CHAPTER NINE
Disclaimers in Chapter One
"Lex Luthor?!?" he practically screamed. "You went on a date with Lex Luthor?!?"
Chloe frowned. Her father was not this irrational, unless of course.. She glared at her two "friends" and huffed, "Yes. It was a rather nice one, might I add."
"But Chloe, he's my boss."
"So? He's my friend."
"Oh, and he's your friend now?" Clark interjected.
"Yes, Clark, and if he weren't dating me, you would have said the same thing," she rebutted. "Funny how circumstances can easily turn friendships."
"Exactly," Lana added. "Which is why we are concerned for you."
Chloe shook her head. "How could you judge him on something he hasn't yet done? I never anticipated that you would turn on me like this, and you did!"
"But Chloe," Clark took his turn. "He has done this to many other women.."
"But not me."
"What makes you think that you're any different from them?" Lana pointed out, which left Chloe speechless. It was a rather good point, but..
"Until he proves himself un-worthy of my company, he doesn't deserve this maltreatment. Not from me, and especially not from any of you," she spat out. "I'll continue to see him, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Oh, yes, there is," Gabe finally spoke again.
Chloe was beside herself. Not once had her father asserted himself into any private aspect of her life. Even when her mother left them behind, he always deemed her mature enough to know what she needed to do, even when it meant to need him to support her.
Yet, this was clearly a different Gabe facing her now. One that had been tainted by two people she thought she could trust.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean, daddy?" she asked, masking the anger building up inside her.
"You know exactly what I mean," he retorted, flailing his arms in an irrational manner. "I will not let you see him, Chloe. Not while I'm still breathing."
"And how exactly would you go about in doing this?" she demanded, crossing her arms across her chest in defiance.
"You're grounded."
"Grounded?!?" she screeched. "I've never been grounded in my entire life!"
"You've never given me any reasons to ground you," was his response.
"Dad," she practically pleaded. Not for his mercy, but for his sanity to come back. "This hardly constitutes as grounds for a punishment. We've done nothing wrong."
Gabe sighed, which gave the younger Sullivan some hope that maybe his saner side was coming back. "Chloe," he started. "I realize that, but in cases like this, I think that preventive measures would be necessary."
His daughter rolled her eyes. "You have got to be kidding me! Preventive measures! Preventive is to keep me in balls and chain to stop me from pursuing any potentially dangerous leads to my stories. Preventive is *not* to keep me from dating Lex Luthor. You can't be serious!"
"Oh, I'm serious alright," Gabe responded back, his temper clearly being tested. "And to show you just how serious I am, you cannot go to any functions that has any remote possibility of Lex being there. That includes the ball."
Chloe sighed in defeat. "It's not like I'm going anyway," she muttered. "Fine, do whatever you need to do. Just don't expect me to talk to you." She moved her glare from him to her two *former* friends. "Any of you."
With resignation, she fled to her room, but not without slamming the door for emphasis.
Gabe sighed similarly in defeat. He truly believed that he was doing what was best for Chloe. Surely, Lex may be a decent guy, but he wasn't going to take any chances with him when it came to Chloe. Her heart had been broken enough from her mother to her recent run-ins with Smallville's freakiest. The more Chloe got herself into a mess, the more Gabe blamed himself for being less involved in his daughter's life.
Clark clapped him on the shoulder and reassured him that it was for the best. Lana nodded her concurrence, but both did not offer the kind of consolation that Gabe really needed. When they departed together, claiming to study, the older Sullivan's doubts grew. Was he just suckered into a baseless fight with his daughter?
"Well, duh. Of course, he was, grandpa."