Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Thirty-Seven ~*~*
Chloe swallowed, incomprehension and dawning horror marking her features as she stared sightlessly at the empty space where Lex should have been.
"Oh man." She heard Pete whisper behind her.
Chloe whipped around, picking herself off the rough surface and glancing wildly about for any sign of Lex. Maybe he hadn't fallen over the edge, maybe he was playing some sick and elaborately inappropriate game of hide and seek, freaking Chloe out and trying to give her an almost-coronary just in the name of fun.
Except that it was so not Lex's style, and besides, she had to confront herself with the fact that it was the least likely explanation for his absence.
With a sinking heart, she rushed over to the edge of the outcrop and screamed at the top of her lungs. "Lex!"
There was no answer. Shaking with irrepressible anxiety and slightly delayed shock from her own narrow escape, she desperately peered out into the growing darkness, trying to see where Lex could have fallen to. Chloe shivered as a brisk wind blew, swirling the leaves and foliage around them and prompting goosebumps to appear on her exposed flesh.
She felt a rising tide of panic now, and it was all she could do to not give in to the almost primal urge of screaming and throwing herself down onto the ground and cry like a helpless 18th century damsel in distress.
Calm down Chloe, she chastised to herself. Having hysterics wasn't going to help Lex right now.
"I ... I think I see him." Chloe was pulled from the thoughts rapidly churning inside her hyperactive brain by Lana's hesitant voice.
"What? Where?" Chloe quickly approached the other girl, who pointed near the water's edge some metres below.
Chloe squinted in the growing darkness, blinking several times as she carefully surveyed the terrain underneath her. It took her only a few moments to pinpoint what Lana had been pointing at.
Lex's still form lay crumpled in a small ditch just to the side of the small river, one of his legs lying at an impossible angle and drenched as it lay in the shallows of the river. His cap had flown off and a patch of red was clearly visible as it trickled down the edge of his cheek.
"I'm going down." Almost as soon as the words had flown out of her mouth, Chloe realised that she really meant it. Sheer drop or not, dangerous to climb down with her non-existent rock climbing skills or not, she was going down. Nothing on the face of the planet, or the universe for that matter, would stop her.
Pete gripped her tightly on the arm. "Chloe -"
"Let - me - go." Chloe gritted her teeth as she attempted to shrug his hold off.
"Look, I've seen you pull all kinds of wackies, but I can't let you do this."
"What?" Chloe screamed, not even attempting to cover the hysteria in her voice. "You're not going to let me?!"
Pete closed his eyes momentarily, trying to remain calm in the face of a clearly rampaging Chloe. "You know Clark - and not to mention Lex - would have my ass for this if I actually let you go down there."
"So what do you want me to do Pete? Just stand here and cry and look helplessly on while Lex is just down there, possibly badly hurt and maybe bleeding to death but hey, as long as Chloe's all right everything's hunky dory?" She breathlessly screamed back at him, before her voice dropped down into a deadly pitch. "Four words: I don't think so."
"Chloe." Lana's soothing voice cut into the midst of her madness.
"What?" Chloe snapped as she turned around to face Lana. Her panicked hazel eyes met Lana's wide iridescent brown ones, and a flash of understanding illuminated between them.
Pete looked on in puzzlement as Lana dropped her back pack onto the dusty ground, quickly kneeling as she rummaged through it and pulled things haphazardly out onto the clearing. Chloe hastily crossed to the other girl, helping Lana sift through the equipment that she pulled in succession out of her bag. "Please tell me with all the crap you packed there's a rope in there somewhere." She muttered, unable to mask the rising desperation in her tone.
"I think I did." Lana replied distractedly, not pausing to brush sticky tendrils of hair that had fallen over her face. "Here it is."
Chloe quickly grabbed the coil of rope from Lana's outstretched hands and proceeded to the edge of the outcrop.
"This is crazy Chloe." Pete uttered behind her with an air of resignation. "What are you going to do down there? You can't carry him up. All of us together can't heft him up from there - and not to mention any broken bones which means we can't move him or -"
"Pete, I may be crazy but I'm not delusional just yet. I know I'm not going to Wonder Woman him up from there. I just ..." She paused as her suddenly manic energy seemed to drain out of her. "I don't want him to be alone."
Her anguished eyes met Pete's in the stillness, the silence palatable as the distinct odour of the impending storm wafted over them. Pete glanced up at the rapidly rolling clouds above. "Okay." He nodded, abruptly going to Lana's back pack and organising the myriad of equipment around it. "Lana and I will go for help. We'll leave you with some of our stuff just in case." He picked up a flashlight and a small blanket. "Take these, you'll need it."
She silently took them from him. "Thanks Pete." She said quietly as her eyes burned with gratitude.
Chloe watched as Lana stuffed some of hers and Pete's combined equipment into the bag before fastening it securely. Lana flashed her a comforting smile and Chloe felt some of her anxiety drain away. Ordinarily she would have instinctively turned to Clark for help but now, bereft of Clark's typically strong presence, she was surprised to find that she had as much faith in Pete and Lana to come through for her as she would have had in Clark.
She guessed that this was what it felt like to have true friends she could trust with her life.
"You ready?" Pete had tied the rope to the trunk of the largest and sturdiest tree on the edge of the clearing and was now yanking it with all his might in order to test its strength. Chloe was momentarily struck by Pete's total calm and coolness in the face of hysterical danger - or more precisely, a hysterical Chloe.
She came over to him, letting out an explosive breath. She gripped the rope tightly. "Ready as I'll never be." Pete flashed her a slightly cheeky smile, before slowly lowering her down the edge of the outcrop.
Chloe was no mountaineer, and to say that she was scared out of her not so considerably large mind would have been the understatement of the millennium. Throw in a distinct discomfort with heights in general and it was a wonder that Chloe had the capacity to grip the rope as tightly as she was currently gripping it. She figured that if she closed her eyes and imagined that she was somewhere else - anywhere but hanging off a twenty feet mini cliff - she could probably forget about the queasy fear that insisted on riding rough shod around her stomach and threatening to dislodge the gourmet smoked salmon and capers sandwich that Lex had so generously provided this afternoon.
She gripped the rope tightly. It was only twenty feet - twenty feet too many in her harassed opinion - but she had to do this. Leaving Lex down there with anyone other than herself was so clearly not an option. And leaving Lex down there, hurt and with anyone other than herself was unthinkable. So she didn't even bother thinking about it.
Nevertheless, she was interminably grateful when her feet touched solid, though squishy ground again. "Touchdown." She shouted, craning her neck up to spy Pete peering down at her, leaning over the edge to do so.
The rope dangled invitingly as Pete let the full length of it go. "Chlo, if you guys can climb out the rope's still tied to the tree." She heard muffled conversation between Pete and Lana. "Lana's going to roll her pack down now. You probably should get out of the way."
Almost as soon as Chloe hurried out of bombing range, Lana's back pack thudded to the ground, bouncing a few metres before landing at her feet.
She hoisted the bag onto her shoulders with difficulty, while scuffling sounds filtered to her ears above as Pete and Lana prepared to set off. After a moment, Lana's head appeared over the edge. "Don't worry Chloe. We'll be back soon." She smiled reassuringly as she disappeared from view.
Chloe stared into the empty air where Lana had been for a few moments before collecting herself. "Right." She muttered breathlessly. She figured talking to herself in the middle of nowhere couldn't possibly count for madness, especially in a situation like this. "Go to Lex and everything will be fine. Or just a little bit less worse than it already is." She reasoned.
She carefully threaded her way toward Lex in the growing darkness with the blanket and flashlight that Pete had given her in hand, avoiding the less dubiously rough parts of the terrain. There wasn't much room for walking, as Chloe discovered that there didn't seem to be much of a river bank per se - just the river and a hardly navigable strip of boggy mud before the steep slant of the rocky outcrop. Definitely no place to have a romantic interlude for two.
She shook her head to clear her muddled thoughts. Way to focus Chloe, she berated herself.
She ran the last few steps to Lex, throwing herself heedlessly onto the soggy ground beside him. "Lex?" She whispered, uncertainty colouring her already peaked voice.
Seeing no movement, Chloe gingerly touched his cool forehead, using the edge of her shirt to wipe away the rapidly congealing blood on the side of his face. At her touch he jerked to consciousness.
She watched breathlessly as his eyes opened slowly, blinking in momentary confusion. "Lex?" She asked, unable to reign in her excitement. After all, having a painfully aware Lex was much more comforting and way less scary then an unconscious one. Not to mention the fact that she would have someone to be scared with.
He made an unintelligible sound in reply as she quickly covered him with the blanket in her hands.
"Are you hurt badly? Do you need water? Um, I think I have some." She frantically tried to unzip Lana's tightly bound back pack, tugging ineffectively at the straps.
"Chloe." His voice sounded raspy and throaty, but otherwise interestingly normal. "What are you doing down here?"
She ignored him. "Do you remember what happened? Oh wait, do you know who you are?" She asked anxiously, unable to push the wide variety of damage that could possibly have been done to him from her mind, curtesy of her guilty predilection for watching one too many medical dramas. His spine could have been damaged which meant that Chloe shouldn't move him, or at least, shouldn't move ... something. Or he could have concussion, or amnesia or something equally as horrible. Or he could be internally bleeding, which meant ... Chloe had no idea what it meant she should do. She was a complete idiot and also - what had made her think of this idiotic trip to the middle of nowhere anyway? If she hadn't been so pushy and insistent about the mutant fish thing, none of this would be happening.
"Relax Chloe. I'm fine." He tried to sit up but even his Luthor stoicalness couldn't cover the intense look of pain that racked his face at the slight movement. He sighed painfully before collapsing back onto the ground again.
Chloe brought the flask of water that she had retrieved from Lana's pack to his lips and watched as he drank greedily.
After he had finished, she said insistently. "Wiggle your hands and toes."
"Chloe -"
"Just do it!" She was beginning to sound slightly hysterical which didn't matter to her, since Lex was hurt and it was so clearly all her fault for luring him out here. He had told her that he had never been hiking before, which meant that he would never have been in this much trouble if only she had kept her out-of-control reporting tendencies to a much more sedate level.
Lex obediently wiggled his hands. "My toes are wiggling, by the way. So no spinal injury." He added helpfully.
"I'm sorry Lex." She said balefully, her eyes meeting his and misting with rapidly welling tears. "It's all my fault you're down here. If it wasn't for me you'd be in your ancestral castle having tea and scones and not that you ever have tea or scones but you could be having them -"
"Hey." His outstretched hand snaked out from his side to draw over hers, gripping it tightly. "Unless you actually pushed me over the edge - and I'm taking a huge leap of faith here that you didn't - none of this is your fault. It's just one of those things. Besides," he grinned insolently through his grimace of pain, "I haven't really been hurt all this year. I don't think I've been meeting my yearly quota."
"Lex." Chloe protested weakly, smiling through her tears. She stared down at him, her face a mask of concern. "Are you sure you're okay? You do remember your name, right? Who's the President right now? What's your date of birth? When -"
"My name is Alexander Joseph Luthor and basically Chloe, I'm fine. Between you and me, I think you've been watching a little too much TV."
"You're surprisingly chatty for someone who almost died." She bit back, relief and annoyance heightening her emotion.
"Comes with the experience." He said nonchalantly, giving her a roguish smile.
"Are you sure you're okay?" She reiterated uncertainly.
He sighed somewhat dramatically. "I'm fine. Maybe some cracked ribs and a broken leg. I'd say to stop nagging but then I'd be scared for my life."
She let his barb go unpunished. After all, she had to cut the man some slack for being in excruciating pain. "How does your head feel?"
"Bald." He replied nonchalantly, and Chloe had to smother a giggle despite her anxiety. Trust Lex to make her laugh inappropriately in the midst of drama.
"Lex." She said in a tone of mild rebuke. She gingerly shifted his upper body and slipped herself under him, so that he was now cradled in her lap. She heard him hiss slightly in pain from the forced movement. "Sorry."
"No problem." He cleared his throat before saying suggestively. "I prefer this position anyway."
She continued to gently wipe the mass of dried blood from the side of his face. "Pete and Lana have gone for help." She informed him.
"So in theory, help should be arriving soon."
She bit her lip in an effort to keep the worry out of her voice. "In theory." She glanced furtively at the inky blackness of the summer night sky. The heavy wet odour of the impending storm was almost tangible now, and Chloe knew that it would begin to rain soon.
She felt the beginnings of a trickle almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind. She swore silently. The day had just gone from bad to excruciatingly worse.
(c) November 2002