For those of you asking about Clark, this chapter and the next one are for you!
Part 4
(Smallville, Homecoming Week 2002)
The limousine pulled in to a circular driveway, and the chauffeur hurried to open the door for Lex and his fiancée. Lex stepped out first, eyes going straight to the mansion before them in an appraising glance.
"This is it," he said, extending a hand to help Leslie from the car. He'd never actually been here before, and this trip hadn't been his idea. His mother had mentioned they owned a house in the country, and Leslie had eagerly begged to see it. Lex had never been able to resist her when she batted her eyes at him.
"Oh, Lex! It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, and yes, Lex had supposed she would think so. It was a charming enough plantation style manor set back in the middle of nowhere amid trees and lush, beautifully landscaped gardens. Very picturesque.
His mother had thought much the same thing when she bought the land from Nell Potter years ago and commissioned the mansion to be built. His father had just died, and they'd both been trapped in Metropolis by the events of his death and the media's refusal to leave them be. Lex remembered the day she sat him down and told them they'd be moving to Smallville. His nightmares started up that night: dreams he hadn't had since waking up bald in the hospital. Horrible images of burning corn and a figure suspended high above him.
They didn't move after all, and the mansion had remained unused... until now.
Lex gave a small smile as they followed the chauffeur up to the front door. It was opened for them by the housekeeper, who greeted Lex with a polite "Mr. Luthor" and smiled at Leslie. She then led them on what Lex mentally dubbed the "official tour."
Leslie enjoyed every warmly decorated room, and Lex was beginning to see where this was a bad idea. He *knew* it was a few minutes later when they stepped onto the balcony adjoining the master bedroom.
"We should live here," she told him. "It's perfect."
Lex was certain it wasn't perfect, but he smiled as he took her hand. "It's an option," was the only thing he say. Leslie took the forced smile as hope and threw her arms around him, kissing him soundly enough to make him temporarily forget why. It all flooded back to him, however, once she slipped out of his arms to inspect the walk-in closet and he was left staring out at the gardens and then the vast amounts of trees and open fields beyond those.
Smallville stared back at him, as if it was just waiting to get him alone so it could finish ruining his life, a task it had started twelve years earlier.
*~*
"You're certain you want to do this, Les?" Lex asked as he maneuvered the sports car around a particularly sharp corner. Leslie had said she wanted to see the site of Lex's single most defining moment: the field where he lost his hair. He'd been surprised when she'd brought it up, and a little indignant, but relented when she explained that she thought it would help him get over his fear of the town if he faced it, and that she wanted to there to support him. He still wished they weren't doing it, though, no matter how much sense she made.
Much to his growing unease, she nodded, glancing down at the engagement ring on her finger. His mother had given it to him... to give to her. It had been in the Luthor family for generations and had come to her from his father years before. Lex personally thought it a little gaudy, but it was old and it *was* tradition. Even if he'd wanted to forego it in favor of a more suitable, modern ring, he couldn't just break a tradition his mother valued.
"Does the ring fit alright?" he asked, concern and also hoping to divert her attention away from their intended destination.
"It's a little loose, but we can get it resized or something--"
As if on cue, the ring slipped from her finger, bouncing off her knee and fell to the floor at Lex's feet. He reached for it, taking his eyes off the road. Just as his fingers wrapped around the ring, Leslie screamed--the shrill frightened sound causing him to drop the ring again as he straightened up in alarm.
In front of them, the load of an on-coming freight truck had come loose, spilling rolls of barbed wire onto the road in front of them. Leslie screamed again as Lex swerved the Porsche in an attempt to miss the barbed wire. The sports car, however, had other ideas. It wrenched control away from Lex and sent them careening towards a bridge.
The last thing Lex saw clearly before the world became a jumble of blurred memories and water was a dark-haired young man standing on the bridge. He knew instinctively that they were going to hit the kid, but Leslie's screams all but drowned out rational thought and he couldn't control the Porsche no matter how hard he tried.
Impact came swiftly, first with the dark-haired boy whose horrified expression was instantly seared into Lex's brain and then with the railing of the bridge, which mingled the sounds of tearing metal with Leslie's screams.
Then came darkness.
*~*
Lex came back to awareness abruptly, spluttering and spitting up water. Someone was kneeling next to him, a dark, wet blurry someone who transformed into the kid from the bridge when Lex's vision decided to clear.
"I... coulda sworn I hit you..." He was confused, unsure, Maybe he hadn't hit the guy after all,
"If you did, I'd be... " the boy looked away self-consciously. "I'd be dead."
Dead. The word echoed in Lex's ears, waking his mind up to another fact it hadn't wrapped itself around before. "Where's Leslie?" The boy looked confused, as if he wanted to ask "who?" but couldn't bring himself to. "The woman who in the car with me--where is she?" He lurched upwards, struggling to stand.
Lex caught site of blonde, wet hair and a familiar blue cashmere sweater on the bank a few feet away. "Leslie!" He stumbled away from his apparent savior and towards the woman he loved, only to be stopped by the sudden arrival of a paramedic team and the police.
He and the young man both gave statements to the police and a medic took Lex aside to look him over. Lex, however, was distracted by what was happening to Leslie. He couldn't see around the half dozen paramedics crowded around her and he wanted to--desperately. By the time he got away from the ones checking him over--wet and shivering despite the blanket thrown over his shoulders--they were placing her on a stretcher and making ready to put her inside the ambulance.
Glancing around, he noticed the one who'd saved him standing alone, too. He approached, but stopped when an older, very agitated man brushed past him, calling out to the youth with a worry-filled "Clark!" Most likely it was the boy's father, and the suddenly lack of someone parental to hold and comfort Lex was very noticeable. Lex wondered if anyone had even bothered to call his mother, or if--as usual--the media would arrive before she could get to him.
*~*
"Lex? Son?"
Lex looked up at the sound of his mother's voice in the entryway to the hospital waiting room. "They have Leslie in ICU," he told her, answering the question in her eyes. "They won't let me see her."
She sat down next to him, slipping an arm around his shoulder in a maternal embrace which he leaned into wearily. "I'm sure they're doing everything they can for her." The words were meant to comfort him, but they did not. He wished they were in Metropolis, where he could ensure Leslie got the best medical treatment his money could afford. For all he knew, this place could be little more than a glorified band aide station.
As if she sensed his concerns, Lillian rubbed his back reassuringly, something she'd often done for him when he was a child. "You should go back to the mansion and rest," she suggested. When he started to protest she shushed him with a stern mother's look. "You go, honey. I'll stay here and keep watch over our girl."
Our girl. It made Lex smile to hear his mother call Leslie their girl. It meant she wanted Leslie to be a part of their family as much as he did.
*~*
The mansion turned out to be the last place Lex wanted to be.
He couldn't rest, no matter how hard he tried. The bed was strange:
the blankets too heavy and the sheets too
coarse on his skin. When his eyes finally closed, his mind recreated
the accident in perfect detail. The bridge, the boy who'd saved them--whom
he had hit, his mind kept
insisting fervently--played and replayed in his dreams. In frustration,
he threw off the bedcovers and went downstairs.
After a brief talk with the housekeeper, he found himself in the backseat of the limo, riding through the countryside. First stop was the local sheriff's office, and after a whole lot of haggling with the sheriff, Lex walked off with the name and address of the boy from the bridge. Clark...
Clark Kent, who apparently lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
Lex repeated the directions the sheriff had given him to the limo driver and slid back into the sleek, very out of place vehicle. While he was used to it, he'd still felt the eyes of everyone on the street weighing down on him. There had been a time in his life when, if confronted with someone staring at him, he'd have stared back... or worse. Today, he chose to ignore the looks, a reaction his mother had been trying to instill in him for years. How ironic that the only thing that allowed this feat was the fact that he was too exhausted to care.
The ride to the Kent farm was shorter than he'd expected, and they were
pulling in to the gravel driveway before Lex knew it. He felt strangely
nervous as the driver opened
the car door for him.
The front door of the yellow farmhouse opened and a redheaded woman
in a denim shirt and blue jeans came down the stairs. At the same
time, the man he'd assumed was
Clark's father came out the barn. Like before, he was dressed
in flannel, jeans and work boots. It seemed to be a theme.
"May I help you... sir?" the woman asked, confusion showing in her voice and expression.
"Lex Luthor, ma'am," he supplied politely.
"You're the one who hit-- almost hit Clark," the farmer interjected. Lex wasn't sure he liked the man's tone.
"You son saved my life, and that of my fiancée, as well." He dismissed the accusing tone as residual worry over his son's safety. "I wanted to thank him."
"Clark's in school right now," the boy's father informed him, and then walked off as if he considered the conversation closed.
"Did I say something wrong?" he asked Mrs. Kent, who shook her head sadly.
"Don't mind Jonathan, Mr. Luthor--"
"Lex. Please, call me Lex." Mr. Luthor had never been a title that seemed to fit Lex, much like a child wearing his father's coat and shoes.
"Lex," Mrs. Kent smiled warmly, and the chill left by her husband started to fade. "Jonathan is just shook up from finding out Clark was involved in an accident." She studied him closely. "You're Lillian Luthor's son, aren't you?" Lex nodded, his jaw tightening. That was why her husband disliked him already, without knowing him. "I met her once in Metropolis. She's a good woman."
That wasn't what he'd expected to hear, though it was certainly true enough. "I... thank you, Mrs. Kent."
"Martha," she corrected. "Clark's at school, but if you stop by later..."
Lex felt his smile returning. "I need to be at the hospital later, for Leslie's sake, but if you could send him around to the mansion... " He started to give her the address, but she stopped him.
"I know where it is. I'll bring Clark over after chores."
She didn't seem to mistrust him as her husband apparently did, and Lex
drove away feeling somehow better for having met her.