I'm likely to go up in flames if I step into a church.
CHLOE
My father is woken up to find his daughter back in the country -and- engaged. He looks resigned rather than surprised, and his only comment is "about time." Then he hugs me, settles for shaking hands with Lex. Rushes off to phone the rest of the family. The news will be all over Metropolis within the hour.
Phone Clark. I'm going to need to talk to Perry at some point, explain why I'm in Kansas instead of at my desk in London. Promising the Planet an exclusive will mitigate things - I hope.
The guest list has been...interesting. Clark's Best Man, of course. And Lex wants Bruce as chief usher. I want Pete and Lana there.
"He didn't invite me to his wedding." complains Lex.
"You were my 'and guest'. -And- you were in Sydney."
"That's not the point."
We're keeping it as local as possible. Nell Potter's doing the flowers. Lex realises that we have to invite Pete - his mother is the Judge.
LEX
The phone call I've been dreading.
"Hi, Dad..."
Short row about the fact that I am -not- having my wedding broadcast to the world. Know that we're going to have the sound of descending doom in about three hours. Alert security.
CHLOE
It's going to be the house-party from hell. In three days time, we'll have the Kents, Lionel Luthor -and- Pete Ross under the same roof. Martha's my stand-in mother of the bride. Then we have the Sullivans. Not many of them, but they're kinda noisy at parties. Try not to think of my cousins and Lionel in the same room.
Lex toyed with the idea of a white suit, but I vetoed that. I said it made him look like a pimp. I need to make a shopping trip to Metropolis for a dress - proper girl's outing, with Martha. I was going to ask Lana as well, but when she came waddling round the Talon counter, I forgot all about that, settled for shrieking.
"Six months gone, and we think it's twins."
I've asked an old friend to do the wedding photos.
***
~"Are you sure you won't be needing my assistance, sir?"
"No, Alfred. Someone has to stay here, monitor things. This is just a wedding."
"It's -Lex Luthor's- wedding, sir. The man who caused such...distress to your old school."
Bruce suppresses a grin. Remembers an arrogant kid being thrown out of yet another school, strolling out like he didn't give a fuck. Turning back to murmur to the silent boy who'd crept out to see him go - "Don't touch the soup."
The sight of his sadistic chemistry teacher hallucinating giant lizards had been worth being hungry.~
***
~Fighting with a map, a cell-phone and a hired car on the I-90.
"Can't find the place on here, Em...oh, yeah, it's tiny. Miss you too, hon." Gives up on the map, navigates by other senses, and what the hell is he doing in the middle of nowhere? He owes Sully big time, but he's several states from home, and he's not used to such open space.
Big alarming dude with a gun at the gate, checking him off the list, and the house is stunning. She's marrying some serious money here. Grins because he remembers the way her face lit up when she talked about -him-. Small blonde flings herself down the steps at him.
"Peter!"
The bald guy on the steps behind her is instantly recognisable to anyone who's business is faces. -Very- serious money. For someone with a reputation, he submits tamely enough to being dragged down to meet this newcomer. Obviously adores Sully. It certainly explains the secrecy - three days is real short notice. Even with a damn good upgrade on the plane.
CLARK
Finally. Chloe came back. Lex has been a wreck since she went. Not that you would know, unless you knew him very well. Too proud to go after her and tell her what he felt. A noble speech about letting her find herself. Then a bottle of single malt. Sitting in the middle of a pile of photographs, and I couldn't believe he'd do that, after everything. How typical is that? My friend the stalker. Except he was holding something so tightly, he'd cut himself. That was when I found out about the ring. We didn't talk about it, because Lex doesn't do confessional. Now I've got an invite to the wedding. And I'm taking Lois.
LOIS
It's been a long drive from Metropolis. I'm not sure why I'm doing this - Clark has gone all mysterious, says that it'll be worth it. I don't like weddings. Out in Pleasantville or wherever it is, staying with his friend. He assures me there's plenty of room, and it will be comfortable, but what sort of house does a farmboy consider spacious?
Oh.
CHLOE
Clark hasn't told Lois who he is yet. Not the other part of who he is, I mean. They are still in that wary stage of 'does s/he like me?', but Clark has that goofy look about him I remember from the Lana days. He lost Lana because he couldn't be honest with her.
If he loses Lois the same way, I will hunt him to the ends of the earth.
"Tell her, Clark. Before she finds out. Before you lose her."
CLARK
"We're not even dating, Clo."
"Why not? Is she blind?"
"No." I'm embarrassed by this. "She's got a major crush on Superman."
Chloe whoops with laughter, and I can feel the old teenage blush I thought I'd grown out of. Goes shrieking past me as she spies another friend.
CHLOE
"Yo, Webcam!" I wave him over. "Meet Clark. He's my hometown boy. Clark, this is Peter."
"Hey." They shake hands, and I grin privately. More in common than they think, those two.
LOIS
I always fall for that innocent routine of his. When am I going to learn? When Clark asked me to go to an old friend's wedding with him, he didn't reveal the identity of the friend. Now the heads of Wayne Industries and Lexcorp are in the same room, chatting like the old school buddies I suspect they are. And Clark -knows- them, strolling over, collecting up the gangly guy with the camera, who works for a top NY paper, apparently, and is doing the photos as a favour. And the future Mrs Luthor came as a surprise - a small blonde woman, running out of the door in bare feet to greet us. She can't be more than our age. Jeans and t-shirt, and a scruffy tapestry waistcoat. You had to be rich to look that much like a student drop-out.
You had to be obscenely rich to have a wedding this private and simple.
I feel a bit strange here. All these people have a history that I am not part of. Why am I here? Anyone could have done a society piece. Clark and I aren't even dating...
Whoa, back up there, Lois. Dating the farmboy?
***
~Bruce looks at Lex. He still has that arrogant swagger he always had, but he's lost that smirk that used to drive people homicidal. Instead, his eyes follow Chloe round the room. He tilts his head when his old school buddy steps up beside him.
"Bruce."
"Lex." Looks about him. "Are we going to have the pleasure of your father's company?"
"Probably." Lex knocks back his scotch at the thought. "Have you met everyone yet?"
"Well, I know Chloe. And that must be Clark." Tall dark-haired man grinning tolerantly at the woman haranguing him about something. "Is that Lois Lane?"
"Yes."
"For a man who hates the Press, you have some strange friends."
Lex smiles at him, a darkly wicked expression.
"I don't hate -all- the Press - I'm marrying a reporter, remember? But - strange friends? What is so strange about inviting an old school-friend to my wedding?"
Bruce wishes he hadn't brought it up. Knows exactly what Lex is thinking. The other man's smile widens, and he calls across the room.
"Clark, come and say hi."
"Lex..."
But Lois is already off the blocks, in Clark's wake.
Bruce glowers. He would throttle the bald bastard, if he didn't think that it would break Chloe's heart.
***
(Later that morning...)
CLARK
I stare at Lex in horror.
"You left them alone together?"
"Relax, Clark. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Terminal meltdown. Lois is the only person I've met with a similar degree of intensity. If they hate each other, you'll need to redecorate."
"You are exaggerating?" But he increases his walking pace.
LOIS
She's not what I was expecting. And I have to know how she met Lex Luthor. Something stirs in the back of my mind. Something about the founding of Lexcorp. But she gives me a wide grin.
"I love your work."
"Thank you, Miss Sullivan."
"Call me Chloe. I was at school with Clark."
Pieces dropped into place at a rate of knots. So Clark's high-school friend was...I yelped.
"-Chloe- Sullivan? I love your work, too!"
Chloe sat on the sofa.
"So, how's Clark holding up in the big city newsroom? And do you want some private childhood stories?"
"Tell." I thumped down beside her. Two identical tape-recorders came out onto the table. We looked at them, looked at each other, and laughed.
CHLOE
I've seen pictures of Lois, but I've never met her. She interned for the Planet the year I was in NY, and our paths never crossed. She's feisty, obsessed and hyper. Stubborn as hell, apparently, mean when deprived of coffee, and totally determined to be the best journalist the Planet has.
I think we're going to be friends.
CLARK
There was - cackling.
"...so then Clark just sat there with his mouth hanging open..."
Lois' clear voice carried down the stairwell. I flinched.
"Not the frog story."
"...and there really was a frog in it!"
"Tell me this one later." Lex grinned, stopped grinning when another voice said,
"Oh, I've got a great story about this lizard..."
"Move." We all but ran upstairs. Looked with trepidation into the living-room.
Two women, feet drawn up on the sofa, turned identical guilty expressions to the door. Both had spoons. A very large carton of Rocky Road stood between them.
"We've created a monster." murmured Lex.
LOIS
I would have expected a massive diamond or something. But it's just a little worn silver band.
It's such a sweet story. Lex Luthor marries his long-time sweetheart. Yet I get the feeling that Chloe isn't telling me everything. The way Clark doesn't. Maybe it's one of those smalltown things.
Watching Lex Luthor has been a revelation. The reserved cold-eyed tycoon of Metropolis has become a nervous young man who looks like he can't believe his luck. Following Chloe around like a puppy. One of those very scary breeds that needs a muzzle.
Smallville has none of the austerity of an army town. It's retained a hokey charm. How much of this is due to sheer act of Luthor, I'm not sure. Clark insists that we go and meet some of his other old friends in the town.
Lana Ross, very pregnant, giggling as she tries to rock herself out of her seat, being pulled to her feet by her husband and Clark.
Pete Ross and Clark indulging in that macho back-slapping thing.
Nice people, and I'm being drawn into the whole Rockwell ambience of it. Ick.
***
~He's trying to gauge the light properly, when Sully puts her hands over his eyes. Reigns in the instinct to jump about eight foot up in the air in surprise.
"Hey, Pete. How you doing?"
"Life is good." He puts his hands on her shoulders. "You look okay, you know."
"I know. Thanks for doing this."
"I am the best." Puts his nose in the air. "Wouldn't want any no-talent happy snapper in on this, would you?"
"Dad will probably have a camcorder." She warns him. Laughs at the wince. "Lionel wanted a live LNN broadcast."
"God." Looks around him. "Is he here?"
"Yeah. He and Lex have this weird dynamic - I think they're fighting in the dining-room today." She grins. "It's not even the Luthors freaking me out - I have to cope with Dad's speech."~