Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Forty-Five ~*~*
Chloe woke to a ferociously rumbling stomach.
She rolled on her side on the soft mattress as she opened her eyes slowly in the semi-darkness of the room.
She smiled uncontrollably at the sight that greeted her - Lex Luthor fast asleep, peacefully slumbering as he cradled the pillow under him, his breathing steady and even. Chloe's inner cynic reflected bitingly that every book and movie ever made probably had a moment just like this one - a moment of endearing vulnerability framed by excruciatingly mushy lines about the peacefulness of sleep or the child-like innocence of the said sleeper. All things that under normal circumstances would have made her want to empty the contents of her stomach with the force of a tornado ripping through Kansas or any other state in America.
But this morning didn't feel normal and she resolutely squashed her inner cynic down. She sat up slowly, carefully lifting Lex's arm from around her waist, not wanting to disturb his precious moments of tranquil rest.
It was morning - late morning, judging from the blazing rays of sunlight that managed to seep through the expensive venetian blinds in Lex's room. Chloe carefully slipped off the large, plush bed and glanced around, momentarily disoriented at her surroundings.
Things had happened so fast and so frenetically last night - or this morning, she corrected wryly - that she had absolutely no memory of the chain of events that had landed her on Lex's bed.
Normally that would have been the cause for a few moments of hyperventilation and then a trip to Metropolis General to check on the her non-existent state of mental well-being.
There was that word again - normal. Under normal circumstances Chloe would be feeling even worse than she had been feeling last night, when she and Lex had practically goaded each other into madness and beyond. Under normal circumstances losing a few minutes of her life would have given her more than a tiny cause for concern for the state of her health, and not prompt Chloe to exhibit a grin more maniacal than the Cheshire cat's.
But then, under normal circumstances, Chloe wouldn't have come to slow, sensuous wakefulness in Lex's bed, snugly enveloped in Lex's arms.
Ergo, the day was just not normal.
Chloe inhaled deeply. Life suddenly felt wonderful and colourful and exhilarating again, which - and she couldn't emphasise this enough - was a much better place than the all out confusion and tension of the night before. The exploding passion of the night she had shared with Lex had served as an outlet for all the million tiny pin pricks of frustration that neither of them had the capacity to express, due to their scared as hell attitude about their feelings for each other.
So this was, metaphorically speaking, the calm after the storm. Not to be confused with the calm before the storm or the calm during the storm - both very bad, bad thoughts that shouldn't be entertained right now.
Chloe wasn't Smallville enough to think that everything would be clear blue skies and starry moonlit walks again for them, but she felt that they had hurdled over their first significant relationship roadblock and had narrowly escaped from becoming relationship road kill. They would never get points for style or creativity, but at least they were over it.
Big yay for them, Chloe cheered silently. She was even happy enough to begin formulating a few cheers in her mind to commemorate the event - which was a scary, pom-pom squad place that frankly, Chloe never thought she would ever visit.
She giggled silently, turning around in the next instant to ensure that she hadn't uttered any of her thoughts aloud - and thereby giving Lex a rude wake-up lesson on the wackiness of Chloe.
Chloe shivered despite the temperate air in the room. She launched herself off the bed and grabbed a random shirt from the pile that lay on Lex's recliner. She suppressed the brief urge to inhale Lex's scent that must have clung to it; only the thought that it would officially make her an embarrassingly besotted individual with a Lex fetish made her put the shirt on and not linger on its curious yet familiar smell - something that was all Lex.
His shirt fit well - roomy and comfortable enough to pad around in. Soft and silky and of course, very, very purple.
Chloe frowned momentarily at the sheer number of warm and fuzzies that she was having right now. This just wasn't right. She felt so overloaded with happiness that surely the karmic police would come back and arrest her ass sometime in the future.
She shook that disconcerting thought away. Karmic retaliation would have to wait, because right now, her stomach was growling like a particularly rabid dog with fleas.
Chloe padded across the room, shutting the door quietly behind her. She made her way to Lex's industrial sized kitchen, zoning in on her holiest of Holy Grails - especially this early in the day - an Espresso machine, standing innocently on the granite counter top, wholly unaware of the danger it faced.
She grinned wickedly. Fresh coffee and waking up next to a deliciously slumbering Lex? Every girl should be so lucky.
Humming a tuneless melody, she randomly grabbed a bag of grounded coffee beans from the pantry and set to work. Her complete absorption in her thoughts and the congratulatory exaltation on having such a fantastic morning was shattered as she realised that she wasn't exactly alone.
Chloe whipped around, not having enough 007 in her to be able to completely suppress her scream of shock at finding Lionel Luthor sitting sedately in the corner of the kitchen, hands folded neatly on his cane.
She instinctively backed away, bumping her back painfully against the corner of the bench top and knocking her mug to the tiled floor. It shattered jarringly as it connected with the ground.
"I startled you." Lionel boomed in the suddenly palpable silence.
Chloe swallowed, her hands flying over her less than substantial attire as she cursed colourfully in her head. Why, she groaned inwardly, had it been such a good idea to grab one of Lex's shirts and not say, actual clothes like a sane person would have done?
She could visibly see the day's stock free falling from its previously giddy height.
She cleared her throat conspicuously, bending down somewhat daintily to pick the shards of the broken mug off the floor without revealing too much of herself. Not that it would have mattered all that much, she reasoned a few coherent seconds later. Lionel Luthor was blind, so technically she could run naked in front of him and it wouldn't really matter, except for the truckload of ick that would have to be physically shovelled out of her body if that ever happened.
Chloe shuddered at the unappetising image. Were there no limits to how demented her mind could get?
"Mr Luthor."
"Miss Sullivan." He greeted her almost cordially as Chloe deposited the remnants of the mug into the stainless steel bin a few steps away.
The silence dragged on, growing tense as Chloe stared at the older man, who was staring into space with an impenetrable expression on his face.
"Your father is the manager at my Smallville plant." He grated, prompting Chloe to roll her eyes in derision despite her barely checked agitation.
"Yes Mr Luthor." She replied politely, furiously biting on her tongue to keep the string of verbal smack downs that raced through her head. As satisfying as that would have been, it was probably entirely the wrong approach to take for someone of Lionel's temperament. Nevertheless, she couldn't resist adding. "I believe we've already canvassed that well-known fact."
Lionel made a slight grunt in acknowledgment. "You go to the local high school. Editor of the school paper."
Chloe restrained a start in surprise. How could he have known that? She could barely formulate a picture of Lex's dad rifling through The Torch, much less the thought of him actually having someone report to him about her activities. Which was an absurd idea of surreal proportions.
She nodded, stopping herself mid-nod. "Ah, yeah." She frowned, looking down at her empty hands. "So?"
"So, you're an ambitious young woman." His gruff voice pierced the air. "One day you'll want to get an internship at the Daily Planet or at some other prestigious establishment. What better than to gain the trust of a Luthor now, and use it when you need it?"
Chloe blinked in momentary confusion. Label her as overly brimming with youthful optimism, but there had never been a question in her mind that she had all the ability and determination necessary to make her own way in the world. Sure, she may not end up independently wealthy by capitalistic standards, but she would live in all the comfort that her currently independent frame of mind aspired to.
To suggest that she would take advantage of Lex's wealth, or that she was dating him because of it was to Chloe an absolutely heinous suggestion.
Visually and physically challenged or not, there was nothing more that she wanted to do in that instant than bitch slap Lionel Luthor all the way to next week.
Amazingly, Chloe managed to rein her anger in. The bulging eyes and the livid flush that already was in evidence across her face she found that she could do nothing about.
But what she could do was to tell this ageing jackass - Lex's billionaire father or not - where he could shove that long-haired shrivelled ass of his.
"Mr Luthor." Chloe started, unconsciously mimicking the same contemptuous sneer that he had addressed her with. "Lex's father or not, physically incapacitated or not, let's get one thing clear." She quickly crossed over to him, placing her arms on the arm rests of his wheelchair with deceptive calm. "I'm not, and never will be, interested in Lex for his money. In fact, I don't even know what the big deal is. As far as I can tell it pretty much screws up your life when you've got that much money. Lex is occasionally obtuse, sometimes arrogantly stubborn but if I genuinely didn't like him, no amount of money would make me date him." She stepped even closer to the other man, hoping to telegraph her point across. "So I think you should take your shrivelled ass and high tail it out of here before Lex comes down. What do you say, Mr Luthor?"
Chloe had no idea where that came from, but it felt - good. Really, really good. She knew that a few moments later when she had descended from the almost euphoric high that she was experiencing right now she would come to regret the obscenely condescending tone she had used to Lionel Luthor - Lex's father - but right at this point in time she really couldn't give a damn. Here was the person that had, as far as Chloe was concerned, tormented and manipulated Lex for most of his life and it angered her almost past all reason that he was still calmly sitting there, a king in his own domain, decreeing who Lex should or shouldn't be with.
Lionel Luthor had obviously never dealt with anyone as stubborn or angry as Chloe Sullivan was at that point.
Far from being intimidated by her obvious anger, a ghostly smile flittered over the older man's face. "One day you'll regret those words Miss Sullivan." He stood, grasping his cane for support. "Depend on it."
"I think you should leave." Chloe gripping the edge of the counter top tightly. "Before you come off sounding any more Machiavellian lite. Now."
Smiling ambiguously, Lionel Luthor stood, grasping his walking cane fiercely. "We'll meet again Miss Sullivan."
Not deigning to make a reply Chloe resolutely shut her eyes, equal parts to not subject herself to the sight of Lex's dad for another second and to allow herself to regain a measure of that composure which she knew she had somewhere hidden in the depths of her mind. She concentrated on attaining a semblance of the measured breathing which she knew all normal human beings possessed when they hadn't just had it out with one of the most powerful men in the country.
Okay, she could do this. Breathe in, breathe out. Wax on, wax off.
She didn't reopen her eyes until she heard the distinct slamming of the front doors. Chloe stared in silence at the scrupulously spotless counter, the casual ticking of the kitchen clock the only measure of time actually passing in that frozen instant.
She didn't know what had just happened. She didn't know how she felt about basically cementing the less than chirpy relations between her and Lionel Luthor, who as Lex's dad was bad enough in the not getting along with your potential father-in-law stakes, but who as one of the richest men in America was sure to develop some heinously evil plan and bite her in the ass big time.
"Chloe?" Lex asked curiously as he stood in the doorway, the last vestiges of sleep still clinging to his form and a curiously open expression on his features. He ran a hand over his head as he frowned quizzically. "What was that?"
Chloe smiled shakily, trying to blink her way out of her confusion and anxiety. "Nothing." She lied blatantly, shaking her head slightly for emphasis. "It was nothing."
(c) January 2003