viii. And Again
She hated this infernal snow, but that had been established since her arrival in Gotham. Chloe needed to get back into journalism or some other type of writing because she was lacking so much practice that she was sinking into redundancy. She pushed away from the window lest she become so affected by the stark whiteness that she press her nose against the glass.
Bruce was late, and she was itching to go into the spare room. Bruce had spent yesterday there "fixing things." Tonight, he was supposed to come over so he could show her when they were together. Chloe picked up the phone and tried to remember Bruce's schedule for the day. He was supposed to have a brief meeting with the board before heading home. She tossed the cordless handset to her right hand and expertly caught it, dialing the number for the eerie mansion.
"Alfred! Hey. How's your leg?" She paused in consideration, nodding at the old man's symptoms. "It's the weather. We should really talk to Bruce about getting you a Caribbean cruise or a tropical vacation." Chloe listened to the polite British voice on the other end of the line. "I know, Alfred. I know Master Wayne can't live without you. It's just going to be for three weeks tops. Besides, he has me in the meantime," she said teasingly. The old man turned down her offers to speak with Bruce about that vacation. He did inform her that Bruce was likely delayed because of an announcement made earlier today. "What announcement, Alfred?"
Hearing the news, Chloe thanked the butler and switched on the television, automatically surfing for CNBC, CNN and finally FOX News. There was nothing like 24 hour cable news.
As Alfred had predicted, there Bruce was, surrounded by black microphones waving before his face. She curiously watched his face for any emotions he was trying to hide. Bruce was good though. He was definitely better than Lex in hiding what he really thought, although that was probably because Lex could never lie to her and Bruce had no connection to the reporters gathered around him now.
"What can you say about Anysse Blenke's engagement?"
Anysse Blenke was, Chloe was well aware, the supermodel from Wales who was the longest relationship that Bruce Wayne had ever had since he came into the public eye. And seeing as he became property of Gotham City since fourteen, Anysse Blenke had been Bruce Wayne's longest girlfriend. Chloe was about to beat her in a month's time though. She listened closely to Bruce's answer, not understanding why she was suddenly so nervous.
"I wish her all the happiness with Strider," he said. She adored his deep voice. It can make her want to go on listening to him forever or go to sleep knowing that he was protecting her. "Anysse is a beautiful woman, inside and out. He is very fortunate to have her."
"Mr Wayne, you parted in hostile terms?"
"No. We did not," was his brief answer.
"How did you part, Mr Wayne?"
With a slight grin, Bruce tried to deflect the question. "Is no one going to ask about the new products that Wayne Enterprises will be releasing for the year? That was the purpose of this board meeting," he reminded them.
"Forgive us for being curious, Mr Wayne. You're a public figure. You must understand that," one of the reporters told him.
"Rita, nice to see you," Bruce greeted courteously. The woman was probably on the 'Bruce Wayne' beat for a long time, Chloe thought, for Bruce to know her by name. "My only opinion on this is that I hope Anysse and her future husband will be very happy."
"Bruce, would you care to comment about some rumors that you just recently flew in from Paris after a failed attempt to woo her back?"
Chloe laughed out loud, remembering yesterday's disastrous attempt at making a sponge cake in her kitchen.
"I doubt that the woman that I am seeing now will be pleased by the way this interview is going."
It was Rita who latched on to that. "So you are in a relationship at the moment? Is it serious, Mr Wayne?"
Again, that small smirk that he did so well. And then Chloe shook her head. Bruce was smiling. It was another man who delighted her with his smirks. It was an expression that Bruce was foreign to. "I doubt that she would appreciate finding out that I intend to marry her by watching the news."
Chloe was very proud of his quick and witty reply. That answer seemed to distinctly lessen the number of questions since the reporters fell back and allowed Bruce to pass through. Before he was able to get into the back of his limousine, one of the reporters asked, "When are you showing her to the public, Bruce? You can't hide her forever."
"We've been out in public many times, Bobby," he replied. "It's not my fault that you people never know where to look."
"I've been covering you for twenty years, Bruce." Bruce turned to look at a woman in her forties smiling at him. "I've never seen you look so at ease. She must be a nice young lady."
Bruce nodded his thanks at the Sentinel's Mrs Brent. The press scrambled to different directions when Bruce closed the vehicle door. Chloe turned placed the television on mute and chuckled at Bruce's amazing parries. He was learning from her.
Chloe rose to go to the bathroom. She dropped the remote control on the couch. A few minutes later, she headed back and plopped down on the couch. She turned back to the television and read the caption, and her heart stopped.
She frantically felt around for the remote control and turned the volume on again.
"Just a few kilometers away from the Wayne building," the woman was reporting, "Bruce Wayne's limousine was shot at several times. Paramedics are heading this way, as we can all see." The camera panned from the reporter to the very familiar black stretch car now haphazardly stopped in the middle of the street. "Witnesses talking to the police right now are saying that the gunshots were heard as coming from Crime Alley. If you would remember, this is the same alley where the Waynes were-"
"No," she whispered. "Not again."
Chloe turned off the television and ran to get her coat. She made the mistake of letting Clark lead her away the first time, never being able to be with Lex when she should have been holding her hand.
She was not going to lose anyone ever again.
The ride to the hospital was one of the longest in her life. Even in that drive out of Metropolis, she had not felt as tense as she was feeling at that moment. Back then, she had been stunned by what had happened, never fully comprehending or accepting yet that she had lost the love of her life. This time, Chloe felt every second that ticked at the back of the cab.
She ran into the hospital and stopped in the lobby, trying to form the words in front of the information desk. Chloe's entire body was trembling with fear. "The-the accident-Wayne-"
Around her, more journalists milled around, pushing at each other in the hospital lobby. She tried to make her way to the front desk despite the crush.
And then he heard his voice. "Chloe!"
She turned around slowly, half-afraid that this was a hallucination, the way she deceived herself right after losing Lex. But when she faced the throng of people, she could see the familiar head above all of them. Her lower lip was trembling, so she caught it between her teeth. "Bruce!" she screamed, heedless of the media surrounding her.
She idly wondered what force actually makes a crowd part at times like this. She had no name for it, but she was thankful for its existence. The path between them clear, she ran towards him and embraced him. "I thought- God, Bruce, when I saw it-" She tightened her arms around him, and he hugged her back just as warmly. "I can't lose another-"
"It's okay, Chloe. The limo was bulletproof, remember?" he reminded her softly. "We brought in the bystanders that were hurt."
Her mind must have blanked out upon watching the report. "I just kept thinking," she rambled on, "that if you got killed, then you wouldn't know. I love you, Bruce. And I won't even compare it anymore. I don't love you less than I did him. It's just. It's different. And last week," she sobbed, "when you asked me if I can give you a space in a heart already occupied by another man, I said no. And I was lying," she confessed. "Because I found another place for you, and you won't have to share with him, because I found a place that's entirely yours."
"Chloe, you're unsettled," he said slowly, even though he had been dreaming of this moment for a long time.
She shook her head. "He taught me to take a chance with love. We did everything unconventionally. And now he's gone, and he'll want me to be with a great guy if he's not around anymore."
"Chloe, I want you to go home," he told her quietly. "I want you to be calm when you say this to me, because I can't trust it if your adrenaline is talking. You were afraid you were going to lose me," he explained. "You're not. Make the decision knowing that you're not."
Reluctantly, she left the hospital with all eyes trained on her. She felt the warmth of the journalists' interest. When one moved to follow her, another kept him back. She turned around to smile thankfully. It was Mona Brent, she recognized. Chloe tied her coat closed.
She was about to hail a cab when a warm hand rested on the small of her back. "I'll take you home. I don't fully trust Gotham taxis."
Chloe leaned against him, snuggling into his warmth. "Your limo is with the police."
A conservative Cadillac parked in front of them. Bruce opened the door and helped her in, then got in beside her. She held his hand during the ride, not letting go even they stopped in front of her apartment. Chloe's fingers entwined in his, Bruce led her to the steps. He took the key from her other hand and pushed the door open.
A dark figure rose and Bruce pushed her behind him. Chloe flipped the light on to see Clark Kent. She placed a comforting hand on Bruce's arm, and he stepped back but remained beside her. He took her hand in his.
"Have I been found?" she said. "I don't want to go back there, Clark."
"We'll stay here if you want."
Chloe turned to the direction of the voice, and saw the other figure come out from the kitchen. She sucked in a shuddering breath, and the periphery of her vision turned black, focusing only on that one person now standing in front of her, thinner, paler, looking so much older than he should. Chloe pulled her hand out of Bruce's. Her mouth moved to speak, but no sound came out. Her throat worked and she just stared at him, drinking in the sight, solid and not her imagination now. "God," she choked out. "Oh my God, Lex!"
And then she was flying across the room, throwing her arms around him. Lex grunted at the force of her body slammed onto his still weak legs, but he held firm. He wrapped his arms around the soft, pliant body pressed against his. He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of her hair. He felt the wetness of her tears as she cried into the crook of his neck.
Bruce watched, his jaw locked tight, as she burrowed deeper into the man's embrace. He knew the man, but never personally. She was in his arms, much in the way that she was in his own just a half hour ago. While she spoke rapidly earlier, telling him everything she never got to say, she was wrapped in another man's arms now just crying, seeking to be part of Luthor almost.
He waited at the doorstep, his attention still locked on the couple who stood so close to each other. Her face was no longer buried in his neck, but they were pressed as tightly as before. Chloe was looking up at Lex, tears still silent. The bald man used his palm to brush her wet cheeks, and through her tears, she smiled. Bruce watched in a mixture of fascination and horror and Chloe reached inside her blouse and produced a necklace where a ring hung from. Two pairs of hands fumbled at the clasp. They released the ring from the chain and together, they slid it back on her ring finger. Bruce had not known that Chloe wore an engagement ring around her neck all the time that they were together.
She was in heaven now. The new roughness on his palm as he brushed her tears away, this stronger need she saw in his eyes, the warmth of his fingers as he helped her put on the ring that he gave her the last time they were together.
A shift in the lighting indicated a block was removed and it's shadow diminished, she turned around to look at what had been standing in the way of the hallway light. When she turned around, the door stood open and the way empty.
She turned back to Lex, still unable to believe that he was standing in front of her. She reached up to touch his face, and he was flesh and blood. He turned his head to kiss her palm. "I never forgot you," she said. "Not even when I fell in love with another man."
The light in his eyes grew dimmer. He closed his eyes. "Should I have stayed away?"
"Do you blame me?"
And having the same answer to both questions, they stood pressed close together, their foreheads resting against each other's.
She hated this infernal snow, but that had been established since her arrival in Gotham. Chloe needed to get back into journalism or some other type of writing because she was lacking so much practice that she was sinking into redundancy. She pushed away from the window lest she become so affected by the stark whiteness that she press her nose against the glass.
Bruce was late, and she was itching to go into the spare room. Bruce had spent yesterday there "fixing things." Tonight, he was supposed to come over so he could show her when they were together. Chloe picked up the phone and tried to remember Bruce's schedule for the day. He was supposed to have a brief meeting with the board before heading home. She tossed the cordless handset to her right hand and expertly caught it, dialing the number for the eerie mansion.
"Alfred! Hey. How's your leg?" She paused in consideration, nodding at the old man's symptoms. "It's the weather. We should really talk to Bruce about getting you a Caribbean cruise or a tropical vacation." Chloe listened to the polite British voice on the other end of the line. "I know, Alfred. I know Master Wayne can't live without you. It's just going to be for three weeks tops. Besides, he has me in the meantime," she said teasingly. The old man turned down her offers to speak with Bruce about that vacation. He did inform her that Bruce was likely delayed because of an announcement made earlier today. "What announcement, Alfred?"
Hearing the news, Chloe thanked the butler and switched on the television, automatically surfing for CNBC, CNN and finally FOX News. There was nothing like 24 hour cable news.
As Alfred had predicted, there Bruce was, surrounded by black microphones waving before his face. She curiously watched his face for any emotions he was trying to hide. Bruce was good though. He was definitely better than Lex in hiding what he really thought, although that was probably because Lex could never lie to her and Bruce had no connection to the reporters gathered around him now.
"What can you say about Anysse Blenke's engagement?"
Anysse Blenke was, Chloe was well aware, the supermodel from Wales who was the longest relationship that Bruce Wayne had ever had since he came into the public eye. And seeing as he became property of Gotham City since fourteen, Anysse Blenke had been Bruce Wayne's longest girlfriend. Chloe was about to beat her in a month's time though. She listened closely to Bruce's answer, not understanding why she was suddenly so nervous.
"I wish her all the happiness with Strider," he said. She adored his deep voice. It can make her want to go on listening to him forever or go to sleep knowing that he was protecting her. "Anysse is a beautiful woman, inside and out. He is very fortunate to have her."
"Mr Wayne, you parted in hostile terms?"
"No. We did not," was his brief answer.
"How did you part, Mr Wayne?"
With a slight grin, Bruce tried to deflect the question. "Is no one going to ask about the new products that Wayne Enterprises will be releasing for the year? That was the purpose of this board meeting," he reminded them.
"Forgive us for being curious, Mr Wayne. You're a public figure. You must understand that," one of the reporters told him.
"Rita, nice to see you," Bruce greeted courteously. The woman was probably on the 'Bruce Wayne' beat for a long time, Chloe thought, for Bruce to know her by name. "My only opinion on this is that I hope Anysse and her future husband will be very happy."
"Bruce, would you care to comment about some rumors that you just recently flew in from Paris after a failed attempt to woo her back?"
Chloe laughed out loud, remembering yesterday's disastrous attempt at making a sponge cake in her kitchen.
"I doubt that the woman that I am seeing now will be pleased by the way this interview is going."
It was Rita who latched on to that. "So you are in a relationship at the moment? Is it serious, Mr Wayne?"
Again, that small smirk that he did so well. And then Chloe shook her head. Bruce was smiling. It was another man who delighted her with his smirks. It was an expression that Bruce was foreign to. "I doubt that she would appreciate finding out that I intend to marry her by watching the news."
Chloe was very proud of his quick and witty reply. That answer seemed to distinctly lessen the number of questions since the reporters fell back and allowed Bruce to pass through. Before he was able to get into the back of his limousine, one of the reporters asked, "When are you showing her to the public, Bruce? You can't hide her forever."
"We've been out in public many times, Bobby," he replied. "It's not my fault that you people never know where to look."
"I've been covering you for twenty years, Bruce." Bruce turned to look at a woman in her forties smiling at him. "I've never seen you look so at ease. She must be a nice young lady."
Bruce nodded his thanks at the Sentinel's Mrs Brent. The press scrambled to different directions when Bruce closed the vehicle door. Chloe turned placed the television on mute and chuckled at Bruce's amazing parries. He was learning from her.
Chloe rose to go to the bathroom. She dropped the remote control on the couch. A few minutes later, she headed back and plopped down on the couch. She turned back to the television and read the caption, and her heart stopped.
She frantically felt around for the remote control and turned the volume on again.
"Just a few kilometers away from the Wayne building," the woman was reporting, "Bruce Wayne's limousine was shot at several times. Paramedics are heading this way, as we can all see." The camera panned from the reporter to the very familiar black stretch car now haphazardly stopped in the middle of the street. "Witnesses talking to the police right now are saying that the gunshots were heard as coming from Crime Alley. If you would remember, this is the same alley where the Waynes were-"
"No," she whispered. "Not again."
Chloe turned off the television and ran to get her coat. She made the mistake of letting Clark lead her away the first time, never being able to be with Lex when she should have been holding her hand.
She was not going to lose anyone ever again.
The ride to the hospital was one of the longest in her life. Even in that drive out of Metropolis, she had not felt as tense as she was feeling at that moment. Back then, she had been stunned by what had happened, never fully comprehending or accepting yet that she had lost the love of her life. This time, Chloe felt every second that ticked at the back of the cab.
She ran into the hospital and stopped in the lobby, trying to form the words in front of the information desk. Chloe's entire body was trembling with fear. "The-the accident-Wayne-"
Around her, more journalists milled around, pushing at each other in the hospital lobby. She tried to make her way to the front desk despite the crush.
And then he heard his voice. "Chloe!"
She turned around slowly, half-afraid that this was a hallucination, the way she deceived herself right after losing Lex. But when she faced the throng of people, she could see the familiar head above all of them. Her lower lip was trembling, so she caught it between her teeth. "Bruce!" she screamed, heedless of the media surrounding her.
She idly wondered what force actually makes a crowd part at times like this. She had no name for it, but she was thankful for its existence. The path between them clear, she ran towards him and embraced him. "I thought- God, Bruce, when I saw it-" She tightened her arms around him, and he hugged her back just as warmly. "I can't lose another-"
"It's okay, Chloe. The limo was bulletproof, remember?" he reminded her softly. "We brought in the bystanders that were hurt."
Her mind must have blanked out upon watching the report. "I just kept thinking," she rambled on, "that if you got killed, then you wouldn't know. I love you, Bruce. And I won't even compare it anymore. I don't love you less than I did him. It's just. It's different. And last week," she sobbed, "when you asked me if I can give you a space in a heart already occupied by another man, I said no. And I was lying," she confessed. "Because I found another place for you, and you won't have to share with him, because I found a place that's entirely yours."
"Chloe, you're unsettled," he said slowly, even though he had been dreaming of this moment for a long time.
She shook her head. "He taught me to take a chance with love. We did everything unconventionally. And now he's gone, and he'll want me to be with a great guy if he's not around anymore."
"Chloe, I want you to go home," he told her quietly. "I want you to be calm when you say this to me, because I can't trust it if your adrenaline is talking. You were afraid you were going to lose me," he explained. "You're not. Make the decision knowing that you're not."
Reluctantly, she left the hospital with all eyes trained on her. She felt the warmth of the journalists' interest. When one moved to follow her, another kept him back. She turned around to smile thankfully. It was Mona Brent, she recognized. Chloe tied her coat closed.
She was about to hail a cab when a warm hand rested on the small of her back. "I'll take you home. I don't fully trust Gotham taxis."
Chloe leaned against him, snuggling into his warmth. "Your limo is with the police."
A conservative Cadillac parked in front of them. Bruce opened the door and helped her in, then got in beside her. She held his hand during the ride, not letting go even they stopped in front of her apartment. Chloe's fingers entwined in his, Bruce led her to the steps. He took the key from her other hand and pushed the door open.
A dark figure rose and Bruce pushed her behind him. Chloe flipped the light on to see Clark Kent. She placed a comforting hand on Bruce's arm, and he stepped back but remained beside her. He took her hand in his.
"Have I been found?" she said. "I don't want to go back there, Clark."
"We'll stay here if you want."
Chloe turned to the direction of the voice, and saw the other figure come out from the kitchen. She sucked in a shuddering breath, and the periphery of her vision turned black, focusing only on that one person now standing in front of her, thinner, paler, looking so much older than he should. Chloe pulled her hand out of Bruce's. Her mouth moved to speak, but no sound came out. Her throat worked and she just stared at him, drinking in the sight, solid and not her imagination now. "God," she choked out. "Oh my God, Lex!"
And then she was flying across the room, throwing her arms around him. Lex grunted at the force of her body slammed onto his still weak legs, but he held firm. He wrapped his arms around the soft, pliant body pressed against his. He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of her hair. He felt the wetness of her tears as she cried into the crook of his neck.
Bruce watched, his jaw locked tight, as she burrowed deeper into the man's embrace. He knew the man, but never personally. She was in his arms, much in the way that she was in his own just a half hour ago. While she spoke rapidly earlier, telling him everything she never got to say, she was wrapped in another man's arms now just crying, seeking to be part of Luthor almost.
He waited at the doorstep, his attention still locked on the couple who stood so close to each other. Her face was no longer buried in his neck, but they were pressed as tightly as before. Chloe was looking up at Lex, tears still silent. The bald man used his palm to brush her wet cheeks, and through her tears, she smiled. Bruce watched in a mixture of fascination and horror and Chloe reached inside her blouse and produced a necklace where a ring hung from. Two pairs of hands fumbled at the clasp. They released the ring from the chain and together, they slid it back on her ring finger. Bruce had not known that Chloe wore an engagement ring around her neck all the time that they were together.
She was in heaven now. The new roughness on his palm as he brushed her tears away, this stronger need she saw in his eyes, the warmth of his fingers as he helped her put on the ring that he gave her the last time they were together.
A shift in the lighting indicated a block was removed and it's shadow diminished, she turned around to look at what had been standing in the way of the hallway light. When she turned around, the door stood open and the way empty.
She turned back to Lex, still unable to believe that he was standing in front of her. She reached up to touch his face, and he was flesh and blood. He turned his head to kiss her palm. "I never forgot you," she said. "Not even when I fell in love with another man."
The light in his eyes grew dimmer. He closed his eyes. "Should I have stayed away?"
"Do you blame me?"
And having the same answer to both questions, they stood pressed close together, their foreheads resting against each other's.