Thanks for the reply, guys. You're the best. The Lucas and Lex poll from
the readers are now up to Lex=80% and Lucas 20%. (
Part 6 Lionel's Plot
He would not have even known that his brother was in the hospital had it not been for the head of security knocking on his study door to inform him that Lionel Luthor had requested an escort to Smallville General for the night. Even though he was a little irritated with his father for allowing Chloe and Lucas to be so close in the several hours he was away, Lex was still concerned about the circumstances that would cause his father to make an impromptu visit to the hospital.
Lex placed his brandy glass on the desk and inserted a golden page marker in the book he was reading. Telling the head of security to have two men prepared to come with him and his father to the hospital, Lex strode out of the study and looked for his father. He found the old man pacing just a few feet away from the door.
"What's going on, dad?" he demanded. "Is everything all right?"
Lionel's flushed face betrayed a second of guilt and fear before he covered it up. The expression was so quick that Lex almost did not catch it. But he had forced himself for years to learn every change in Lionel's demeanor that Lex managed to register those emotions. "There was an accident. I need to go see Lucas in the emergency room."
"What?" Lex's concern immediately transferred to his brother. Lucas may have unknowingly stepped into Lex Luthor's territory, but he was still Lex's brother. "What happened?" He froze, realizing whom Lucas left the house with. "Was she with Miss Sullivan?"
"Yes." The two guards that Lex had requested met them at the door and led the two Luthor men to the car. At the back of the limo, Lionel continued, "They were standing outside the Sullivan house when a car went out of control and almost hit them. Thankfully, your brother had the presence of mind to roll them out of harm's way."
"Chloe. Was Chloe hurt?"
"Abrasions, minor lacerations from glass. A few bruises. Shock," Lionel enumerated. "She's no worse than Lucas."
"Was the driver apprehended?"
Lionel shook his head. "The driver was killed on impact with Lucas' parked car."
For the rest of the brief drive, Lex busied himself with his phone, calling his head of security to procure information on the dead man, contacting Gabe Sullivan's line which remained unreachable, and telling Clark about the accident because the boy would not forgive him if he learned that Lex did not inform him that something happened to his friend. When the limousine stopped in front of the hospital entrance, Lex stepped out of the car and walked briskly to the emergency room.
Before he could approach the triage nurse working on the information desk, he head his brother's familiar voice call him. "Lex! Over here."
He turned around and saw his brother, bare from the waist up, sitting on one of the plastic chairs, being attended by a young nurse who was cleaning his cuts. Lucas did not show any hint of pain, did not even wince at the sting of the disinfectant dabbed on his open wound. Lex sat on a chair beside his brother's, wondering why he was not even taken to a private portion of the emergency room, isolated even by the curtain so he would not have an audience. Lucas answered his silent question. "There was only one spot available and I thought Chloe could use the anonymity."
Lex nodded. At least Lucas had that much sense in him. He was relieved to find his brother apparently well, but he could still not help but blame him for the accident. Chloe would not have been hurt if she were not seeing Lucas and having dinner with him that night. His brain knew that Lucas had nothing to do with a probably very drunk driver losing control of his car in the middle of the night, but his heart protested that he would been responsible enough to keep Chloe from a mess like that had he been the one with her at the time. "How is she doing?"
"She's fine now. Her father is with her. You can peep inside those curtains. But you better tell them you're going to peek first. I tried to earlier but she was changing into a hospital gown so I got pushed away. I can't tell you how bad that went for my glass-embedded butt."
Lex looked sharply at his grinning brother. Lucas simply did not recognize the gravity of the situation. One or both of them could have been killed tonight. "Lucas, you could have been. more responsible." Before Lucas could protest, Lex raised his hand to silence him. "I know this was in no way your fault. But I think that you and Chloe should rethink your decision to be together."
The nurse started digging out the glass from an especially deep cut at his back. Lucas hissed for a moment, the only sign that he was undergoing what was technically a minor surgery out in the open. "Are you saying that because of the accident or because. Ouch. she's not good enough for us?"
The comment drew Lex's eyebrows together and before he could control himself, he gripped Lucas forearm, making the young man squeeze his eyes closed. "Mr. Luthor, don't!" Lex dropped Lucas' arm and muttered a quick apology.
"It's fine," Lucas moaned. At least the quick reaction was most likely genuine. Instant reflex could often be trusted as guileless, he knew, although it hurt like a b!tch scorned by man who opted for a s-lut instead. "Man, for a pencil-pusher, you have a tight grip!"
"I don't know where you got that idea about Chloe. Probably from dad," he said after a second of thought. "But don't let her hear you say that aloud. And for heaven's sake, Lucas, if that's what you believe then stop dating her before you hurt yourself."
"Don't you mean hurt her?"
"No. Hurt yourself. Believe me, you're the one who's going to be in excruciating physical pain if you even so much as suggest that to Chloe."
Lucas smirked. "You know this from experience?"
"I've not been that lucky yet," Lex answered with a small smile. "Look. Chloe needs someone who's responsible enough to be the man she deserves, not a boy playing at being wild, taunting his father because he has abandonment issues and dissipating his fifteen grand just because he finally has the resources to be able to."
"Woah Lex," Lucas interrupted. "Don't be too rash. In my defense, I was cheated. I knew he had only three cards left. He dropped one and showed us two. Tell me, where did the last ace come from? Huh? I was robbed!"
Lex took a deep calming breath. "I don't believe you, Lucas!"
"I can give you evidence. Brown Jeff can testify."
"Lucas!" Lex said sharply. "I don't care if you were cheated. That is beside the point. You can't tell Chloe that when you come home to her one day when the bills have to be paid, your kid needs formula and she's hungry because you have nothing left in your pocket but an IOU from Red Jim."
"That's Brown Jeff and it's a testimony." Lex narrowed his eyes at his brother in supreme irritation. He could not imagine why Lucas was suddenly grinning like an idiot. "Lex, this is the second time I've actually been with Chloe. What makes you think the relationship is even getting that far?"
"If you can't see a future with her I don't think you should be-"
"Yeah, Lex," Lucas told him. "I got the instruction the first time. Not a Harvard grad." Lucas pointed to himself. "But d-amn smart, surprisingly enough."
"I'm just saying that Chloe has enough issues of her own. Don't give her crap to worry about."
"And she deserves a responsible guy. Not like Lucas. How should I be, Lex? Like you?"
"It wouldn't hurt to have direction in life," Lex said stiffly.
Lucas sighed and thanked the nurse who was only then finishing bandaging the bigger wounds on his torso. From a moment, Lex thought that he got through to his brother, and that Lucas was taking note of his advice. "Well I think, Lex, that it may be just a bit more fun to be poor with Chloe than to be rich and sinfully boring with that woman." Lex turned around and looked at the direction that his brother was nodding towards. He saw his fiancé at the nurse station going over a chart and signing some release papers. He turned back towards his brother, not possessed by the same urge to shake him as he was when Lucas asked if Chloe were not good enough.
"Ah. I see that you've introduced Lucas to your fiancé, Lex."
Both Luthor sons turned to see their father walking towards them. "What took you so long, dad?" Lex asked.
"Well aside from the fact that I did not come running in here the moment we stopped, I also went to have a brief talk with Gabe about the situation."
"How's Chloe?"
"Looking better than Lucas," the older man informed his sons. "She would like to thank you personally for your quick thinking though, son."
Lucas nodded and stood from his chair. He shrugged on his discarded shirt. "I'll go see her. And Lex, responsible or not, you're not going to be a better choice than I am because at the rate that you're going, you'd have her asleep with all your concerns about her issues and your preoccupation with work. It's one thing to have a guy who wants secure future and another to have a man who's every thought is on making more money." Lucas qualified his statement at once. "But you know, I have no idea what Dr. Helen there wants in a man. So if that's what works for you two, go ahead. Work and worry your ass off. Me and Chloe, we're young and we're about what's fun and feels good." He turned to Lionel. "Right dad?"
Lionel's lips curved. His younger son was turning out to be more like him than Lex would ever be. "Let me walk with you to the Sullivans, son. Lex, I assume you want to talk to Dr. Bryce? We'll meet you in the limo."
Lionel and Lucas left Lex to his own devices. Out of Lex's earshot, Lucas muttered, "This was a bad idea, dad."
"Is it working, Lucas?"
"You saw his face. It's working better and faster than we thought it would."
"Anything successful, son, is never a bad idea."
"Chloe was almost killed!"
"Well it was not part of the plan to have those people after you in Edge City to find you here." Lionel thought for a moment. "Although since Lex took you here the first time, they probably had people watching Smallville for any sign of your return."
"Maybe Chloe and I should stop seeing each other," Lucas thought aloud.
"No," Lionel immediately asserted. "She has to be my daughter-in-law."
"I would say that the way you've taken to her is scary if I had not met her yet. But come on, dad, you can't have been fooled by your own plotting. You're not that old."
"Lucas, if I did not need you for this one, I would have had you killed already," Lionel told his son affectionately. "But you can't stop seeing Chloe. Lex has to think that you two are still seeing each other. Don't let me have that Dr. Bryce as my daughter-in-law, Lucas. I can't think of anyone else in Smallville, in Kansas-" His thoughts went to Lex's former girlfriends. "Not in the entire United States or even Great Britain, who can fill the role of a Luthor quite as well as this girl can."
"Dad, you are a frightening man."
"Thank you."
"But you said so yourself, the plan is working well. I can break up with Chloe and remove her from some sort of target list."
Before they reached the section of the emergency room where Chloe was waiting to be released, Lucas caught sight of his brother's shiny head moving to the Information Desk. He turned and saw Lex talk briefly with Dr. Bryce. They moved to the side of the room, their heads bent low in quiet conversation.
"Hey dad. Your favorite daughter-in-law looks pissed. You told me she's impassive. It doesn't look like it from my perspective."
Lionel turned to watch the scene playing before them. His heart rose to his throat as he choked on his own sentiment. There was that apologetic look in Lex's eyes as he spoke to the doctor that told Lionel that the wish that he had been giving to charities for was getting fulfilled. Helen Bryce moved from confused to angry to annoyed to shocked. If this were actually going to happen, he would shampoo his hair. He had been suffering through the messy and dingy derelict look in the hopes of scaring Helen Bryce away from his family. Now he might not need to keep it up.
Lionel Luthor, who had never shed a tear since that one moment inside the privacy of his bedroom, when he sat in the bed that his wife's body was taken away from just half an hour previously, started to well up in tears at the sight of Helen Bryce sliding the diamond engagement ring from her finger and slapping it on Lex's palm. He involuntarily gripped Lucas' arm, causing the youngest Luthor to squirm. "Lucas, this is the proudest moment of my life."
"I thought it was when I agreed to play Lex for fifty grand?"
"This just surpassed that by a notch."
"Who do I have to betray next to get the honors of giving you your proudest moment?" Lionel did not answer. He tearfully watched the angry exchange between his son and the doctor. "You know, dad, it was my hard-hitting analogy that got Lex that far. If I hadn't given him that contrast between poor me and rich him, he would not even reanalyze that relationship."
Lionel held up a finger. "Shhhhh. Let's keep the memory pure, Lucas."
Part 6 Lionel's Plot
He would not have even known that his brother was in the hospital had it not been for the head of security knocking on his study door to inform him that Lionel Luthor had requested an escort to Smallville General for the night. Even though he was a little irritated with his father for allowing Chloe and Lucas to be so close in the several hours he was away, Lex was still concerned about the circumstances that would cause his father to make an impromptu visit to the hospital.
Lex placed his brandy glass on the desk and inserted a golden page marker in the book he was reading. Telling the head of security to have two men prepared to come with him and his father to the hospital, Lex strode out of the study and looked for his father. He found the old man pacing just a few feet away from the door.
"What's going on, dad?" he demanded. "Is everything all right?"
Lionel's flushed face betrayed a second of guilt and fear before he covered it up. The expression was so quick that Lex almost did not catch it. But he had forced himself for years to learn every change in Lionel's demeanor that Lex managed to register those emotions. "There was an accident. I need to go see Lucas in the emergency room."
"What?" Lex's concern immediately transferred to his brother. Lucas may have unknowingly stepped into Lex Luthor's territory, but he was still Lex's brother. "What happened?" He froze, realizing whom Lucas left the house with. "Was she with Miss Sullivan?"
"Yes." The two guards that Lex had requested met them at the door and led the two Luthor men to the car. At the back of the limo, Lionel continued, "They were standing outside the Sullivan house when a car went out of control and almost hit them. Thankfully, your brother had the presence of mind to roll them out of harm's way."
"Chloe. Was Chloe hurt?"
"Abrasions, minor lacerations from glass. A few bruises. Shock," Lionel enumerated. "She's no worse than Lucas."
"Was the driver apprehended?"
Lionel shook his head. "The driver was killed on impact with Lucas' parked car."
For the rest of the brief drive, Lex busied himself with his phone, calling his head of security to procure information on the dead man, contacting Gabe Sullivan's line which remained unreachable, and telling Clark about the accident because the boy would not forgive him if he learned that Lex did not inform him that something happened to his friend. When the limousine stopped in front of the hospital entrance, Lex stepped out of the car and walked briskly to the emergency room.
Before he could approach the triage nurse working on the information desk, he head his brother's familiar voice call him. "Lex! Over here."
He turned around and saw his brother, bare from the waist up, sitting on one of the plastic chairs, being attended by a young nurse who was cleaning his cuts. Lucas did not show any hint of pain, did not even wince at the sting of the disinfectant dabbed on his open wound. Lex sat on a chair beside his brother's, wondering why he was not even taken to a private portion of the emergency room, isolated even by the curtain so he would not have an audience. Lucas answered his silent question. "There was only one spot available and I thought Chloe could use the anonymity."
Lex nodded. At least Lucas had that much sense in him. He was relieved to find his brother apparently well, but he could still not help but blame him for the accident. Chloe would not have been hurt if she were not seeing Lucas and having dinner with him that night. His brain knew that Lucas had nothing to do with a probably very drunk driver losing control of his car in the middle of the night, but his heart protested that he would been responsible enough to keep Chloe from a mess like that had he been the one with her at the time. "How is she doing?"
"She's fine now. Her father is with her. You can peep inside those curtains. But you better tell them you're going to peek first. I tried to earlier but she was changing into a hospital gown so I got pushed away. I can't tell you how bad that went for my glass-embedded butt."
Lex looked sharply at his grinning brother. Lucas simply did not recognize the gravity of the situation. One or both of them could have been killed tonight. "Lucas, you could have been. more responsible." Before Lucas could protest, Lex raised his hand to silence him. "I know this was in no way your fault. But I think that you and Chloe should rethink your decision to be together."
The nurse started digging out the glass from an especially deep cut at his back. Lucas hissed for a moment, the only sign that he was undergoing what was technically a minor surgery out in the open. "Are you saying that because of the accident or because. Ouch. she's not good enough for us?"
The comment drew Lex's eyebrows together and before he could control himself, he gripped Lucas forearm, making the young man squeeze his eyes closed. "Mr. Luthor, don't!" Lex dropped Lucas' arm and muttered a quick apology.
"It's fine," Lucas moaned. At least the quick reaction was most likely genuine. Instant reflex could often be trusted as guileless, he knew, although it hurt like a b!tch scorned by man who opted for a s-lut instead. "Man, for a pencil-pusher, you have a tight grip!"
"I don't know where you got that idea about Chloe. Probably from dad," he said after a second of thought. "But don't let her hear you say that aloud. And for heaven's sake, Lucas, if that's what you believe then stop dating her before you hurt yourself."
"Don't you mean hurt her?"
"No. Hurt yourself. Believe me, you're the one who's going to be in excruciating physical pain if you even so much as suggest that to Chloe."
Lucas smirked. "You know this from experience?"
"I've not been that lucky yet," Lex answered with a small smile. "Look. Chloe needs someone who's responsible enough to be the man she deserves, not a boy playing at being wild, taunting his father because he has abandonment issues and dissipating his fifteen grand just because he finally has the resources to be able to."
"Woah Lex," Lucas interrupted. "Don't be too rash. In my defense, I was cheated. I knew he had only three cards left. He dropped one and showed us two. Tell me, where did the last ace come from? Huh? I was robbed!"
Lex took a deep calming breath. "I don't believe you, Lucas!"
"I can give you evidence. Brown Jeff can testify."
"Lucas!" Lex said sharply. "I don't care if you were cheated. That is beside the point. You can't tell Chloe that when you come home to her one day when the bills have to be paid, your kid needs formula and she's hungry because you have nothing left in your pocket but an IOU from Red Jim."
"That's Brown Jeff and it's a testimony." Lex narrowed his eyes at his brother in supreme irritation. He could not imagine why Lucas was suddenly grinning like an idiot. "Lex, this is the second time I've actually been with Chloe. What makes you think the relationship is even getting that far?"
"If you can't see a future with her I don't think you should be-"
"Yeah, Lex," Lucas told him. "I got the instruction the first time. Not a Harvard grad." Lucas pointed to himself. "But d-amn smart, surprisingly enough."
"I'm just saying that Chloe has enough issues of her own. Don't give her crap to worry about."
"And she deserves a responsible guy. Not like Lucas. How should I be, Lex? Like you?"
"It wouldn't hurt to have direction in life," Lex said stiffly.
Lucas sighed and thanked the nurse who was only then finishing bandaging the bigger wounds on his torso. From a moment, Lex thought that he got through to his brother, and that Lucas was taking note of his advice. "Well I think, Lex, that it may be just a bit more fun to be poor with Chloe than to be rich and sinfully boring with that woman." Lex turned around and looked at the direction that his brother was nodding towards. He saw his fiancé at the nurse station going over a chart and signing some release papers. He turned back towards his brother, not possessed by the same urge to shake him as he was when Lucas asked if Chloe were not good enough.
"Ah. I see that you've introduced Lucas to your fiancé, Lex."
Both Luthor sons turned to see their father walking towards them. "What took you so long, dad?" Lex asked.
"Well aside from the fact that I did not come running in here the moment we stopped, I also went to have a brief talk with Gabe about the situation."
"How's Chloe?"
"Looking better than Lucas," the older man informed his sons. "She would like to thank you personally for your quick thinking though, son."
Lucas nodded and stood from his chair. He shrugged on his discarded shirt. "I'll go see her. And Lex, responsible or not, you're not going to be a better choice than I am because at the rate that you're going, you'd have her asleep with all your concerns about her issues and your preoccupation with work. It's one thing to have a guy who wants secure future and another to have a man who's every thought is on making more money." Lucas qualified his statement at once. "But you know, I have no idea what Dr. Helen there wants in a man. So if that's what works for you two, go ahead. Work and worry your ass off. Me and Chloe, we're young and we're about what's fun and feels good." He turned to Lionel. "Right dad?"
Lionel's lips curved. His younger son was turning out to be more like him than Lex would ever be. "Let me walk with you to the Sullivans, son. Lex, I assume you want to talk to Dr. Bryce? We'll meet you in the limo."
Lionel and Lucas left Lex to his own devices. Out of Lex's earshot, Lucas muttered, "This was a bad idea, dad."
"Is it working, Lucas?"
"You saw his face. It's working better and faster than we thought it would."
"Anything successful, son, is never a bad idea."
"Chloe was almost killed!"
"Well it was not part of the plan to have those people after you in Edge City to find you here." Lionel thought for a moment. "Although since Lex took you here the first time, they probably had people watching Smallville for any sign of your return."
"Maybe Chloe and I should stop seeing each other," Lucas thought aloud.
"No," Lionel immediately asserted. "She has to be my daughter-in-law."
"I would say that the way you've taken to her is scary if I had not met her yet. But come on, dad, you can't have been fooled by your own plotting. You're not that old."
"Lucas, if I did not need you for this one, I would have had you killed already," Lionel told his son affectionately. "But you can't stop seeing Chloe. Lex has to think that you two are still seeing each other. Don't let me have that Dr. Bryce as my daughter-in-law, Lucas. I can't think of anyone else in Smallville, in Kansas-" His thoughts went to Lex's former girlfriends. "Not in the entire United States or even Great Britain, who can fill the role of a Luthor quite as well as this girl can."
"Dad, you are a frightening man."
"Thank you."
"But you said so yourself, the plan is working well. I can break up with Chloe and remove her from some sort of target list."
Before they reached the section of the emergency room where Chloe was waiting to be released, Lucas caught sight of his brother's shiny head moving to the Information Desk. He turned and saw Lex talk briefly with Dr. Bryce. They moved to the side of the room, their heads bent low in quiet conversation.
"Hey dad. Your favorite daughter-in-law looks pissed. You told me she's impassive. It doesn't look like it from my perspective."
Lionel turned to watch the scene playing before them. His heart rose to his throat as he choked on his own sentiment. There was that apologetic look in Lex's eyes as he spoke to the doctor that told Lionel that the wish that he had been giving to charities for was getting fulfilled. Helen Bryce moved from confused to angry to annoyed to shocked. If this were actually going to happen, he would shampoo his hair. He had been suffering through the messy and dingy derelict look in the hopes of scaring Helen Bryce away from his family. Now he might not need to keep it up.
Lionel Luthor, who had never shed a tear since that one moment inside the privacy of his bedroom, when he sat in the bed that his wife's body was taken away from just half an hour previously, started to well up in tears at the sight of Helen Bryce sliding the diamond engagement ring from her finger and slapping it on Lex's palm. He involuntarily gripped Lucas' arm, causing the youngest Luthor to squirm. "Lucas, this is the proudest moment of my life."
"I thought it was when I agreed to play Lex for fifty grand?"
"This just surpassed that by a notch."
"Who do I have to betray next to get the honors of giving you your proudest moment?" Lionel did not answer. He tearfully watched the angry exchange between his son and the doctor. "You know, dad, it was my hard-hitting analogy that got Lex that far. If I hadn't given him that contrast between poor me and rich him, he would not even reanalyze that relationship."
Lionel held up a finger. "Shhhhh. Let's keep the memory pure, Lucas."
