Part 3

Although Lena had wanted to come into the room at once when she received the key, her cousin Ted convinced her that it would be best to wait a while. So she opted to take down the tapestry covering the secret door at midnight. For her, it enhanced the thrill of discovery. Whatever she would find behind the door had been big enough of a secret that it had been carefully hidden away from the family for decades. It was important and life-altering enough that after finding out that his father kept such a room, Christian Luthor made a point to visit the Smallville castle every few weeks. And on such visits, he would ask Lex politely if he could view it. Lena barely remembered moments with her father in Smallville. Whenever she was taken to her grandparents', Christian would go silent and vanish for hours.

Desperate curiosity called her to the room. She informed Ted that she was going to explore it. Ted did not stop her anymore then. He only cautioned, "Lena, everything you will see in there has been taken from where they were. These items existed in their own context." She asked herself so many times why her cousin was so concerned about what she would think. It was a room. It was a room that may or may not be filled with important things but still, it was a room.

The first thing she noticed, when she pushed the door open and flooded the abandoned room with glaring lights, was the lone bed that stood proudly amidst the rest of the things there. Lena walked over to the king-sized furniture and looked down at it. There was nothing special about it other than the beautiful finish and natural wood. She ran her hand over the smooth surface and glanced down at her dust-covered palm.

~~

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, the person you love would not have to feel guilty for trying. 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 you 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."

~~

Lena turned her head away from the uninteresting object. Until she figured out who used it, it held no real importance. For the moment, Lena labeled it as her grandfather's. She only had to figure out why he kept it inside this room for so long when he could have traded it in for the one in his and grandma Helen's bedroom. This one seemed so much more expensive and definitely a lot more beautiful than the other one.

She noticed a dark blue album sitting on the side table. Lena picked it up and ran her fingers over the rough surface of the cover. Just when she started to turn to the first page, she saw the silver picture frame and picked it up.

Lena's breath caught and suddenly, she was inexplicably angry. It was unmistakably Lex Luthor, young and happy, looking tenderly down at the woman in his arms. Lena had never once seen her grandfather gaze that way at Helen in all the times she saw them together. The young Lex, presumably at around twenty-five, had his arms wrapped around a blonde woman who was laughing up at him. Neither looked at the camera as they were raptly staring into each other's eyes.

She did not want to be affected in any way by the unfeigned look of love. Instead, Lena flipped the frame over and manipulated the back so that she could look at photograph itself. She inspected the white gloss and saw the small numbers in an unfamiliar hand that she immediately knew was the woman's. Lena felt herself choked by betrayal when she confirmed her suspicions. It was taken three years into her grandparents' marriage. Her grandfather kept mementos of an illicit affair under his own marital roof.

Lena sprung up from the bed the moment it hit her whose it was. She felt sickened by its presence. She looked around her and realized that each and every one of these items were about the woman, her grandfather's mistress. Bitter yet desperate to know why her father Christian would voluntarily submit himself to this humiliation, she picked up the photo album and flipped through the photographs that eerily recorded what seemed like a tropical vacation wherein each moment, her grandfather broke his wedding vows.

~~

To make up for the way she had been almost unable to go out of their Metropolis apartment ever since rumors about their affair had hit the newsstands, Lex took Chloe with him out of the country for a relaxing time away. When he told her about the trip, she had wrapped her arms around him and embraced him so tightly that he feared she would break his spine.

They arrived in the tiny island he had picked out for several reasons. From the hut they would be using for the duration of their stay, the view of the blue ocean was unimpeded. The breeze that came in from the wide windows would do wonders for her health. He could almost hear her chuckling if he ever told her that, but a cornered man would do what he could. Because of the distance from the isolated paradise to the mainland, Lex was fairly sure that there would be no pictures taken of them that would be littered across newspapers in America. It was his idea of the perfect vacation.

He saw the immediate effect the sight of beauty had on Chloe. He reached up for her to help her off the boat that took them from the mainland to the island, and she floated in his arms. Chloe's eyes shone down on him when she told her that she could think of no other place closer to heaven than this.

On the way to the island resort, he was fighting off the ridiculous thought that he would chase her across the white sand in trunks and bare feet. When he saw how happy he was, he knew he would gladly strip down to the basics so that he could give her the sight she deserved-of him basking under the sun in his all his glory. Lex placed a kiss on her lips and took the bag she had slung over her shoulder. When she protested, he held up his finger in a plea for silence.

They were running across the white sand, in flimsy swimsuits, laughing until they couldn't laugh anymore, feeding each other with mango slices and coconut strips, in no time at all. Although at home he cringed at the thought of reenacting these movie scenes, discovering them with her was as fresh and revitalizing as waking up beside her every morning.

"I am moving in with you the moment we get back to the States," he breathed out the promise while they lay on the beach, letting the constant wave of the water tease their legs.

She rose up on her elbows and looked down at him. His eyes were closed as he relished the warmth of the run on his face. Chloe blocked the sun with her head. Noticing the loss of heat, Lex opened his eyes and smiled at the sight of her looking confused. "Was that a joke?"

"That was a fantasy, Chloe."

Disappointment flickered in her eyes before she could completely hide it. "Of course."

Lex knew she would never ask him to leave Helen. He also knew that she was aware of how many times that he tried. "It's a fantasy that I'm turning into reality."

Chloe removed herself from his sun and lay back down. The sand worked its way into her hair but she did not mind. "Don't get my hopes up, Lex."

"It's true. I don't care that Helen won't sign the divorce papers anymore. I need to be with you."

She looked steadily at him. "Are you sure? Lex, what if she-"

"She won't sign the divorce papers. I have it all under control though. She won't ever file any charges against us. We can live the way we want, Chloe. The only problem is that I can't marry you. Can you live knowing that I can't ever make you my wife?"

"You mean at least until Helen dies?" she said lightly. Lex's smile vanished and before he could voice the sudden sadness that possessed him, Chloe started coaxing a kiss from his lips. "Lex, I don't care about the name. Remember that. For all intents and purposes, and to the people who matter, which are you and me, I already am Mrs. Luthor."

He looked at her for the longest minute before sitting up and drawing her up with him. "Let's make it official, huh."

Chloe's eyes sparkled. "You do know that I'm not one for the pomp and fuss of your first and second weddings, don't you?"

Lex nodded. "I know that you're all about function, Chloe. For once, we'll be quixotic. Our entire relationship is dream and idea anyway."

He took her hand in his and she enthusiastically closed her other over his. Chloe looked up at the sky and out the sea before her eyes settled on their entwined hands. "Well we have everything we need right here." Chloe scooted closer, not breaking the link of their hands. "We have the man, the woman," she grinned, "and our witnesses would be the sky and the sea."

"Chloe, I take you as my wife to love and to cherish." There was a solemnity in the way his hand tightened over hers when he continued his vow. "In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer."

"As long as we both shall live," Chloe offered when he paused.

Lex shook his head. He leaned closer and whispered to her, in a playful manner that was more serious than he showed, "Death won't do us part."

Chloe grinned back at him and responded, "At least from that point on, I know I'm the only Mrs. Luthor then." She held his hand when she promised, "With a ring that we will get in Metropolis, I thee wed. With all my worldly goods I thee endow, although I hope that you are not marrying me for my very large bank account," she said with a wink. "With my body, I thee honor." She pushed him onto his back, half dunking him because the tide had come in. Chloe straddled his waist as she bent low to whisper into his ear, "You may kiss the bride."