Chapter 6

A young woman with braided black hair hurried out of the elevator of the expansive building and trotted towards the wide doors to her boss's office. Her eyes were the colour of electric blue, but they were livelier, radiating the youth that she represented. Lithely, she made her way into the office, where she found the tall mysterious cousin of hers in his usual Zen position – his back to her.

"Aoshi-sama," she called in a respectfully low voice. "Anatano hoshikatta jouhou wa watashiga motteimasu."

"Oshiero."

The female rolled her eyes at his curt tone. She went through such lengths to get things for him and he acted as if she was merely an employee and not family. Forcing herself to forget his lack of respect for her, she told him about Remy's status – how well did he get along with the people surrounding him, whether he ate enough.

When she paused, Aoshi nodded his head and motioned for her to go, but she made a little sound of protest. "There's still one more thing," she informed him in Japanese. "Our sources say that Luthor-san is searching for the child."

She noted the sudden tension that entered his shoulders; the narrowed, cold look that he gave her. "Then we'll have to make it more difficult for him to find the boy."

"What if he finds him?"

"Then it was destined to happen," he answered shortly.

"Wakatta," she said, bowing once more before leaving the room and closing the doors behind her.

Alone once again in his office, Aoshi sighed, then stood up to pace the expanse of the room. He didn't want Lex touching the child – everything that the young businessman touched seemed to instantly fall apart – his marriage, friendships… all non-business related things came crashing down. But then, he could understand the decision. He remembered training his eyes on the bald man's face – how every muscle twitched and how those bluish-grey orbs unsteadily swivelled from one object to another. How out of character for a Luthor, Aoshi thought absentmindedly, before snorting in controlled amusement. If only the public saw him as he had those years ago…

Shaking his head, Aoshi brought his blue eyes to the wide expanse of the window – giving him a view of half of the entire Metropolis. Having the largest skyscraper – begrudgingly second to LuthorCorp's towering edifice – allowed those standing before this clear barrier to feel as if he was on top of it all. But at that moment – the newly-dubbed owner of the Shino-mura company was feeling anything but proud and arrogant… as too many worries weighed him down to the ground far below him.

The knock at Chloe's apartment door came again, reverberating off unnaturally quiet walls. From the look on her face, Remy figured that the person on the other side was someone she didn't want to see. He had overwhelming mix of power, guilt and the great inner struggle of mental equilibrium.

When Chloe had opened the door the first time, the turbulence of emotions that came through the crack was quite overwhelming. Remy had to stay back – near the wall opposite the entrance – just to ease the onslaught of these almost crazed feelings. As he watched his companion – he could not cal her his parent or sibling for she was much more than that – react in such a curious way, he wondered who the person on the other side was all the more. Chewing on his bottom lip, he saw Chloe rush to their shared bedroom and then brought his gaze back to the dirty door. He wanted to see. He took a step towards the door. He took another…

Soon he was standing directly in front of the door and he reach up with a bit of difficulty to release the latches on the door. When successful, he slowly turned the knob and opened the door. There was a man on the other side. Remy narrowed his eyes onto him and he felt himself connect with his visitor.

He was quite tall… taller than the dark-skinned one named 'Pete' and also Chloe herself. He had no hair and the instant that their eyes met, he felt a surge of anger build in him. He stared unblinkingly t this man with no hair and said nothing, holding the door open.

In answer, the visitor frowned and pursed his lips together. Remy could feel the falter in his composure and almost smiled at it. It was nice to affect people like this sometimes. And with this man, it was very good indeed. He did something… really bad… he was a bad man… behind him, Remy heard a gasp and he was abruptly pulled back from the entrance, faced with Chloe's worried face.

"Sweetie," she said with a shaking voice. "Why don't you go to the bedroom and play with your toys there? This will only take a while."

She urged him with her hands, looking at him almost pleadingly to follow her request. Remy was unsure whether he wanted to leave her alone with this bad, bald man, but what rolled off of her was desperation for him to follow her… so he did as she asked and went to the room… though quite warily and sat quietly on the bed, watching the bedroom door awaiting for Chloe's return.

Chloe gazed warily at Lex, who wore a shocked look upon his face. "What are you doing here?" she asked frankly in a tired whisper. "Our deal is done; your father's dead. What more do you want from me?"

For a moment he didn't speak – much to her surprise. Luthors were never ones to be speechless – especially Lex. She remembered their verbal sparring – how relieving it was for her to find someone who was just as mentally capable as she was to speak with. This man in front of her was no image of what was stored in her mind. He blinked once and finally he spoke.

"I wasn't expecting to see you, Chloe," he answered honestly. "I was given the address to a certain foster family to make a few negotiations."

"Well, it seems like your sources – assuming it took you a few – weren't god enough to provide you with further details. Funny to see you stumble over yourself like you just did." She gave a humourless smile. "Now considering you said the words 'foster family' I would like to know what you want with Remy."

"That's the child's name?"

She rolled her eyes. "I think that's the stupidest thing I've heard you say in my entire existence of ever knowing you."

"You know I was expecting you to be a bit more grateful," he snapped as he narrowed his eyes at her. "I did, after all, protect you from my father when he was alive. You could at least show me some respect."

"Whatever respect I had for you, Lex, was lost when you used your word against me and blackmailed me into doing things I never wanted to do," she shot back.

"Very well, I understand your scepticism to my presence here. But I will get what I want, Chloe."

"And what would you want from a child whose just over two years old? Are you going to use him as a sex slave? Huh?"

"How dare you even think I would sink so low –"

"Oh I always think the worst of a Luthor, Lex," she interrupted. "And you are no exception. Now leave before I call the police."

"I practically own the police, remember, Miss Sullivan?" He gave her a cold smile. "Now you will let me in so I can explain exactly what the scenario is or so help me I will have you arrested for kidnapping my child."

Lex almost smirked at the thunderstruck look upon the young woman's face. Abruptly, she threw the door open, grabbed his arm and pulled him inside before shutting the door behind them. He couldn't help but take in his surroundings – how small and cramped everything was… he almost felt sorry for her.

He brought his eyes back to Chloe, who was pacing back and forth nervously. He watched her for a moment, waiting for her to say something – at least signal him to begin explanations. When she stopped, her back was turned to him and he could see her laboured breaths through the rise and fall of her shoulders.

"Your child?" she asked in a hoarse voice. "Remy… is your child?"

"Yes, he is exactly that…"

"I want details, Luthor," she demanded, turning her head to him and giving him a glare. "I don't want to be left with 'it's a long story, what you know now is all you need to know' crap."

"It's not a pretty story."

"Well, considering the situation we have now, it obviously isn't! Now what happened?"

Lex heaved a sigh then motioned to the couch. "I think you should sit down."

Letting out an aggravated sound, Chloe practically stomped over to the seat and dropped hard onto it, folding her arms… perhaps to intimidate him… Lex chose to stand a few feet in front of her as he spoke. "During the time when I was still mentally unstable, my father made me run LexCorp from my home. Now, as you know, every businessman requires a secretary…"

"So in one of your mindless moments you screwed your secretary and produced a child."

He shook his head after a pause. "You know, I shouldn't even bother with an explanation. You can come up with one yourself."

"I just needed a starting point; then the long story won't seem so long considering my higher brain capacity and my ability to deduce quickly." She pursed her lips together and looked vindictively at him. "So it took you two entire years to straighten out and come to your senses?"

"You have no right to accuse me of being a bad person by putting my child up for adoption, Miss Sullivan," Lex bit out his eyes shooting potent blue fire at her.

"I'm not… I'm actually quite happy you did… what I'm accusing you of is rape and demoralization of an innocent woman."

"Just quit it, okay? I got enough from my conscience for a whole two months before I had any semblance of calm. You think I actually wanted to do it? I thought she was Helen –"

"You put her right where it was most dangerous: in your presence! You knew that you were still unstable, Mr. Luthor. You seemed to have a pretty good idea of it and yet you still insisted on having her there with you."

"How dare you even say that you know me – because you don't! You know nothing about me! You don't know about the hell I've been put through because of what's happened to me these past few years. You can't see it through my eyes because you've never really been where I've been. You're so young and naïve about it all that you just can't –" He cut himself off before he went any further and took in a big breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I came to get my son back."

"You can't take him away from me, Luthor."

"He's not yours to keep! You aren't bound by blood like I am! I have a responsibility to my family – and he's family, Miss Sullivan… you may have a bond between you two, but it's not as basic as his and mine."

"Yes," she mumbled. "It is as basic as yours… we are bound by a person… someone we both cared about and separating us you're tearing the only stronghold I have left in this world…"

Lex frowned as he watched her head bow and drew back slightly when he saw her shed tears. "I need Remy, Lex," she continued, forgetting about the formalities. "He needs me, too. With my father gone… damn it, we need each other. You can't take him away from me…"

"Call him here, please," he requested lightly after a moment of silence.

Even as he asked for the child, he dreaded the moment of seeing him again. When the child had opened the door and looked up at him… he almost staggered back at the intensity of the boy's gaze. It seemed to penetrate his entire being; seemed to know his deepest secrets… even the one regarding the boy's creation… Lex almost feared seeing him again. But the boy intrigued him as well. Such level of calm at such a young age was strange and new to him. He wanted to see more of this child.

He had gotten himself so worked up about the boy that he hadn't noticed that had done as requested until she came back with a boy in her grasp. She gave a little cough to catch his attention and he swirled around – the black trench coat he wore flying at his motion.

And there the intense eyes were again. "Remy, this is Lex Luthor; Lex, this is Jeremy G. Sullivan…" The admiration and love that Chloe felt for the little boy was tangible in her voice; the way that she looked down at him; the way she held him against her as if she was trying to protect him.

Remy reached up to take hold of Chloe's hands, as if to say 'I'm with her… I want to be with her.' Lex found himself almost feeling jealous of what they shared – there was such devotion to each other; something that had been lacking in his relationship with his father… and had been buried with his mother. He was almost tempted to yank the boy from the woman before him – to show her how alone she could be. But he couldn't be as heartless as that. Instead he contented himself in watching the way that they were positioned against each other – how they used one another to support each other.

I want to be part of that, he thought absently. Oddly enough, when he looked back into Remy's face, he noted that the intensity of them had softened slightly – as if the child saw the yearning he was feeling and sympathized, understanding what he felt. He suppressed the need to shudder at the idea that the little boy could perhaps see right through his meticulously placed barriers.

"I'll make a deal with you, Chloe," he said promptly. "I will allow you to stay with Remy… but you both have to stay in my mansion." He held up a hand to stop her from protesting. "I certainly don't think that you believe this is the proper place to raise a child."

"Well, neither is it proper to raise him in a place that has been founded on treachery and lies."

"I assure you that they were all buried along with my father. I don't plan on cheating or destroying anyone's lives like my father did. I'm different from him."

"Yeah, sure you are," she muttered under her breath. She hadn't anticipated for him t hear her.

"Do you want to stay with Remy or not, Chloe, because I can very well gain custody of the child and have you prohibited from coming anywhere within two miles radius from him."

The threat seemed to hit home and she bowed her head. Still, the spunk that he remembered her to have presented itself when he saw her purse her lips and mutter another incoherent thing. Feeling his lips lift in a small smile, he nodded. "I see we have an understanding. I'll expect you both to be ready to move by tomorrow. I'll send for someone to escort you." He turned to leave, but then paused. "Oh by the way, don't try to run away… I'll always be able to find you." Having said that, he walked out of the apartment, leaving Chloe and Remy to stare after him.

To be continued...

A/N: Some vocabulary you're probably curious about!

Anatano hoshikatta jouhou wa watashiga motteimasu - I have the information that you wanted ((formal... yeah there's a definite difference between that and informal!! --;)

Oshiero - Tell me (informal)

Wakatta - I understand

Well, other than that, I don't think I really have anything else to say except: Please send feedback! :) would really like to know your thoughts on this fic.

Thanks to all those who have reviewed and constantly been reading. :) You've encouraged me to keep going with the story! Also big thanks to my beta, Jem, who has constantly helped with the fic and improving it! Also to kinipela92, who's also contributed a few significant points in the course of the story. Still a lot more to come. :)