Part 2
The castle had been aired and swept, prepared for the last Luthor to walk through the halls in search of history. Lena Luthor sat on a chair in her grandmother's office searching for names or clues, anything that would jar her mind into recollecting a person important enough to the residents of the house. Finding a thick folder yellowed with age and brittle with wear, she drew it out of the drawer and laid it on the table.
It was nothing important. She figured most of the people listed in the patient list had died long before her grandmother did a few years ago. Still, Lena treasured pictures of the old woman looking smart in her uniform, holding the medical charts or wearing a stethoscope. She personally had no predilection for science, a weakness that her grandmother had been helping her banish when she was a teenager. After all, Helen was a doctor; her grandfather Lex holder of a biochemistry degree that was only put aside because of the desperate need of the company to have a man at the helm. Lena did not understand it herself. No matter how desperately she tried, she could not find any interest in the subject short of exposing to the world any deviations from the norm. For that alone, when Helen told her about how the human body should be made up, she listened.
Her grandmother had a thriving practice. There were names she had heard before, in family conversations. She knew that these people must somehow be connected to Helen Luthor, and to find them on the patient list was eye- opening. Curiously, Lena noted that there was a Martha Kent on the list, as well as one Jonathan Kent. Although she had not heard about them before, she did know another Kent. At least she had heard his name one time when she listened in to her dad talking with granduncle Lucas.
"I hate it as much as you do, Christian, but we cannot do anything. Clark Kent is out of our reach now. You have to accept that."
There had been silence then. As an eight-year-old, Lena had already been as inquisitive as no one else had been in the family. She had peeked into the office and seen her father slumped down on the desk, his elbows resting on his knees, as he looked up at Lucas who at times appeared even more youthful than the thirty-one-year-old Christian. "I will not let it go that easily, uncle."
"Your father has."
Lena had edged closer to the door, curious about the conversation that suddenly concerned her most favorite person in the entire world, her grandpa.
"Do you call what he's doing letting go? He's shut himself off from the world." Her poor father, with tears in his eyes. Lena couldn't wait for him to walk out of that room so she could pepper him with lots of kisses. "Uncle," Christian continued, "he had paid more attention to that cold marble than he has to me. And I'm-"
"His son," Lucas interjected and then nodded towards the door, where he had seen Lena listening in. "Well hello, Lena. Did you bring me anything from Metropolis?"
"We'll talk about Kent later," Christian told his uncle before going to the doorway to pick up his daughter.
Lena settled back in her chair and stared closely at those names. She never did once figure out what Clark Kent had done to make her dad react that way to him. Christian Luthor, until the day he died only three years after that talk, had been a jocular man contented with his life.
She shook her head so that she would keep herself from remembering the accident that took away her two young parents. It had broken her grandfather so much more than it affected Helen, proving to Lena only that the woman was stronger than any one in the family. She had survived them all after all-Lex, Lucas, Christian and Lucas' two daughters.
Lena could find nothing that could serve as a clue to her mystery. Instead, she took the phone from her pocket and dialed her cousin's number. Ted was only five years older, but he was aware enough that he must have had an idea.
~~
Her cousin Ted was another of the oddities in the Luthor clan, not as much as Lena but still. Theodore's passion for science manifested itself into a very keen precision for forensics, which then lodged him into the role of the family's solicitor. It had become a family tradition to tease him about how the lawyer had descended from the pettiest Luthor criminal. Whilst Lionel Luthor had been committing the century's biggest crimes, his son Lucas was off in crime alleys snitching pockets and dealing a double hand.
Despite the obvious differences in their stand on the law, Lucas was proudest of Ted. Ted was a man of distinct principles and a generous heart. Like his mother Heather, who like all the loves of the Luthor men died early, Ted placed his family above everything else.
When she had called him, Ted asked her quietly, "Are you certain, Lena, that you want to know everything? Once you open the box, you can't shut it and forget what you didn't like."
"Don't go mystery man on me, Ted. I don't even know what's up with the secrets. You obviously know things I was not informed of."
"Lena, you were being protected from hurt. You adored Grandma," he told her, referring to Helen who was the only grandmother he knew. It was the saddest part of being in the Luthor family. Lucas' wife Andrea also passed away before any of the children were old enough to remember.
"What does Grandma have to do with it, Ted?"
"Listen, Lena. I can be there in forty, tops. Will you wait for me?"
"Do I have a choice?"
Ted found her in Helen's office fifteen minutes later. She smiled and embraced her cousin in welcome. "So the prodigal daughter returns." She smiled lopsidedly at the reminder of how she had run away after Lucas died. No matter how much she adored Helen, she could not stay around when everything inside her rebelled at the image of the young woman that she was being turned into.
"I wouldn't have except for the fact that the castle was left to me," she replied, pulling away from Ted and raising an eyebrow. "Why would grandma leave the castle to me? Why not to any of you guys? You were the ones who stayed around after I left."
"Lena, sweetheart, you are the only Luthor here. Jenna and I, we don't carry the name. The castle was supposed to go to Uncle Christian. It's called primogeniture."
"That's ancient, Ted!" Lena laughingly replied.
"That's the Luthor idiosyncrasy."
The shy dimple that appeared on her cheek made her features lighter, and Ted smiled back at the face that none of their other relatives could place. Lena, golden hair and brilliant green eyes, was so unlike any of the elders that they chose to stay apart. He was privileged to be the only one in his generation to hold the information. Even his parents never knew. He was assured of that when he asked about how secure the information was. All the rest of people who could tell Lena the truth were gone-their grandparents, her father-and now that Lena was open to finding out, Ted felt relief that he would finally pass it on.
"We are a family cursed by death," he began.
Lena nodded, her eyes automatically drawn to the window, where the cherubim now shone under the sun. She had asked for the statue to be cleaned, the vines cleared. Another Luthor idiosyncrasy she supposed. "Except for my grandparents. Grandma Helen lived her full years. And grandfather Lex, who took death like a gift. Do you remember how he looked?"
The image of the older man's longing look and happy smile, at that precise second that his heart had stopped beating, had been his touchstone in all his adult life. "Did you ever wonder about that?"
"Everyone wondered about that. I remember my nanny telling me this story, when I cried that night, that when a person dies, he sees this brilliant light." Lena smiled. "And then from that light, someone walks out from the other side to take him through. When a man dies, the spirit of the person he loved the most will extend her hand to guide him."
Ted nodded. "That's how he looked, Lena. Grandpa Lex looked like he saw that person, so death was a gift to him."
"Do you think great grandmother Lillian came to him then?"
He blinked away the confusion in his eyes upon processing Lena's question. "Maybe. Lena, do you remember the curse that everyone was talking about when your parents died? It was the same one they talked about, they said, when Lillian Luthor passed away. It was the same one when my grandma died too."
"That the women Luthors love are destined for an early death," Lena answered. And then she shook her head. "But that's crazy, Ted. Look at grandma Helen."
He did not speak, but met her gaze for an extended moment. When she sucked in her breath, he nodded. "I firmly believe, in my heart, Lena, that great grandmother Lillian came to Lionel when he died. But it wasn't her hand that grandpa Lex took that time."
"What are you telling me, Ted? That this woman who was Mrs Luthor since he was twenty two years old-"
He closed his hand over hers and slipped a key easily into her fist. "I'm telling you that I am finally fulfilling the last of the will. I'm delivering you your heritage, Lena."
The young woman raised the silver key up to inspect it. "What is this?"
"That's the reason that this castle is yours, Lena. The property holds more importance than you give it. It's who you are." He led her out of Helen's office and down the hall, turning to the left in the direction of Lex's. The knob gave easily and he held his hand to the direction of the floor- length tapestry. "Now you find out. I know you loved grandma, Lena. But keep an open mind. Uncle Christian spent long hours in there. And so did grandpa Lex. I hope-Just go on, Lena. Happy discovery."
Part 3
Worlds existed outside her own. She believed this with all her heart. Another time, another place, or on another frequency that no human was aware of. Chloe Sullivan held in her heart this firm faith that death is not sleep but a birth to another existence.
It was cold comfort that she turned to when all that was inside her melted at the knowledge that human frailty was one dilemma she could not hope to fix.
She stared out the French windows from the penthouse apartment and wondered how painful it would be if she let herself fly. Her hand rested on the door handle, but she knew it would be a futile effort to even try it. He made sure that this door to the balcony was always locked.
"Lex." The name slipped easily from her lips when a scent of ylang ylang filled the air around her, wrapping her in a fragrant haze.
His warm kisses soothed her neck as it traced a path from her collarbone to her ears. She felt his hot breath on her ear. "How was your day?"
"Has an entire day passed?"
He turned her in his arms so that he could look down on her face. Lex could see the yearning in her eyes, her desperate need to leave the confines of the room to see the world again. He glanced out and saw the orange sky. "We'll go out in half an hour, okay?"
Chloe nodded. Lex pressed a kiss on her cheek and walked towards the bed. She watched as he wearily lay down fully clothed. She walked towards him and stared at the closed eyes. He wasn't asleep. He came to her to rest his eyes and relax his body after a grueling day at work or at the castle. She smiled at the memory of Lex telling her that the castle was the castle. With her, he was home.
There are so many reasons why she should not be with this man. She had known it the exact moment that she decided to pursue the intense emotions that threatened to overwhelm her the day that everything changed. Fate was treacherous that way too. Without warning, she looked up and he was different. From a casual friend, Lex became the drug she could not live without. Chloe crawled in beside him and pressed kisses on the lines on his face.
The gold band adorning his finger was one of those reasons. And there was the inevitable that even his wife knew, the inevitable that was the reason she hesitated entering a relationship with him. It was a reason he crushed with passionate words and promises that as long as they could, they would fight it. It was the inevitable that still hung over them like a dark heavy cloud.
He opened his eyes and reached up to touch her cheek. She could feel the thin bump of his wedding ring against her skin. Chloe reached up and closed her hand over his fingers and pulled it away. Slowly, she slipped the ring off his finger and laid it on the desk. "You can put it back on later." She laid a kiss on the pale line on his skin where his ring had been. She settled beside him and rested her head on his chest, examining his hand and raising her own to see them together. "You have a very big hand."
Lex turned his hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "I'll get you a ring."
"Don't insult me."
"Chloe," he protested.
"I'm not your wife, Lex. And I'm not jealous of Helen. This is enough."
"It's not enough for me."
Lulled by the steady rhythm of his heart, Chloe closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "You have to learn to be contented with what you have. Sometimes you don't get more." She felt his fingers thread through her hair and massage her scalp. "We don't get to choose what happens to us, Lex. Don't fool yourself that we do."
"I tracked down a research paper done by Dr. Hart. I made certain inquiries about his background. I think we have something here, Chloe."
"Just like the way we did with Dr. Yates and Dr. Sun. And Prof. Getty. Not to mention Dr. Mann," she enumerated. "Lex, I'm tired. I'm done hoping that tomorrow it will be different. I'm just-I'm tired."
"You told me you wouldn't give up on us. You promised me you would try."
Chloe pulled away and sat up on the bed, shrugging off his reaching hand. "You're not the one poked and prodded and pierced and radiated. Lex, you're not the one who has to pretend it doesn't hurt so that afterwards, you would not have to feel guilty. You're not the one who would feel so wretched whenever they introduce medication that you just wonder why you can't just die. Lex, you don't have to pretend every day that there's still hope when your entire body is telling that there's none, and that it just wants to give up."
His arms wrapped around her from behind and he pulled her tightly to him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
When her form relaxed, he pulled her back down on the bed. Chloe breathed in the knowledge that he was protecting her, when she knew the killers were already inside her. "Let's not go out anymore," she suggested. "Let's spend the day here instead. Okay, Lex?"
"That's the best idea that I've heard all day."
The castle had been aired and swept, prepared for the last Luthor to walk through the halls in search of history. Lena Luthor sat on a chair in her grandmother's office searching for names or clues, anything that would jar her mind into recollecting a person important enough to the residents of the house. Finding a thick folder yellowed with age and brittle with wear, she drew it out of the drawer and laid it on the table.
It was nothing important. She figured most of the people listed in the patient list had died long before her grandmother did a few years ago. Still, Lena treasured pictures of the old woman looking smart in her uniform, holding the medical charts or wearing a stethoscope. She personally had no predilection for science, a weakness that her grandmother had been helping her banish when she was a teenager. After all, Helen was a doctor; her grandfather Lex holder of a biochemistry degree that was only put aside because of the desperate need of the company to have a man at the helm. Lena did not understand it herself. No matter how desperately she tried, she could not find any interest in the subject short of exposing to the world any deviations from the norm. For that alone, when Helen told her about how the human body should be made up, she listened.
Her grandmother had a thriving practice. There were names she had heard before, in family conversations. She knew that these people must somehow be connected to Helen Luthor, and to find them on the patient list was eye- opening. Curiously, Lena noted that there was a Martha Kent on the list, as well as one Jonathan Kent. Although she had not heard about them before, she did know another Kent. At least she had heard his name one time when she listened in to her dad talking with granduncle Lucas.
"I hate it as much as you do, Christian, but we cannot do anything. Clark Kent is out of our reach now. You have to accept that."
There had been silence then. As an eight-year-old, Lena had already been as inquisitive as no one else had been in the family. She had peeked into the office and seen her father slumped down on the desk, his elbows resting on his knees, as he looked up at Lucas who at times appeared even more youthful than the thirty-one-year-old Christian. "I will not let it go that easily, uncle."
"Your father has."
Lena had edged closer to the door, curious about the conversation that suddenly concerned her most favorite person in the entire world, her grandpa.
"Do you call what he's doing letting go? He's shut himself off from the world." Her poor father, with tears in his eyes. Lena couldn't wait for him to walk out of that room so she could pepper him with lots of kisses. "Uncle," Christian continued, "he had paid more attention to that cold marble than he has to me. And I'm-"
"His son," Lucas interjected and then nodded towards the door, where he had seen Lena listening in. "Well hello, Lena. Did you bring me anything from Metropolis?"
"We'll talk about Kent later," Christian told his uncle before going to the doorway to pick up his daughter.
Lena settled back in her chair and stared closely at those names. She never did once figure out what Clark Kent had done to make her dad react that way to him. Christian Luthor, until the day he died only three years after that talk, had been a jocular man contented with his life.
She shook her head so that she would keep herself from remembering the accident that took away her two young parents. It had broken her grandfather so much more than it affected Helen, proving to Lena only that the woman was stronger than any one in the family. She had survived them all after all-Lex, Lucas, Christian and Lucas' two daughters.
Lena could find nothing that could serve as a clue to her mystery. Instead, she took the phone from her pocket and dialed her cousin's number. Ted was only five years older, but he was aware enough that he must have had an idea.
~~
Her cousin Ted was another of the oddities in the Luthor clan, not as much as Lena but still. Theodore's passion for science manifested itself into a very keen precision for forensics, which then lodged him into the role of the family's solicitor. It had become a family tradition to tease him about how the lawyer had descended from the pettiest Luthor criminal. Whilst Lionel Luthor had been committing the century's biggest crimes, his son Lucas was off in crime alleys snitching pockets and dealing a double hand.
Despite the obvious differences in their stand on the law, Lucas was proudest of Ted. Ted was a man of distinct principles and a generous heart. Like his mother Heather, who like all the loves of the Luthor men died early, Ted placed his family above everything else.
When she had called him, Ted asked her quietly, "Are you certain, Lena, that you want to know everything? Once you open the box, you can't shut it and forget what you didn't like."
"Don't go mystery man on me, Ted. I don't even know what's up with the secrets. You obviously know things I was not informed of."
"Lena, you were being protected from hurt. You adored Grandma," he told her, referring to Helen who was the only grandmother he knew. It was the saddest part of being in the Luthor family. Lucas' wife Andrea also passed away before any of the children were old enough to remember.
"What does Grandma have to do with it, Ted?"
"Listen, Lena. I can be there in forty, tops. Will you wait for me?"
"Do I have a choice?"
Ted found her in Helen's office fifteen minutes later. She smiled and embraced her cousin in welcome. "So the prodigal daughter returns." She smiled lopsidedly at the reminder of how she had run away after Lucas died. No matter how much she adored Helen, she could not stay around when everything inside her rebelled at the image of the young woman that she was being turned into.
"I wouldn't have except for the fact that the castle was left to me," she replied, pulling away from Ted and raising an eyebrow. "Why would grandma leave the castle to me? Why not to any of you guys? You were the ones who stayed around after I left."
"Lena, sweetheart, you are the only Luthor here. Jenna and I, we don't carry the name. The castle was supposed to go to Uncle Christian. It's called primogeniture."
"That's ancient, Ted!" Lena laughingly replied.
"That's the Luthor idiosyncrasy."
The shy dimple that appeared on her cheek made her features lighter, and Ted smiled back at the face that none of their other relatives could place. Lena, golden hair and brilliant green eyes, was so unlike any of the elders that they chose to stay apart. He was privileged to be the only one in his generation to hold the information. Even his parents never knew. He was assured of that when he asked about how secure the information was. All the rest of people who could tell Lena the truth were gone-their grandparents, her father-and now that Lena was open to finding out, Ted felt relief that he would finally pass it on.
"We are a family cursed by death," he began.
Lena nodded, her eyes automatically drawn to the window, where the cherubim now shone under the sun. She had asked for the statue to be cleaned, the vines cleared. Another Luthor idiosyncrasy she supposed. "Except for my grandparents. Grandma Helen lived her full years. And grandfather Lex, who took death like a gift. Do you remember how he looked?"
The image of the older man's longing look and happy smile, at that precise second that his heart had stopped beating, had been his touchstone in all his adult life. "Did you ever wonder about that?"
"Everyone wondered about that. I remember my nanny telling me this story, when I cried that night, that when a person dies, he sees this brilliant light." Lena smiled. "And then from that light, someone walks out from the other side to take him through. When a man dies, the spirit of the person he loved the most will extend her hand to guide him."
Ted nodded. "That's how he looked, Lena. Grandpa Lex looked like he saw that person, so death was a gift to him."
"Do you think great grandmother Lillian came to him then?"
He blinked away the confusion in his eyes upon processing Lena's question. "Maybe. Lena, do you remember the curse that everyone was talking about when your parents died? It was the same one they talked about, they said, when Lillian Luthor passed away. It was the same one when my grandma died too."
"That the women Luthors love are destined for an early death," Lena answered. And then she shook her head. "But that's crazy, Ted. Look at grandma Helen."
He did not speak, but met her gaze for an extended moment. When she sucked in her breath, he nodded. "I firmly believe, in my heart, Lena, that great grandmother Lillian came to Lionel when he died. But it wasn't her hand that grandpa Lex took that time."
"What are you telling me, Ted? That this woman who was Mrs Luthor since he was twenty two years old-"
He closed his hand over hers and slipped a key easily into her fist. "I'm telling you that I am finally fulfilling the last of the will. I'm delivering you your heritage, Lena."
The young woman raised the silver key up to inspect it. "What is this?"
"That's the reason that this castle is yours, Lena. The property holds more importance than you give it. It's who you are." He led her out of Helen's office and down the hall, turning to the left in the direction of Lex's. The knob gave easily and he held his hand to the direction of the floor- length tapestry. "Now you find out. I know you loved grandma, Lena. But keep an open mind. Uncle Christian spent long hours in there. And so did grandpa Lex. I hope-Just go on, Lena. Happy discovery."
Part 3
Worlds existed outside her own. She believed this with all her heart. Another time, another place, or on another frequency that no human was aware of. Chloe Sullivan held in her heart this firm faith that death is not sleep but a birth to another existence.
It was cold comfort that she turned to when all that was inside her melted at the knowledge that human frailty was one dilemma she could not hope to fix.
She stared out the French windows from the penthouse apartment and wondered how painful it would be if she let herself fly. Her hand rested on the door handle, but she knew it would be a futile effort to even try it. He made sure that this door to the balcony was always locked.
"Lex." The name slipped easily from her lips when a scent of ylang ylang filled the air around her, wrapping her in a fragrant haze.
His warm kisses soothed her neck as it traced a path from her collarbone to her ears. She felt his hot breath on her ear. "How was your day?"
"Has an entire day passed?"
He turned her in his arms so that he could look down on her face. Lex could see the yearning in her eyes, her desperate need to leave the confines of the room to see the world again. He glanced out and saw the orange sky. "We'll go out in half an hour, okay?"
Chloe nodded. Lex pressed a kiss on her cheek and walked towards the bed. She watched as he wearily lay down fully clothed. She walked towards him and stared at the closed eyes. He wasn't asleep. He came to her to rest his eyes and relax his body after a grueling day at work or at the castle. She smiled at the memory of Lex telling her that the castle was the castle. With her, he was home.
There are so many reasons why she should not be with this man. She had known it the exact moment that she decided to pursue the intense emotions that threatened to overwhelm her the day that everything changed. Fate was treacherous that way too. Without warning, she looked up and he was different. From a casual friend, Lex became the drug she could not live without. Chloe crawled in beside him and pressed kisses on the lines on his face.
The gold band adorning his finger was one of those reasons. And there was the inevitable that even his wife knew, the inevitable that was the reason she hesitated entering a relationship with him. It was a reason he crushed with passionate words and promises that as long as they could, they would fight it. It was the inevitable that still hung over them like a dark heavy cloud.
He opened his eyes and reached up to touch her cheek. She could feel the thin bump of his wedding ring against her skin. Chloe reached up and closed her hand over his fingers and pulled it away. Slowly, she slipped the ring off his finger and laid it on the desk. "You can put it back on later." She laid a kiss on the pale line on his skin where his ring had been. She settled beside him and rested her head on his chest, examining his hand and raising her own to see them together. "You have a very big hand."
Lex turned his hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "I'll get you a ring."
"Don't insult me."
"Chloe," he protested.
"I'm not your wife, Lex. And I'm not jealous of Helen. This is enough."
"It's not enough for me."
Lulled by the steady rhythm of his heart, Chloe closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "You have to learn to be contented with what you have. Sometimes you don't get more." She felt his fingers thread through her hair and massage her scalp. "We don't get to choose what happens to us, Lex. Don't fool yourself that we do."
"I tracked down a research paper done by Dr. Hart. I made certain inquiries about his background. I think we have something here, Chloe."
"Just like the way we did with Dr. Yates and Dr. Sun. And Prof. Getty. Not to mention Dr. Mann," she enumerated. "Lex, I'm tired. I'm done hoping that tomorrow it will be different. I'm just-I'm tired."
"You told me you wouldn't give up on us. You promised me you would try."
Chloe pulled away and sat up on the bed, shrugging off his reaching hand. "You're not the one poked and prodded and pierced and radiated. Lex, you're not the one who has to pretend it doesn't hurt so that afterwards, you would not have to feel guilty. You're not the one who would feel so wretched whenever they introduce medication that you just wonder why you can't just die. Lex, you don't have to pretend every day that there's still hope when your entire body is telling that there's none, and that it just wants to give up."
His arms wrapped around her from behind and he pulled her tightly to him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
When her form relaxed, he pulled her back down on the bed. Chloe breathed in the knowledge that he was protecting her, when she knew the killers were already inside her. "Let's not go out anymore," she suggested. "Let's spend the day here instead. Okay, Lex?"
"That's the best idea that I've heard all day."
