Title: Unexpected
Rating: PG-13
Author: Ranting Idiot (Just call me Rant)
Summary: It only took one time of crossing paths with Lex Luthor, but it
was more than enough. Chloe Sullivan may not have known much about life,
but she would never have guessed it would turn out this way.
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters copyrighted by WB or the Superman
Comics. The story, however, is mine and I'd appreciate that you respect my
property. Hope you enjoy the story! (Oh, and feel free to R & R)
Month #1
Sitting quietly, Chloe stared out the dirty windshield. A slight breeze came in through the open passenger side window, fluttering her hair across her cheek but she paid no attention. Thoughts settled on how just the previous afternoon, she'd planned on washing her car. It'd seemed simple then. Act busy. Look busy. Go to the drugstore. Wash the car. Go home.
And see.
She'd skipped the carwash all together. Her nerves had been on edge and it wouldn't have done her any good to pretend that everything was just as normal as it should have been. Hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, she prayed that no one could see her from the road running next to the parking lot she was in. Chloe didn't bother to look back, instead just focusing her eyes on the building in front of her. The windows of her alma mater gleamed brightly from the light provided by lampposts she'd avoided; a brief flash of paranoia convinced her that they were looking down on her dirty car.
Shaking her head as if to rattle out the thought, Chloe glanced at the cell phone that lay on the passenger seat next to her bag. The display remained dark, reminding her once again that she'd yet to receive the call she was waiting for.
Easy, Sullivan. It'll come. He will call. He has to.
Of course, those thoughts didn't give her much hope at all. Lex Luthor did what he damn well pleased; a call in the middle of a night from a quietly frantic woman whose world had just done a complete one-eighty wasn't going to do much to make him start caring. It didn't help that most of her nails were bitten down, her fingers gripping the steering wheel for all it was worth. What the hell was she going to do if he didn't help? That taunt rolling over and over in her mind, Chloe leaned forward and let her forehead fall on her clenched hands. Urging herself not to shed the tears that had been threatening since the night before, she took several deep breaths to get a hold of herself.
"You finally called."
Her body jerked ever so slightly at the abrupt voice that came from the direction from her phone, but not from the device itself. Chloe gritted her teeth and looked up, eyes dry so not to betray what was running through her mind. "Half an hour ago. You took your sweet time."
"Now, Miss Sullivan, is that any way to greet an old friend?" Lex cocked his head at her and leaned into the car through the open window. "I expected something warmer than that."
"Take what you can get at this point, Mr. Luthor." Chloe instantly regretted the words.
"I must say that's an interesting proposition. But all the same, I'm first of all curious at what brought you to my doorstep." Looking down at where he stood, Lex let one side of his mouth pick up in a strange smile. "So to speak, of course."
Chloe set her jaw, but refused to budge. Staring at him straight in the eye, she waited for a few tense moments before Lex, with a sigh and rolling of his eyes, opened the door to her car. She watched him slide in, his moves as smooth as everything he ever planned, but she wasn't fooled. "I'm surprised you gave in so quickly."
"I reserve my battles for the things that matter," Lex studied the view in front of him. "You really do need to wash your car."
"Is that one of your battles?" Chloe asked. Ice in her words, she continued, "Because I have much more important things to talk to you about."
Raising an eyebrow, Lex spread his hands. "Then talk."
This is what she had been waiting for, a chance for a show down on her terms, on her home court. damn him to hell for showing up rather than just calling her back. Where had he come from anyway? Chloe could deal with that mystery for now, but at the same time, his presence could be so overpowering that it was difficult to figure out just what she was going to say first. Licking her lips quickly, she stared at her hands until her mind finally shot off enough neurons to convince them to let go of their death grip. Lowering them slowly, Chloe let them lie on her lap. Time to begin. "Why me?"
A grin spread on his face. "Why not?"
Jerking her head to face him, Chloe glared. "I want something better than that."
"I was under the impression that we both. benefited greatly from what occurred." He shifted in his seat until his back was in the crook between the seat and door. "Or would you like to give it another try and see how it turns out this time?"
"Spare me the seduction, Lex," Chloe said dryly.
"It worked before."
Her face colored at the suggestion in his voice. "It's a mistake I wish I could erase completely."
"I have a feeling you'll come to regret those words instead, Miss Sullivan. Now would you like to explain to me why I'm sitting in the Smallville High parking lot at two in the morning?" He waved a hand at their surroundings. "It's not exactly a powerhouse environment, but I'm sure you had to take what you could get outside your father's home. Though, Gabe is quite the guy, I wonder what he would have to say about his daughter meeting secretly with his boss."
"Leave my dad at out this."
"I'm just commenting."
Her hands were starting to clench once more, but Chloe didn't notice until she felt the pain of a few remaining fingernails biting into her palms. She'd planned this out, premeditated the conversation, but Chloe knew that she should have taken into account Lex's penchant for playing with words, putting the control in his own hands. Well, if shock value was all she had left-
"You're pregnant." His bored voice broke through her thoughts and made her suck in a deep breathe at his apparently complete lack of interest despite opening up the dam inside of her.
Chloe stared once more out the windshield, wishing that she could be one of the bugs that had smashed into it on the drive over. Quick, painless, they didn't have to deal with crap that the world sent their way anymore. Concealing an anxious laugh, the thought ran through Chloe's mind that she was yet another bug to the Mack Truck that was Lex Luthor. And she was just as insignificant. "How did you know?"
"The same why I knew that you would call me, however eventually. I must say however, you impressed me by how long you held out. I would have figured to hear from you at least a week ago." Raising both eyebrows now, he further goaded her with, "Bravo."
Home court advantage meant absolute crap. "I just found out yesterday."
"And yet you waited more than twenty-four hours. I'm still quite impressed with you, I always have been, Miss Sullivan." He leaned into her, his warm breath sliding down her neck. "You always were full of surprises."
Eyes wide at how close he'd become, Chloe blindly reached out for the door handle, scraping at the power window and locks buttons before finding it. Pressing herself against the door, she stumbled out after her mind finally put two and two together enough to pull at the handle. Barely holding on to the open frame, she stood on two shaky legs and slammed the door in his face. Not one to be deterred, Lex simply opened his own door without trouble and stepped out of the car, looking at her over the top. "I must admit this is a bit disappointing, I always thought you had more composure than this."
"I guess it takes only one run-in with you in your bedroom to make a girl wary," Chloe shuddered. "Though for the life of me, I would have preferred to learn that lesson the easy way."
He began to walk around the car to her and Chloe couldn't find the resolve to move. Not one bit. "I didn't force you to do anything you didn't want. And it was only hard because you wanted it that way."
The images that flashed through her mind both provoked and disgusted her. Determined to not let it show, Chloe forced her body to relax; slowly turning, she let her back rest against the vehicle and her eyes fall on the man now at her side. "I had just gotten my heart broken. I needed someone to talk to."
"And I listened," he shrugged. "If memory serves me correctly, you are the one who initiated the entire thing."
Her first true moment of stupidity. and that included finally spilling the total of her feelings to one Clark Kent. "I never once suspected it would go as far as it did. For all I knew, I was never going to speak to Clark again and it was ripping me apart. For one desperate moment, I needed someone to reciprocate my feelings. There was never any intention of carrying it further than a kiss, Lex."
"Oh, but it carried further. You should know better than to start something you can't finish."
"I didn't expect it to finish with me waking up on the floor of your room, Lex!" Her voice raged with the unfairness of it all, the time she spent wracking her brain over the question of whether she was carrying an heir, whether she could have done anything to stop it or not. It raged with the unfairness that she wanted it so badly to be the child of a Kent, not a Luthor, inside of her. "You knew how I felt, you knew that I was not doing that because I wanted you, but because I wanted someone. I'd gotten sick and tired of just hanging around in the background, waiting for someone to take notice of what I have to offer. I was sick of waiting for him!"
Lex looked her over once, then twice, a certain coolness in his gaze. Finally, in an even voice, he said, "You said you wanted someone to see you. Well, I did that, Chloe. I cannot be responsible for the actions you initiated and showed to fully want. It would have stopped at your request, but you kept it going, so I kept going. It's as simple as that."
She didn't want to remember, but how could it stay out of her mind? Memories of kisses on her neck, on her stomach rose up from the depths she'd thought they had been banished too. Lex had provided for her sensations she'd never experienced before and she'd been too caught up in imagining him to be Clark that it never even occurred to her to make him stop. Her own eyes fiery at the recollection and even more at his words, she spat out, "Last I heard, a woman can't create her own sperm, Luthor."
"No, but she always has a choice, especially with me." Lex moved in, trapping her against the car. "I don't make it a habit of bedding women who aren't willing. You were and that's the truth of the matter. Now we have to deal with the consequences."
The warmth of his body was even more distracting in this position, so Chloe could only stutter out, "W-we?"
"Yes," Lex smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "We."
"You'll find me a doctor? One that's discreet?" She couldn't think like this, not when he was connected to her inch by inch.
He barely masked a snort. "Why would I want to be discreet over this?"
Relief was quick to come and go, so Chloe's confusion was short lived. Horrified, she asked, "You don't want me to abort it, do you?"
Lex didn't answer, instead he took advantage of the point he was at. Lowering his head slightly, he rooted at her neck, pressing his lips to the small area where a racing pulse was visible. Tasting her skin, not daring to show her how much he'd waited to do this once more, he ran his lips to the other side and up to her jaw.
Frozen in place, Chloe couldn't do anything to push him away, to make him stop. Just like before. Gasping when his hands seized her hips tightly, she fought for decent brain waves to finish out the conversation. Ignoring her speeding heart, a result of his fueling, she untied her tongue enough to weakly demand, "Answer me."
He left one last kiss right at the corner of her lips. Drawing his face back, Lex took in her wide eyes, "No, I won't allow it."
The eyes dimmed in a split second and her chin trembled. "Why?"
She was too damn close, too close for his comfort now. Lex let go of where he clutched and pushed off from the car behind her. Straightening his jacket, and using the opportunity to cool down as much as he could without letting her know, it was at least a minute before he replied with a calm, "Because I may have done a whole hell of a lot in my life, Miss Sullivan, but killing my children isn't one I intend to start now."
Before she could possibly protest, he reached out hand, letting one finger trail from her ear down her jaw line. "And we both know that I would not be happy if you went against my wishes."
It was a struggle to swallow it all, Lex's quick change in temperament to the obvious warning and challenge on his face. Chloe bit her lip and looked away, not bearing to see what he had to offer. She was a smart girl and, as such, she knew it was useless to fight. "What am I supposed to do, Lex? What am I going to tell my father? How am I supposed to finish school with this?"
"And what about Clark?" He added sarcastically. "We both know that's what is really the big question."
This is not what she planned. Plainly, with little to betray her, she uttered in a small voice, "I love him."
Lex shook his head. "But he doesn't love you."
Looking as if she'd been slapped, Chloe took a moment to recover. "You don't love me either."
He looked up at the sky, smirked at the overcast clouds that threatened rain. Lowering his stare once more to Chloe, Lex let the smirk grow. "Does it matter?"
And that was what it all came down to.
It took one glance at Lex's now resumed study of the threatening sky to make her realize that, no, all of that meant absolutely nothing now. And Chloe Sullivan couldn't do one damn thing about it. Her fate had been signed and sealed in one night when she let her feelings consume her and Lex had allowed himself to be a replacement for Clark if only for a short while.
It was all she could do to turn back to the car, open the door and settle back in. Switching on the ignition didn't take all that much concentration and her attention was barely piqued by the engine roaring to life. In the same way, Chloe hardly responded when Lex once more leaned in the window at brought his face to hers.
His lips were gentle against her cheek, but there was no such softness in his voice. "I expect we'll work out the details of our relationship tomorrow. Come by the mansion for lunch at noon."
Chloe didn't bother to look at him, she only nodded slightly and put the car into drive. Her goal of having a triumphant and proud exit didn't exist as she could barely lift her eyes to the rearview mirror and note that Lex was watching her leave.
Indeed, Lex continued to observe her withdrawal from his presence until the red lights on the bumper became nothing but dots in the distance. Reaching into his pocket, Lex let the speed dial do the punching and he simply waited for the call to connect. "I'm ready," he announced with authority. "No, I'm not in the same place. Come around to the parking lot on the other side."
He looked around once at the empty spaces surrounding him. "I'll be hard to miss." As quick as it came out, back in his pocket the phone went. Lex played with it a little in his pocket before finally letting it drop. Crossing his arms instead, he finally let a small glimmer of a true smile begin to come onto his face. Finally sighing, in a way he would not let Chloe see, the smile began to spread and he finally spoke softly to himself.
"I'm going to be a father."
Month #1
Sitting quietly, Chloe stared out the dirty windshield. A slight breeze came in through the open passenger side window, fluttering her hair across her cheek but she paid no attention. Thoughts settled on how just the previous afternoon, she'd planned on washing her car. It'd seemed simple then. Act busy. Look busy. Go to the drugstore. Wash the car. Go home.
And see.
She'd skipped the carwash all together. Her nerves had been on edge and it wouldn't have done her any good to pretend that everything was just as normal as it should have been. Hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, she prayed that no one could see her from the road running next to the parking lot she was in. Chloe didn't bother to look back, instead just focusing her eyes on the building in front of her. The windows of her alma mater gleamed brightly from the light provided by lampposts she'd avoided; a brief flash of paranoia convinced her that they were looking down on her dirty car.
Shaking her head as if to rattle out the thought, Chloe glanced at the cell phone that lay on the passenger seat next to her bag. The display remained dark, reminding her once again that she'd yet to receive the call she was waiting for.
Easy, Sullivan. It'll come. He will call. He has to.
Of course, those thoughts didn't give her much hope at all. Lex Luthor did what he damn well pleased; a call in the middle of a night from a quietly frantic woman whose world had just done a complete one-eighty wasn't going to do much to make him start caring. It didn't help that most of her nails were bitten down, her fingers gripping the steering wheel for all it was worth. What the hell was she going to do if he didn't help? That taunt rolling over and over in her mind, Chloe leaned forward and let her forehead fall on her clenched hands. Urging herself not to shed the tears that had been threatening since the night before, she took several deep breaths to get a hold of herself.
"You finally called."
Her body jerked ever so slightly at the abrupt voice that came from the direction from her phone, but not from the device itself. Chloe gritted her teeth and looked up, eyes dry so not to betray what was running through her mind. "Half an hour ago. You took your sweet time."
"Now, Miss Sullivan, is that any way to greet an old friend?" Lex cocked his head at her and leaned into the car through the open window. "I expected something warmer than that."
"Take what you can get at this point, Mr. Luthor." Chloe instantly regretted the words.
"I must say that's an interesting proposition. But all the same, I'm first of all curious at what brought you to my doorstep." Looking down at where he stood, Lex let one side of his mouth pick up in a strange smile. "So to speak, of course."
Chloe set her jaw, but refused to budge. Staring at him straight in the eye, she waited for a few tense moments before Lex, with a sigh and rolling of his eyes, opened the door to her car. She watched him slide in, his moves as smooth as everything he ever planned, but she wasn't fooled. "I'm surprised you gave in so quickly."
"I reserve my battles for the things that matter," Lex studied the view in front of him. "You really do need to wash your car."
"Is that one of your battles?" Chloe asked. Ice in her words, she continued, "Because I have much more important things to talk to you about."
Raising an eyebrow, Lex spread his hands. "Then talk."
This is what she had been waiting for, a chance for a show down on her terms, on her home court. damn him to hell for showing up rather than just calling her back. Where had he come from anyway? Chloe could deal with that mystery for now, but at the same time, his presence could be so overpowering that it was difficult to figure out just what she was going to say first. Licking her lips quickly, she stared at her hands until her mind finally shot off enough neurons to convince them to let go of their death grip. Lowering them slowly, Chloe let them lie on her lap. Time to begin. "Why me?"
A grin spread on his face. "Why not?"
Jerking her head to face him, Chloe glared. "I want something better than that."
"I was under the impression that we both. benefited greatly from what occurred." He shifted in his seat until his back was in the crook between the seat and door. "Or would you like to give it another try and see how it turns out this time?"
"Spare me the seduction, Lex," Chloe said dryly.
"It worked before."
Her face colored at the suggestion in his voice. "It's a mistake I wish I could erase completely."
"I have a feeling you'll come to regret those words instead, Miss Sullivan. Now would you like to explain to me why I'm sitting in the Smallville High parking lot at two in the morning?" He waved a hand at their surroundings. "It's not exactly a powerhouse environment, but I'm sure you had to take what you could get outside your father's home. Though, Gabe is quite the guy, I wonder what he would have to say about his daughter meeting secretly with his boss."
"Leave my dad at out this."
"I'm just commenting."
Her hands were starting to clench once more, but Chloe didn't notice until she felt the pain of a few remaining fingernails biting into her palms. She'd planned this out, premeditated the conversation, but Chloe knew that she should have taken into account Lex's penchant for playing with words, putting the control in his own hands. Well, if shock value was all she had left-
"You're pregnant." His bored voice broke through her thoughts and made her suck in a deep breathe at his apparently complete lack of interest despite opening up the dam inside of her.
Chloe stared once more out the windshield, wishing that she could be one of the bugs that had smashed into it on the drive over. Quick, painless, they didn't have to deal with crap that the world sent their way anymore. Concealing an anxious laugh, the thought ran through Chloe's mind that she was yet another bug to the Mack Truck that was Lex Luthor. And she was just as insignificant. "How did you know?"
"The same why I knew that you would call me, however eventually. I must say however, you impressed me by how long you held out. I would have figured to hear from you at least a week ago." Raising both eyebrows now, he further goaded her with, "Bravo."
Home court advantage meant absolute crap. "I just found out yesterday."
"And yet you waited more than twenty-four hours. I'm still quite impressed with you, I always have been, Miss Sullivan." He leaned into her, his warm breath sliding down her neck. "You always were full of surprises."
Eyes wide at how close he'd become, Chloe blindly reached out for the door handle, scraping at the power window and locks buttons before finding it. Pressing herself against the door, she stumbled out after her mind finally put two and two together enough to pull at the handle. Barely holding on to the open frame, she stood on two shaky legs and slammed the door in his face. Not one to be deterred, Lex simply opened his own door without trouble and stepped out of the car, looking at her over the top. "I must admit this is a bit disappointing, I always thought you had more composure than this."
"I guess it takes only one run-in with you in your bedroom to make a girl wary," Chloe shuddered. "Though for the life of me, I would have preferred to learn that lesson the easy way."
He began to walk around the car to her and Chloe couldn't find the resolve to move. Not one bit. "I didn't force you to do anything you didn't want. And it was only hard because you wanted it that way."
The images that flashed through her mind both provoked and disgusted her. Determined to not let it show, Chloe forced her body to relax; slowly turning, she let her back rest against the vehicle and her eyes fall on the man now at her side. "I had just gotten my heart broken. I needed someone to talk to."
"And I listened," he shrugged. "If memory serves me correctly, you are the one who initiated the entire thing."
Her first true moment of stupidity. and that included finally spilling the total of her feelings to one Clark Kent. "I never once suspected it would go as far as it did. For all I knew, I was never going to speak to Clark again and it was ripping me apart. For one desperate moment, I needed someone to reciprocate my feelings. There was never any intention of carrying it further than a kiss, Lex."
"Oh, but it carried further. You should know better than to start something you can't finish."
"I didn't expect it to finish with me waking up on the floor of your room, Lex!" Her voice raged with the unfairness of it all, the time she spent wracking her brain over the question of whether she was carrying an heir, whether she could have done anything to stop it or not. It raged with the unfairness that she wanted it so badly to be the child of a Kent, not a Luthor, inside of her. "You knew how I felt, you knew that I was not doing that because I wanted you, but because I wanted someone. I'd gotten sick and tired of just hanging around in the background, waiting for someone to take notice of what I have to offer. I was sick of waiting for him!"
Lex looked her over once, then twice, a certain coolness in his gaze. Finally, in an even voice, he said, "You said you wanted someone to see you. Well, I did that, Chloe. I cannot be responsible for the actions you initiated and showed to fully want. It would have stopped at your request, but you kept it going, so I kept going. It's as simple as that."
She didn't want to remember, but how could it stay out of her mind? Memories of kisses on her neck, on her stomach rose up from the depths she'd thought they had been banished too. Lex had provided for her sensations she'd never experienced before and she'd been too caught up in imagining him to be Clark that it never even occurred to her to make him stop. Her own eyes fiery at the recollection and even more at his words, she spat out, "Last I heard, a woman can't create her own sperm, Luthor."
"No, but she always has a choice, especially with me." Lex moved in, trapping her against the car. "I don't make it a habit of bedding women who aren't willing. You were and that's the truth of the matter. Now we have to deal with the consequences."
The warmth of his body was even more distracting in this position, so Chloe could only stutter out, "W-we?"
"Yes," Lex smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "We."
"You'll find me a doctor? One that's discreet?" She couldn't think like this, not when he was connected to her inch by inch.
He barely masked a snort. "Why would I want to be discreet over this?"
Relief was quick to come and go, so Chloe's confusion was short lived. Horrified, she asked, "You don't want me to abort it, do you?"
Lex didn't answer, instead he took advantage of the point he was at. Lowering his head slightly, he rooted at her neck, pressing his lips to the small area where a racing pulse was visible. Tasting her skin, not daring to show her how much he'd waited to do this once more, he ran his lips to the other side and up to her jaw.
Frozen in place, Chloe couldn't do anything to push him away, to make him stop. Just like before. Gasping when his hands seized her hips tightly, she fought for decent brain waves to finish out the conversation. Ignoring her speeding heart, a result of his fueling, she untied her tongue enough to weakly demand, "Answer me."
He left one last kiss right at the corner of her lips. Drawing his face back, Lex took in her wide eyes, "No, I won't allow it."
The eyes dimmed in a split second and her chin trembled. "Why?"
She was too damn close, too close for his comfort now. Lex let go of where he clutched and pushed off from the car behind her. Straightening his jacket, and using the opportunity to cool down as much as he could without letting her know, it was at least a minute before he replied with a calm, "Because I may have done a whole hell of a lot in my life, Miss Sullivan, but killing my children isn't one I intend to start now."
Before she could possibly protest, he reached out hand, letting one finger trail from her ear down her jaw line. "And we both know that I would not be happy if you went against my wishes."
It was a struggle to swallow it all, Lex's quick change in temperament to the obvious warning and challenge on his face. Chloe bit her lip and looked away, not bearing to see what he had to offer. She was a smart girl and, as such, she knew it was useless to fight. "What am I supposed to do, Lex? What am I going to tell my father? How am I supposed to finish school with this?"
"And what about Clark?" He added sarcastically. "We both know that's what is really the big question."
This is not what she planned. Plainly, with little to betray her, she uttered in a small voice, "I love him."
Lex shook his head. "But he doesn't love you."
Looking as if she'd been slapped, Chloe took a moment to recover. "You don't love me either."
He looked up at the sky, smirked at the overcast clouds that threatened rain. Lowering his stare once more to Chloe, Lex let the smirk grow. "Does it matter?"
And that was what it all came down to.
It took one glance at Lex's now resumed study of the threatening sky to make her realize that, no, all of that meant absolutely nothing now. And Chloe Sullivan couldn't do one damn thing about it. Her fate had been signed and sealed in one night when she let her feelings consume her and Lex had allowed himself to be a replacement for Clark if only for a short while.
It was all she could do to turn back to the car, open the door and settle back in. Switching on the ignition didn't take all that much concentration and her attention was barely piqued by the engine roaring to life. In the same way, Chloe hardly responded when Lex once more leaned in the window at brought his face to hers.
His lips were gentle against her cheek, but there was no such softness in his voice. "I expect we'll work out the details of our relationship tomorrow. Come by the mansion for lunch at noon."
Chloe didn't bother to look at him, she only nodded slightly and put the car into drive. Her goal of having a triumphant and proud exit didn't exist as she could barely lift her eyes to the rearview mirror and note that Lex was watching her leave.
Indeed, Lex continued to observe her withdrawal from his presence until the red lights on the bumper became nothing but dots in the distance. Reaching into his pocket, Lex let the speed dial do the punching and he simply waited for the call to connect. "I'm ready," he announced with authority. "No, I'm not in the same place. Come around to the parking lot on the other side."
He looked around once at the empty spaces surrounding him. "I'll be hard to miss." As quick as it came out, back in his pocket the phone went. Lex played with it a little in his pocket before finally letting it drop. Crossing his arms instead, he finally let a small glimmer of a true smile begin to come onto his face. Finally sighing, in a way he would not let Chloe see, the smile began to spread and he finally spoke softly to himself.
"I'm going to be a father."
