Title: Recovery 6/8
Author: Amanda
E-mail: ficklemuse02@yahoo.com
Summary: Set in the summer between Season 2 and Season 3 - looks at what our favorite Smallville residents have been up to in the three months since 'Exodus'.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anybody. (But oh, what a glorious notion... owning Luthors....*sigh*) Smallville belongs to Millar/Gough etc.
** ** **
Edge City: Vango's Meat Packing
"And I'm telling you the kid's worth more alive than he is dead." Lil' Joe Vango lit up a cigar and nudged the semi-conscious lump at his feet with the tip of his shoe. "He's a Luthor and that translates into big money if you'd just keep your cool. We kill him now and we're out not just our original investment but also what we *could* be getting out of old man Luthor."
"That's a lot of pretty talk but the thing is Joey – everybody knows the old man ain't gonna pay a dime for this one. He wouldn't even pony up ransom for the kid he does like. Much less this little bastard." Gus Vango watched the 'kid' in question open one eye and promptly kicked him in the face. "Don't be listening in on our conversations. Just cause we're gonna slit your throat you little fucker doesn't mean you get to be disrespectful."
Lucas Luthor rolled across the floor with the force of the blow, his body curling even more tightly around itself. The two brothers barely paid any attention before resuming their conversation. The boy had already tried to escape several times in the past two days but he was starting to slow down.
"And come on Joey. If the kid was worth anything do you think the Old Man would let him spend his time trying to scam people? He's a punk and I say we put him down."
"That's why Pop left the business to me. You've got no imagination Gus. No vision. I say we use the kid for collateral. A contract with Luthor Corp means money. Serious money and not the nickel and dime stuff we're doin' right now."
"I don't know. Then you're talking about having to keep him locked up. Feed him all that crap and he's too smart for his own good. He'd try and get away." Gus rubbed a hand over his balding head. "He's more work than he's worth. I still say we kill him."
"Oh. Can I watch?" A voice interrupted the two men. "I've never actually seen someone have their throat slit before. I bet it's messier than it is in the movies!"
"Where tha' fuck did you come from?" Gus whirled around. "Listen kid if you're smart you'll get outta here before something happens you don't want no part of."
"No wonder your old man left the business to Joey here. You're a moron. As for where I'm from." Clark grinned. "I don't think you've heard of it before."
"What do you want?" Joey asked warily.
"Let's just say I'm a friend of the Luthor family. Lionel's doesn't want to be inconvenienced by a funeral. He'd like Lucas back."
Lucas rolled over onto his back. "Kent? What are you doing--?"
Clark drew back his foot and kicked Lucas in the chin knocking his head back on the concrete and knocking him unconscious. When the two loan sharks looked at him, Clark shrugged. "What? He wants him back. He never said what condition he wanted him back in. I thought maybe we could make a little deal the two of us."
"Hey!" Gus protested.
"Sorry big guy. Why don't you go find a nice horse head cuddle up and put on Sopranos or something?" Clark shrugged. Gus swung at Clark only to have his hand caught in midair and squeezed until the bones started to crack.
"What kind of deal are you talking about kid?" Joey asked, watching his brother drop to the floor.
"The kind where I take Lucas back home and instead of telling Lionel and some of his 'friends' where to find you and your families I tell him that everything's taken care of. Consider it life insurance hmm?"
"Look I don't know who you think you're dealing with. You got balls. No brains but balls and I can respect that… but if you think you're getting a single dime outta me you're wrong. You're the kind of wrong that gets a kid like you killed."
"You're welcome to try. But just so you know I've been shot, I've been hit by a bus and I've been thrown in a blast furnace and blown up in my truck. So if you think you can come up with something better. Take your best shot. Otherwise I think you and Jabba here –" Clark broke all of Gus' fingers with no effort. "Should just hand over the $50,000 in the safe and be grateful I don't kill you the way Lionel wants me to." Clark folded his arms over his chest and smiled slowly.
** ** **
Edge City Memorial Hospital:
"Good you're awake."
Lucas lifted one hand to the side of his head and made no attempt to open his eyes. First of all he didn't think the marching band in cleats would appreciate the sunlight he could feel warming the room and secondly because he didn't want to see the face attached to the voice. "What was your first clue? The moaning? The twitching? Enlighten me."
"You're a very lucky young man Mr. Luthor. Three bullet wounds. They could have severed your spinal cord."
"You know. Now that you mention it? I do feel lucky." Lucas muttered.
He was going to have to start taking his 'vacations' in Gotham. Edge City wasn't any fun any more.
"You should be nicer to the woman in charge of your pain medication Mr. Luthor."
Instantaneously sobered, Lucas opened one eye. "Forgive me for being rude Nurse..." He squinted and groaned. "Nurse Ratchett."
"Much better. You have a visitor…"
"I don't suppose there's any chance you could tell them I died?"
"I'd hate to ruin my reputation." Nurse Ratchett replied calmly. "But I will limit him to just 5 minutes. You need your rest."
"And morphine. Don't forget morphine." Lucas called at the nurse's retreating back. He hoped she didn't think he was kidding. Witty banter aside he felt like he'd been shot less than a month ago and just recently had the living shit kicked out of him. Funny how things work out like that.
When the door opened Lucas was expecting either Lionel or Lex and it was a toss up on who he wanted to see less. Lionel was a little more 'pliable' than Lex was. He was more willing to turn a blind eye and write off some of his less successful adventures as a case of Lucas' 'sowing wild oats'. Whereas Lex was apt to have him locked up in some remote Montana cabin to repent on the error of his ways.
But instead of either his father or his brother it was Dominick Senatori who walked into the hospital room, a rumpled looking suit coat slung over one arm and a copy of the Daily Planet under his arm.
"You're a difficult young man to track down."
"Why Dominick, if only I'd known you were looking for a few good men. I would have hooked you up." Lucas remarked as he sank back into his pillow.
"Amazing capacity you Luthor boys have for finding trouble." Dominick casually lifted Lucas' medical chart from the rack at the foot of his bed and gave it a cursory going over. "You'll live."
"Harvard have a sale the year you graduated? Buy a business degree, get a free M.D?"
"No. But in your family it seems to be a case of God suffering the great fools and the little children. I've seen Lex in much worse condition." Pulling a pen from his breast pocket, Dominick added a note to Lucas' chart.
Lucas lifted his arm from over his face. "Lex! Lex! Lex! Can't a man get shot in peace without adding insult to injury?" He frowned as Dominick continued to write. "What are you doing?"
"I've seen your records Lucas. I don't really think you need any narcotics. They'd simply make a bad situation worse and your father doesn't have time to hold your hand."
"Where is dear old Dad anyway?"
"He's in the middle of some extremely important contract negotiations. As for Lex- he's attending to business elsewhere." Dominick laid down the Daily Planet within Lucas' reach. "I brought you some reading material and a few other essentials."
"Nice to know Lionel's so concerned about me."
"Is there any particular reason Lionel should grow attached to you?" Dominick asked bluntly. "It's more than obvious to everyone that you'll be dead within the year. It makes you a rather poor long term investment and in case you haven't noticed those are the only type of investments your father is interested in."
Dominick thankfully didn't stay long. And once he was gone, Lucas fell back into a fitful sleep. Disjointed images from the past month flew through his mind while he slept but they all seemed faded and muted just enough that he wasn't really sure what he was looking at anymore.
There was something in the back of his mind. Something that was missing. A connection or a transition that wouldn't come into focus. He flopped back on the bed now wide awake and already bored.
Reaching over he picked up a copy of the Inquisitor and began to turn to the sports page. He had a chance to recoup some recent losses but only if the Knicks ever got off their dead asses. He was stopped on the society page by a large photograph of Lionel and the equally large caption- 'Luthor Gets Lessons in Love from Local Lolita'.
Lucas pulled the bed tray closer and picked up the telephone, dialing Lionel's private line. "Hey Dad."
"Lucas. Dominick says that you got yourself injured. When are you going to learn son? Loan sharks don't get their reputations by being reasonable and tenderhearted. If you needed another loan I would have been glad to oblige you."
"The loan sharks come with fewer strings." Lucas pressed a hand to his side and wheezed around the cracked ribs. "Saw you in the paper. Is the blonde my new Mommy?"
"Don't be crass Lucas it doesn't become you no matter how hard you work at it." Lionel sighed patiently over the line. "If only you would apply yourself to a more satisfying enterprise than trying my patience on a regular basis…"
"I don't know. Trying your patience is pretty rewarding."
"Though it pains me to say this- I won't live forever Lucas. And once I am gone I expect you and Alexander will carry on the legacy I've created. It would give me some ease to know that you wouldn't piss my life's work away on a weekend in Edge City."
"Wouldn't dream of it, we'd probably go to Bangkok."
"Lucas is there a particular point to this phone call? Aside from irritating me?"
"I need a loan."
There was a pause on the other end of the line before Lionel began to chuckle. "Very well. But you won't get it until I see for myself that you haven't done any permanent damage to yourself this time. Come and see me when you get out of the hospital."
"You're all heart dad." Lucas lifted the newspaper picture in his hand and studied it for a moment. "Or should I start calling you Humbert Humbert?"
"Goodbye Lucas."
** ** **
Author: Amanda
E-mail: ficklemuse02@yahoo.com
Summary: Set in the summer between Season 2 and Season 3 - looks at what our favorite Smallville residents have been up to in the three months since 'Exodus'.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anybody. (But oh, what a glorious notion... owning Luthors....*sigh*) Smallville belongs to Millar/Gough etc.
** ** **
Edge City: Vango's Meat Packing
"And I'm telling you the kid's worth more alive than he is dead." Lil' Joe Vango lit up a cigar and nudged the semi-conscious lump at his feet with the tip of his shoe. "He's a Luthor and that translates into big money if you'd just keep your cool. We kill him now and we're out not just our original investment but also what we *could* be getting out of old man Luthor."
"That's a lot of pretty talk but the thing is Joey – everybody knows the old man ain't gonna pay a dime for this one. He wouldn't even pony up ransom for the kid he does like. Much less this little bastard." Gus Vango watched the 'kid' in question open one eye and promptly kicked him in the face. "Don't be listening in on our conversations. Just cause we're gonna slit your throat you little fucker doesn't mean you get to be disrespectful."
Lucas Luthor rolled across the floor with the force of the blow, his body curling even more tightly around itself. The two brothers barely paid any attention before resuming their conversation. The boy had already tried to escape several times in the past two days but he was starting to slow down.
"And come on Joey. If the kid was worth anything do you think the Old Man would let him spend his time trying to scam people? He's a punk and I say we put him down."
"That's why Pop left the business to me. You've got no imagination Gus. No vision. I say we use the kid for collateral. A contract with Luthor Corp means money. Serious money and not the nickel and dime stuff we're doin' right now."
"I don't know. Then you're talking about having to keep him locked up. Feed him all that crap and he's too smart for his own good. He'd try and get away." Gus rubbed a hand over his balding head. "He's more work than he's worth. I still say we kill him."
"Oh. Can I watch?" A voice interrupted the two men. "I've never actually seen someone have their throat slit before. I bet it's messier than it is in the movies!"
"Where tha' fuck did you come from?" Gus whirled around. "Listen kid if you're smart you'll get outta here before something happens you don't want no part of."
"No wonder your old man left the business to Joey here. You're a moron. As for where I'm from." Clark grinned. "I don't think you've heard of it before."
"What do you want?" Joey asked warily.
"Let's just say I'm a friend of the Luthor family. Lionel's doesn't want to be inconvenienced by a funeral. He'd like Lucas back."
Lucas rolled over onto his back. "Kent? What are you doing--?"
Clark drew back his foot and kicked Lucas in the chin knocking his head back on the concrete and knocking him unconscious. When the two loan sharks looked at him, Clark shrugged. "What? He wants him back. He never said what condition he wanted him back in. I thought maybe we could make a little deal the two of us."
"Hey!" Gus protested.
"Sorry big guy. Why don't you go find a nice horse head cuddle up and put on Sopranos or something?" Clark shrugged. Gus swung at Clark only to have his hand caught in midair and squeezed until the bones started to crack.
"What kind of deal are you talking about kid?" Joey asked, watching his brother drop to the floor.
"The kind where I take Lucas back home and instead of telling Lionel and some of his 'friends' where to find you and your families I tell him that everything's taken care of. Consider it life insurance hmm?"
"Look I don't know who you think you're dealing with. You got balls. No brains but balls and I can respect that… but if you think you're getting a single dime outta me you're wrong. You're the kind of wrong that gets a kid like you killed."
"You're welcome to try. But just so you know I've been shot, I've been hit by a bus and I've been thrown in a blast furnace and blown up in my truck. So if you think you can come up with something better. Take your best shot. Otherwise I think you and Jabba here –" Clark broke all of Gus' fingers with no effort. "Should just hand over the $50,000 in the safe and be grateful I don't kill you the way Lionel wants me to." Clark folded his arms over his chest and smiled slowly.
** ** **
Edge City Memorial Hospital:
"Good you're awake."
Lucas lifted one hand to the side of his head and made no attempt to open his eyes. First of all he didn't think the marching band in cleats would appreciate the sunlight he could feel warming the room and secondly because he didn't want to see the face attached to the voice. "What was your first clue? The moaning? The twitching? Enlighten me."
"You're a very lucky young man Mr. Luthor. Three bullet wounds. They could have severed your spinal cord."
"You know. Now that you mention it? I do feel lucky." Lucas muttered.
He was going to have to start taking his 'vacations' in Gotham. Edge City wasn't any fun any more.
"You should be nicer to the woman in charge of your pain medication Mr. Luthor."
Instantaneously sobered, Lucas opened one eye. "Forgive me for being rude Nurse..." He squinted and groaned. "Nurse Ratchett."
"Much better. You have a visitor…"
"I don't suppose there's any chance you could tell them I died?"
"I'd hate to ruin my reputation." Nurse Ratchett replied calmly. "But I will limit him to just 5 minutes. You need your rest."
"And morphine. Don't forget morphine." Lucas called at the nurse's retreating back. He hoped she didn't think he was kidding. Witty banter aside he felt like he'd been shot less than a month ago and just recently had the living shit kicked out of him. Funny how things work out like that.
When the door opened Lucas was expecting either Lionel or Lex and it was a toss up on who he wanted to see less. Lionel was a little more 'pliable' than Lex was. He was more willing to turn a blind eye and write off some of his less successful adventures as a case of Lucas' 'sowing wild oats'. Whereas Lex was apt to have him locked up in some remote Montana cabin to repent on the error of his ways.
But instead of either his father or his brother it was Dominick Senatori who walked into the hospital room, a rumpled looking suit coat slung over one arm and a copy of the Daily Planet under his arm.
"You're a difficult young man to track down."
"Why Dominick, if only I'd known you were looking for a few good men. I would have hooked you up." Lucas remarked as he sank back into his pillow.
"Amazing capacity you Luthor boys have for finding trouble." Dominick casually lifted Lucas' medical chart from the rack at the foot of his bed and gave it a cursory going over. "You'll live."
"Harvard have a sale the year you graduated? Buy a business degree, get a free M.D?"
"No. But in your family it seems to be a case of God suffering the great fools and the little children. I've seen Lex in much worse condition." Pulling a pen from his breast pocket, Dominick added a note to Lucas' chart.
Lucas lifted his arm from over his face. "Lex! Lex! Lex! Can't a man get shot in peace without adding insult to injury?" He frowned as Dominick continued to write. "What are you doing?"
"I've seen your records Lucas. I don't really think you need any narcotics. They'd simply make a bad situation worse and your father doesn't have time to hold your hand."
"Where is dear old Dad anyway?"
"He's in the middle of some extremely important contract negotiations. As for Lex- he's attending to business elsewhere." Dominick laid down the Daily Planet within Lucas' reach. "I brought you some reading material and a few other essentials."
"Nice to know Lionel's so concerned about me."
"Is there any particular reason Lionel should grow attached to you?" Dominick asked bluntly. "It's more than obvious to everyone that you'll be dead within the year. It makes you a rather poor long term investment and in case you haven't noticed those are the only type of investments your father is interested in."
Dominick thankfully didn't stay long. And once he was gone, Lucas fell back into a fitful sleep. Disjointed images from the past month flew through his mind while he slept but they all seemed faded and muted just enough that he wasn't really sure what he was looking at anymore.
There was something in the back of his mind. Something that was missing. A connection or a transition that wouldn't come into focus. He flopped back on the bed now wide awake and already bored.
Reaching over he picked up a copy of the Inquisitor and began to turn to the sports page. He had a chance to recoup some recent losses but only if the Knicks ever got off their dead asses. He was stopped on the society page by a large photograph of Lionel and the equally large caption- 'Luthor Gets Lessons in Love from Local Lolita'.
Lucas pulled the bed tray closer and picked up the telephone, dialing Lionel's private line. "Hey Dad."
"Lucas. Dominick says that you got yourself injured. When are you going to learn son? Loan sharks don't get their reputations by being reasonable and tenderhearted. If you needed another loan I would have been glad to oblige you."
"The loan sharks come with fewer strings." Lucas pressed a hand to his side and wheezed around the cracked ribs. "Saw you in the paper. Is the blonde my new Mommy?"
"Don't be crass Lucas it doesn't become you no matter how hard you work at it." Lionel sighed patiently over the line. "If only you would apply yourself to a more satisfying enterprise than trying my patience on a regular basis…"
"I don't know. Trying your patience is pretty rewarding."
"Though it pains me to say this- I won't live forever Lucas. And once I am gone I expect you and Alexander will carry on the legacy I've created. It would give me some ease to know that you wouldn't piss my life's work away on a weekend in Edge City."
"Wouldn't dream of it, we'd probably go to Bangkok."
"Lucas is there a particular point to this phone call? Aside from irritating me?"
"I need a loan."
There was a pause on the other end of the line before Lionel began to chuckle. "Very well. But you won't get it until I see for myself that you haven't done any permanent damage to yourself this time. Come and see me when you get out of the hospital."
"You're all heart dad." Lucas lifted the newspaper picture in his hand and studied it for a moment. "Or should I start calling you Humbert Humbert?"
"Goodbye Lucas."
** ** **
