Title: Revelations
Author: HuffyTheCampfireSlayer
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in the WBs TV show 'Smallville'. I am simply borrowing them for a bit for my own entertainment. No profit will be made from this story. So please don't sue me.
Summary: Lex finds out an important family secret that could change the relationship with his father.
***
Lex Luthor gazed out of the window of the library in the magnificent Luthor Mansion in Smallville. The town definitely lived up to it's name. Lex thought that it would be difficult to find a bigger contrast to a city like Metropolis, where he had spent most of his adult life. At first he had hated this 'cow town'. But as the months rolled by he came to like the quiet life he had built up here. True he didn't have many friends here, but that was just Lex. He'd never had many friends. He was a drifter, happy to be wherever his father wasn't.
Smallville was his test. He had been sent here to turn around the failing fertiliser plant in his father's empire.
He opened the window and leaned out, breathing in the fresh clean air. It invigorated him. The Luthor Ancestral home had been built for a colder climate than middle America and as a consequence usually became warm and stuffy towards summer months.
Summer. He hated summer. Summer brought the sunshine and warmth, but it also brought sleepless nights and memories he tried desperately to repress. He recalled a summer many years ago where he had spent days, weeks and months sitting in a waiting room, worrying about the only person he'd truly ever cared about, and the only person who had ever cared about him. His mother.
He felt the contents of his stomach rise as he remembered the day he'd been sent back to Europe, back to boarding school. He knew she was dying. He wasn't stupid. He never had been. His mother had given him a watch before he left. It was one of his only possessions that had ever had any value to Lex. His hatred towards his father had started that very day. He'd never liked him very much before the event, but forcing him to leave his dying mother, when she needed him most broke his heart.
School had been worse than sitting in a hospital all day. He didn't know how his mother was doing. Was she recovering? He used to hope she was.
All he wanted to do was keep a vigil by her side. He knew she didn't have much time left.
Halfway though the term he had been called to the Headmasters office. This was a nerve racking experience for any of the pupils at Lex's boarding school. But for Lex it had meant his whole world was about to shatter into pieces. And he knew it.
His young teenaged body shook with fear. His heart pumping adrenalin around his body at a tremendous rate. His eyes picked with tears. As he approached the door he stopped. If he ran now he wouldn't have to face the news, he could pretend she was still alive, he wouldn't have to face the truth, he could hide from it... He licked his lips and ran his head over his bald head, a souvenir, of sorts, from his first visit to Smallville all those years ago. He closed his eyes. He was a Luthor. They were tough, non- emotional and proud. Weaknesses were scorned. He pulled himself together and prepared himself for the news of his mothers departure from this world. His shaky hand knocked on the door, this was the only clue as to his true emotions, as his face wore a stony, blank, unreadable expression.
That very day he had set off back home. When on his own packing for his flight he had cried until he had no energy left. tears that had started off in grieance for his mother had changed to tears of bitterness, regret and hatred. He [i]could[/i] have been there, he [i]should[/i] have been there. But his father had denied him this. Even though she would have wanted it.
Her funeral was a quiet affair, to fit her quiet, gentle nature. Father and son stood side by side at her grave. Both standing in silence. Each in solitude from each other. Lex had to use every ounce of his restraint to stop himself from hitting his father that day. He didn't care she was gone. He had never loved her, he had barely even cared about her.
When she had died part of Lex had died too. His compassion for others gone, he felt empty, numb, void. Why should he care about others when the only person he'd ever cared about had been so cruelly taken away?
He closed the window. Yes, he hated summer.
"Mr Luthor." Said a man knocking on the door.
"Come in." he said, wiping his face with the cuff of his sleeve before he turned to face the owner of the voice.
"You requested my presence?" asked the young man.
"Yes." Lex agreed. "Have you called Metropolis?"
"Yes Sir. The last of your personal items are on their way." replied the man.
"Including those boxes..." Lex asked, a trace of happiness edging it's way into his cool, commanding voice.
"Of course Sir. They will be here tonight."
"Thank you, that will be all." He told him.
Lex returned to his thoughts. He sat at his desk and snatched impatiently at a bottle of Ty Nant. He twisted off the lid and aimed it at the trash can in the corner, it hit the rim and bounced out. He sighed, drumming his fingers on the desk and shifting restlessly in his seat.
Normally he was calm and collected about such matters. But those boxes... they were special. They contained his mothers personal belongings. Well, all that he could gather after her death. His father, his eyes narrowed at the mere thought of him, had emptied and refurbished the house within weeks of her death.
Two boxes. Just two meagre boxes were all he had, except his memories, not even his father could take those from him. He couldn't relax whilst knowing they were on the move.
On a whim he picked up his car keys and left the house. He sped off in one of his many cars. A single tear stained his pale face. He brushed it away angrily. If he ran into a tree right now who would care? Honesty, who would miss him? No one. That's who. He switched up into fifth gear and increased his speed to 60mph.
He glanced ahead. There was that bridge again, repaired since last time. He steered the car to the right heading for the barrier again, then he swung back to the left, narrowly missing the railings. No, he wouldn't give his father the satisfaction.
He decided to head into town and check out what was new. That might take his mind off things. He skidded into an empty parking space outside the local coffee house, smirking at the frowns he was getting from the residents. He liked to make an entrance. He went inside to order.
Standing at the cash desk he saw Clark and his friends, Chloe and Pete enter the coffee house. He told the waitress to make his order to go. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now. He paid and tried to slip out without being noticed.
"Lex!" called Clark, with the eagerness only a teenager could possess. Clark looked at him hopefully. Lex already knew the question Clark was about to ask.
He held up his take out cup at him.
"I got some stuff I gotta take care off. I'll catch up with you later." he said.
His steely blue eyes watching the look of hope wash off of Clark's face, and quickly being replaced with one of confusion, but acceptance. Clark was so easy to read.
He headed off back to the mansion again. He wanted to be there when the boxes arrived. They were the most important things he had in the world, his last connection to her before she'd departed.
He spent the evening in the pool room, trying to pass his time thinking out new trick shots. It was challenging, but not distracting to his main train of thought. He was anxious, desperate even, he should have gone and gotten the boxes himself. Even if it would have meant a run in with his father. He would have known that they were safe and cared for. He returned to the study looking for something else to occupy his time. He looked at his laptop for a few moments. He could finish off a few business proposals. He practically did them in his sleep now. The minutes ticked by slowly...they seemed to last years. At last he heard a car pull up outside. He jumped to his feet and ran to the door.
"Mr Luthor." Said the young man, with blond hair, edging on ginger, and a broad grin.
"Matthew, good to see you." He replied taking one of the boxes from him. "Thanks for bringing these up for me. And it's Lex, we've known each other since we were kids."
"Yeah. No problem Mr... Lex."
"That's better." He said.
"Oh, I found another box up in the attic. It seems like your mother put it away for you." Matthew told him with a grin, taking a box from the car and passing it to Lex.
Lex stopped for a moment. Then continued. He kept up his cool exterior, when inside all he wanted to do was rip the box open this intant. He took the box into the library.
"You got a nice place up here. Not at all like Metropolis."
"I know. That's why I like it. It's... peaceful. Now where did you say this third box was?" His voice rose slightly, as he asked after the box.
He mentally kicked himself. He never showed his emotions like that. Not since that day she'd gone. He frowned.
"It's still in the car, you want me to get it?" Matthew asked, detecting the note of urgency in Lex's voice.
"It's ok I'll get it." he reassured Matthew. He needed the time to recompose his thoughts and to slip the infamous unreadable Luthor mask back into place.
Lex eyed the new box eagerly as he made small talk with Matthew and then waited for him to leave. As soon as he did he rushed over to the box. He tore it open. The first thing he clapped his eyes on was a framed photo of a beautiful woman with a kind, good humoured face and long, flowing, wavy red hair, and a small boy with hair to match was hugging her. A lump formed in his throat as he stared at it. She had put this picture away soon after he had lost his hair because it had upset him so much, his early hair loss was another of his childhood traumas.
A dot of water appeared on the picture, a tear drop. Lex took the picture and put it on his desk. He want back over to the box and as he examined the box he gave a silent sob. He couldn't help himself. His mother had been like a soul mate. The only one who understood him. After her death he had finished school and gone on to college. She would have wanted him to. But somewhere along the line he had gone off the rails, became unhinged from reality. He hadn't cared about anything, not even himself. He'd thought just because he had money he was invincible. That just wasn't true, as the club zero incident had proven. The knifing had been a nasty experience in that part of his colourful life and he had a scar on his left side to remind him of it. As if he'd ever forget.
He picked up a silk purple shirt, his mother favourite colour, he sniffed it, just the scent took him back in time. He put it back and pushed it aside as he noticed an envelope. It was addressed to him. In his mothers handwriting. He opened it and read it in silence. It was brief, but as he read it tears appeared in his eyes and he started to smile.
"Thank you Mother." He whispered, gratefully.
He placed the letter on the desk before him, then swiveled in his chair to face the window deep in thought.
'Dear Lex,
I do not know how old you are as you read this letter, I hope that you are old enough to have come to terms with your life without me. Even if you feel alone, you are not, because I watch over you daily and marvel at what a wonderful man you are becoming. I write this now becuase I fear I will never be able to tell you in person. I am getting worse, I know I do not have long left, you were sent away from me and we never properly said goodbye. So this is my goodbye to you my angel. But it would not be complete without you knowing the truth, a truth I have hidden for so long...
Two springs before you were born, I met a wonderful man, we fell in love. It was such a love that I felt in toxicated. He was the one I was meant to be with. But I dared not reveal this to your father, he would have destroyed both the lives of myself and the man that I loved. So we saw each other in secret. One day I discovered I was to be blessed with a child. Your father had wanted an heir to the family fortune for many years now and I had been unable to provide one, so when I did I knew the truth.
Lionel is not your father Lex. Your father works on the estate he has a son you often played with when you were little. Matthew. Do you remember him? He is your brother. Please do not let this destroy you Lex, let it make you stronger. And remember, though he may not love you he does care.
You walk with me in my dreams always
Lillian.'
"Lex?" called Clark, jerking Lex out of his thoughts. "I just thought I'd stop by and check if you were ok."
Lex swung round in his chair and put the letter in the draw of his desk.
"What's wrong?" asked Clark, concerned by Lex's reaction. It was anything short of warm. He felt as though he may have interrupted Lex from something important. He looked at Lex, curiously.
"Nothing." Smiled Lex, full of inner joy. "Everything is perfect."
***
- Fin -
Author: HuffyTheCampfireSlayer
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in the WBs TV show 'Smallville'. I am simply borrowing them for a bit for my own entertainment. No profit will be made from this story. So please don't sue me.
Summary: Lex finds out an important family secret that could change the relationship with his father.
***
Lex Luthor gazed out of the window of the library in the magnificent Luthor Mansion in Smallville. The town definitely lived up to it's name. Lex thought that it would be difficult to find a bigger contrast to a city like Metropolis, where he had spent most of his adult life. At first he had hated this 'cow town'. But as the months rolled by he came to like the quiet life he had built up here. True he didn't have many friends here, but that was just Lex. He'd never had many friends. He was a drifter, happy to be wherever his father wasn't.
Smallville was his test. He had been sent here to turn around the failing fertiliser plant in his father's empire.
He opened the window and leaned out, breathing in the fresh clean air. It invigorated him. The Luthor Ancestral home had been built for a colder climate than middle America and as a consequence usually became warm and stuffy towards summer months.
Summer. He hated summer. Summer brought the sunshine and warmth, but it also brought sleepless nights and memories he tried desperately to repress. He recalled a summer many years ago where he had spent days, weeks and months sitting in a waiting room, worrying about the only person he'd truly ever cared about, and the only person who had ever cared about him. His mother.
He felt the contents of his stomach rise as he remembered the day he'd been sent back to Europe, back to boarding school. He knew she was dying. He wasn't stupid. He never had been. His mother had given him a watch before he left. It was one of his only possessions that had ever had any value to Lex. His hatred towards his father had started that very day. He'd never liked him very much before the event, but forcing him to leave his dying mother, when she needed him most broke his heart.
School had been worse than sitting in a hospital all day. He didn't know how his mother was doing. Was she recovering? He used to hope she was.
All he wanted to do was keep a vigil by her side. He knew she didn't have much time left.
Halfway though the term he had been called to the Headmasters office. This was a nerve racking experience for any of the pupils at Lex's boarding school. But for Lex it had meant his whole world was about to shatter into pieces. And he knew it.
His young teenaged body shook with fear. His heart pumping adrenalin around his body at a tremendous rate. His eyes picked with tears. As he approached the door he stopped. If he ran now he wouldn't have to face the news, he could pretend she was still alive, he wouldn't have to face the truth, he could hide from it... He licked his lips and ran his head over his bald head, a souvenir, of sorts, from his first visit to Smallville all those years ago. He closed his eyes. He was a Luthor. They were tough, non- emotional and proud. Weaknesses were scorned. He pulled himself together and prepared himself for the news of his mothers departure from this world. His shaky hand knocked on the door, this was the only clue as to his true emotions, as his face wore a stony, blank, unreadable expression.
That very day he had set off back home. When on his own packing for his flight he had cried until he had no energy left. tears that had started off in grieance for his mother had changed to tears of bitterness, regret and hatred. He [i]could[/i] have been there, he [i]should[/i] have been there. But his father had denied him this. Even though she would have wanted it.
Her funeral was a quiet affair, to fit her quiet, gentle nature. Father and son stood side by side at her grave. Both standing in silence. Each in solitude from each other. Lex had to use every ounce of his restraint to stop himself from hitting his father that day. He didn't care she was gone. He had never loved her, he had barely even cared about her.
When she had died part of Lex had died too. His compassion for others gone, he felt empty, numb, void. Why should he care about others when the only person he'd ever cared about had been so cruelly taken away?
He closed the window. Yes, he hated summer.
"Mr Luthor." Said a man knocking on the door.
"Come in." he said, wiping his face with the cuff of his sleeve before he turned to face the owner of the voice.
"You requested my presence?" asked the young man.
"Yes." Lex agreed. "Have you called Metropolis?"
"Yes Sir. The last of your personal items are on their way." replied the man.
"Including those boxes..." Lex asked, a trace of happiness edging it's way into his cool, commanding voice.
"Of course Sir. They will be here tonight."
"Thank you, that will be all." He told him.
Lex returned to his thoughts. He sat at his desk and snatched impatiently at a bottle of Ty Nant. He twisted off the lid and aimed it at the trash can in the corner, it hit the rim and bounced out. He sighed, drumming his fingers on the desk and shifting restlessly in his seat.
Normally he was calm and collected about such matters. But those boxes... they were special. They contained his mothers personal belongings. Well, all that he could gather after her death. His father, his eyes narrowed at the mere thought of him, had emptied and refurbished the house within weeks of her death.
Two boxes. Just two meagre boxes were all he had, except his memories, not even his father could take those from him. He couldn't relax whilst knowing they were on the move.
On a whim he picked up his car keys and left the house. He sped off in one of his many cars. A single tear stained his pale face. He brushed it away angrily. If he ran into a tree right now who would care? Honesty, who would miss him? No one. That's who. He switched up into fifth gear and increased his speed to 60mph.
He glanced ahead. There was that bridge again, repaired since last time. He steered the car to the right heading for the barrier again, then he swung back to the left, narrowly missing the railings. No, he wouldn't give his father the satisfaction.
He decided to head into town and check out what was new. That might take his mind off things. He skidded into an empty parking space outside the local coffee house, smirking at the frowns he was getting from the residents. He liked to make an entrance. He went inside to order.
Standing at the cash desk he saw Clark and his friends, Chloe and Pete enter the coffee house. He told the waitress to make his order to go. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now. He paid and tried to slip out without being noticed.
"Lex!" called Clark, with the eagerness only a teenager could possess. Clark looked at him hopefully. Lex already knew the question Clark was about to ask.
He held up his take out cup at him.
"I got some stuff I gotta take care off. I'll catch up with you later." he said.
His steely blue eyes watching the look of hope wash off of Clark's face, and quickly being replaced with one of confusion, but acceptance. Clark was so easy to read.
He headed off back to the mansion again. He wanted to be there when the boxes arrived. They were the most important things he had in the world, his last connection to her before she'd departed.
He spent the evening in the pool room, trying to pass his time thinking out new trick shots. It was challenging, but not distracting to his main train of thought. He was anxious, desperate even, he should have gone and gotten the boxes himself. Even if it would have meant a run in with his father. He would have known that they were safe and cared for. He returned to the study looking for something else to occupy his time. He looked at his laptop for a few moments. He could finish off a few business proposals. He practically did them in his sleep now. The minutes ticked by slowly...they seemed to last years. At last he heard a car pull up outside. He jumped to his feet and ran to the door.
"Mr Luthor." Said the young man, with blond hair, edging on ginger, and a broad grin.
"Matthew, good to see you." He replied taking one of the boxes from him. "Thanks for bringing these up for me. And it's Lex, we've known each other since we were kids."
"Yeah. No problem Mr... Lex."
"That's better." He said.
"Oh, I found another box up in the attic. It seems like your mother put it away for you." Matthew told him with a grin, taking a box from the car and passing it to Lex.
Lex stopped for a moment. Then continued. He kept up his cool exterior, when inside all he wanted to do was rip the box open this intant. He took the box into the library.
"You got a nice place up here. Not at all like Metropolis."
"I know. That's why I like it. It's... peaceful. Now where did you say this third box was?" His voice rose slightly, as he asked after the box.
He mentally kicked himself. He never showed his emotions like that. Not since that day she'd gone. He frowned.
"It's still in the car, you want me to get it?" Matthew asked, detecting the note of urgency in Lex's voice.
"It's ok I'll get it." he reassured Matthew. He needed the time to recompose his thoughts and to slip the infamous unreadable Luthor mask back into place.
Lex eyed the new box eagerly as he made small talk with Matthew and then waited for him to leave. As soon as he did he rushed over to the box. He tore it open. The first thing he clapped his eyes on was a framed photo of a beautiful woman with a kind, good humoured face and long, flowing, wavy red hair, and a small boy with hair to match was hugging her. A lump formed in his throat as he stared at it. She had put this picture away soon after he had lost his hair because it had upset him so much, his early hair loss was another of his childhood traumas.
A dot of water appeared on the picture, a tear drop. Lex took the picture and put it on his desk. He want back over to the box and as he examined the box he gave a silent sob. He couldn't help himself. His mother had been like a soul mate. The only one who understood him. After her death he had finished school and gone on to college. She would have wanted him to. But somewhere along the line he had gone off the rails, became unhinged from reality. He hadn't cared about anything, not even himself. He'd thought just because he had money he was invincible. That just wasn't true, as the club zero incident had proven. The knifing had been a nasty experience in that part of his colourful life and he had a scar on his left side to remind him of it. As if he'd ever forget.
He picked up a silk purple shirt, his mother favourite colour, he sniffed it, just the scent took him back in time. He put it back and pushed it aside as he noticed an envelope. It was addressed to him. In his mothers handwriting. He opened it and read it in silence. It was brief, but as he read it tears appeared in his eyes and he started to smile.
"Thank you Mother." He whispered, gratefully.
He placed the letter on the desk before him, then swiveled in his chair to face the window deep in thought.
'Dear Lex,
I do not know how old you are as you read this letter, I hope that you are old enough to have come to terms with your life without me. Even if you feel alone, you are not, because I watch over you daily and marvel at what a wonderful man you are becoming. I write this now becuase I fear I will never be able to tell you in person. I am getting worse, I know I do not have long left, you were sent away from me and we never properly said goodbye. So this is my goodbye to you my angel. But it would not be complete without you knowing the truth, a truth I have hidden for so long...
Two springs before you were born, I met a wonderful man, we fell in love. It was such a love that I felt in toxicated. He was the one I was meant to be with. But I dared not reveal this to your father, he would have destroyed both the lives of myself and the man that I loved. So we saw each other in secret. One day I discovered I was to be blessed with a child. Your father had wanted an heir to the family fortune for many years now and I had been unable to provide one, so when I did I knew the truth.
Lionel is not your father Lex. Your father works on the estate he has a son you often played with when you were little. Matthew. Do you remember him? He is your brother. Please do not let this destroy you Lex, let it make you stronger. And remember, though he may not love you he does care.
You walk with me in my dreams always
Lillian.'
"Lex?" called Clark, jerking Lex out of his thoughts. "I just thought I'd stop by and check if you were ok."
Lex swung round in his chair and put the letter in the draw of his desk.
"What's wrong?" asked Clark, concerned by Lex's reaction. It was anything short of warm. He felt as though he may have interrupted Lex from something important. He looked at Lex, curiously.
"Nothing." Smiled Lex, full of inner joy. "Everything is perfect."
***
- Fin -