Epilogue
Two months later
Martha
Upon moving into her new apartment, Martha unpacked her work clothes first. She would be starting work the next morning. She wasn't in desperate need of money – the proceeds from the sale of the farm would hold her for a while – but she had to start being more active.
She would have moved back to Metropolis anyway, to be close to her father, but having a job to go to made it so much easier. And it was work she knew; she'd been Lionel's assistant previously for several months. She'd quite enjoyed working with Lionel, until she had discovered his plans for Clark.
But she no longer had anything to protect or hide from Lionel. She found that without Clark to look out for, she didn't much care what anyone discovered about Krypton or Kryptonite. By staying close to Lionel, she could at least make sure he wasn't using his knowledge of Kryptonite to develop weapons... if she ever started to care about anything. Meanwhile, it would be a steady paycheck and something to occupy her mind.
And Lionel had changed. It seemed that as often as he'd come close to causing his own son's death, he had never really contemplated losing him. Without Lex, LuthorCorp was his only legacy. His wife and second son were long dead, and he'd never tried to start another family. When Lionel died, the only thing left of him would be his money.
It was probably with that in mind that Lionel had created research grants in Lex's and Clark's names. He'd set up Lex's first, for biochemistry. The Lex Luthor Memorial Grant would fund research for generations to come. It would take the place of progeny.
Later, he'd called Martha to ask what had held Clark's interest. Her first thought had been journalism, but really he'd only been interested in that for about two years. Astronomy was what he'd devoted most of his free time to before then. The stars had captured his imagination since he'd been able to speak, and he'd never been without a telescope. Lionel had set up a grant in Clark's name to fund research in astronomy.
The gesture was not entirely out of character. Lionel was used to making statements with his money, and he had been nothing but kind and respectful to Martha since the funerals. With Clark out of the way, she'd had half expected him to come knocking on her door looking for the spaceship key before the bodies were in the ground – she'd even had a tirade prepared for the occasion. But he'd said nothing and had expressed no interest in the key, or the caves, or anything else he'd been so obsessed with. In fact, he's stopped research on the caves altogether and had had them blocked off.
Martha wouldn't have been able to help him with that in any case; the key had disappeared, the spaceship had been destroyed, and he probably knew more than she did about the caves. He didn't know any of that, of course, but still he didn't ask. It was possible that he was still biding his time, but now she realized it didn't really matter. She didn't have anything left to lose anyway. Lionel knew that, and he could have used it to get her cooperation.
But he didn't ask.
Lionel
Lionel Luthor had learned his lesson: Patience. He thought he'd learned it years ago, but his one lapse with Clark had cost him far too much. He wouldn't be rushing his plans again.
His worries about keeping Martha in line had been for nothing. Thanks to the shamefully lax security at Smallville Medical, he'd known about Jonathon's heart condition, but the condition was recent, and Lionel hadn't expected that the sight of his son's dead body would have instigated such a massive heart attack. After Jonathon had charged into the mansion and collapsed, Lionel had finally called an ambulance, as he had not done for Clark. Jonathon hadn't survived, thankfully, even so.
Martha had had nothing left to lose after that, which might have made her dangerous to Lionel. Instead, it had made her completely apathetic. Lionel had waited until two weeks after the funerals of her husband and son before he stepped in and offered to handle the sale of the farm for her. She hadn't even tried to protest. After another two weeks, he'd offered her her old job as his assistant and arranged for her move to Metropolis. A month later, she was settled in one of his own buildings, and ready to come to work for him.
She'd been out of Smallville before he exhumed Clark's body, and she either didn't know or didn't care that he'd sold the farm to his own company and had a team going over it with a fine-toothed comb.
Most likely she didn't care. She was an intelligent woman, far cleverer than her redneck husband had been. He'd originally hired her, when he was temporarily blinded, because of who she was related to, but had soon discovered she was truly a valuable business asset in and of herself. She possessed a sharp business sense, and a sharper sense of public opinion. Having a pleasant, attractive, well-spoken woman at his side didn't hurt Lionel's own image, either.
Really, it had all worked out much better than he'd hoped.
THE END
Note:
This chapter originally contained the lyrics to "Somewhere (A
Place for Us)" from "West Side Story." I removed it to
comply with this site's regulations.
Music by Leonard
Bernstein; Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
