"Chloe Sullivan! Lana Lang!" Gabe yelled up the stairs. "I want you both down here right this minute!"
Gabe Sullivan wasn't what anyone would call a strict parent. He often thought he should be a little tougher on his daughter, but frankly he didn't know how to. Every time she would look up at him with the tiniest bit of hurt in her eyes, he simply wanted to hold her and make the tears go away.
However, Chloe and Lana had gone too far this time.
They came running down the stairs shortly after he called for them.
"What's wrong Dad?" Chloe was dressed for school, but still hadn't put her shoes on.
He tossed the Monday morning edition of the Inquisitor towards her.
"Lex Luthor has Wild Party with Gay High school Students." She read the headline aloud.
"What?!" Lana tugged on the newspaper so she could read the story over Chloe's shoulder. "Sources report that a group of teenagers from Smallville High School spent Saturday night in Lex Luthor's penthouse."
"Oh my god! Dad, none of this happened."
"I know. The Inquisitor has a nasty habit of finding out a few facts and then constructing stories around them." Gabe stated. "However, I just thought you might want to see what your meddling has produced."
"We didn't mean to do this." Lana protested. "It's not our fault they wrote this story."
"What are we going to do?" Chloe asked.
"Nothing." Gabe replied. "You two are going to do absolutely nothing but go to school today. There will be no meddling, no plots and NO matchmaking. Do I make myself understood!"
The girls looked up at him with wide, teary eyes and simultaneously apologized.
"But I just want to help. I feel really bad about this." Lana offered.
"No." He stood firm.
"Did you guys see the paper today?" Chad asked as Chloe and Lana approached the front doors of the school.
The nodded glumly.
"Why are you so sad?" Joan asked. "It's great."
Chloe's eyebrows shot up. "What's so great about the Inquisitor making up stories about Lex?"
"Not the Inquisitor." Chad answered. "The Ledger. A sex video with four of those jerks was e-mailed to everyone in the school over the weekend. They've got a whole two pages of articles about it and 'The Decline of Morals in America'. Didn't you see it?"
"No." Chloe admitted, taking the newspaper he handed her. She had almost forgotten about the whole thing over the weekend.
"What article about Lex Luthor?" Joan asked.
"Um… the Inquisitor did an article about us staying at the penthouse Saturday." Lana answered her. "It's horrible and completely made up."
"They've been dismissed from the football team and cheerleading squad. Scholarships have been withdrawn." Chloe stated, paraphrasing the newspaper and looking pointedly at Lana who just shrugged.
"Hey." Clark said as he walked up to the group. "What are you guys looking at?"
Whatever Clark and Lex had been arguing about Sunday must have been resolved because he had a smile a mile wide plastered on his face and was practically floating.
"Have you seen the newspaper this morning?" Chad asked.
"Which one?"
"Any of them?" Lana replied.
"No. Why?" Clark must have forgotten about Lana's little revenge also.
"Well there's good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?" Lana asked him.
Chloe didn't really consider either one to be good news, but she could see how other people could be happy about the Ledger.
"Good news." Clark responded.
"Some cheerleaders and jocks were caught on a sex video. They've been kicked off of the teams and got their scholarships dropped." Chad happily told him.
Clark deflated. "And the bad news?"
"The Inquisitor found out we spent the night this weekend in Metropolis and made up a whole story about Lex and a gay high school orgy." Lana replied glumly.
Clark didn't really blush, but got very red in the face none the less. "What?"
"It's really bad." Chloe said. "But Dad wants us to stay out of it and let Lex and his PR staff handle it."
"But it's not true." He protested.
"Of course it's not true. And if there was an orgy, I'd like to know why I wasn't invited."
Joan promptly smacked Chad upside the head for that comment.
"I feel like we should do something to help him." Lana said.
Clark nodded in agreement.
"Look, Lex Luthor's a nice enough guy and all, but what do you think we could do to help him?" Joan asked.
'That was not the question to ask Lana', Chloe thought as she cringed and waited for the inevitable reply.
"I have a plan."
"This is a disaster Lex." Claire Simmons, his head of PR, had been lecturing him on and off for the entire day. "I can't believe you did this without so much as a warning my way."
He glanced up when she took a breath to see if he had a chance to say something before she started ranting again. "I didn't do anything wrong and I want them sued for libel."
"It doesn't matter if you did anything wrong. It matters that they made it look wrong. If I believed you did anything like what they said you did, I wouldn't be here. I don't represent scum, remember? And we're going to sue them, don't doubt that."
"Did you find out who leaked the story?"
She nodded. "The doorman. He was fired this morning."
"What else are we going to do?" He asked.
"I've set up an interview with one of the Daily Planet reporters. We're going to give them your side of the story and sell the whole mess as you being a good, but persecuted, Samaritan."
"Sounds good."
Lex looked at the clock. Clark would have gotten out of school twenty minutes ago and he wanted to talk to him personally about this. If he could escape the rabid press camped out in front of the gates and the watchful eyes of his staff.
"I just need to know that there isn't anything else you haven't told me about these kids and your relationships with them."
Lex looked her in the eye and lied. "No, I can't think of anything else."
"Good. Then we'll get you through this and make those rags wish they'd never printed such a story."
"Oh I have no doubt Lex will get through this…Ms. Simmons, is it?" The devil himself had returned. "He's a survivor."
"Dad." Lex stood up in shock.
Claire looked back and forth between the two Luthors, indecision painted on her face. Lex paged security.
"Is that anyway to greet your father?"
"When he's a murdering psychopath, yes." Lex stated. "Why are you here."
"Lex, I came because you've been looking so hard for me," his father proclaimed. "And I thought you should have some familial support in this hour of need."
He snorted. "Believe me Dad, your support's the last thing I need or want now."
"Are you sure about that?" Whatever else his father was going to say was sharply interrupted by the arrival of Lex's new head of security and three other hired hands.
"Mr. Luthor." Jacob Benson nodded his head at Lex, then looked appraisingly at Lionel out of the corner of his eye.
"I want to know how he got through security and if anyone saw him enter the grounds." Lex ordered.
"I'll look into it at once, sir. What would you…"
The entrance of two other people halted whatever Jacob was about to ask. Clark had absolutely the worst timing sometimes.
"Mr. Kent, how nice to see you." Lionel greeted him. "And you brought the lovely Ms. Lang with you."
"Jacob." Lex caught the other man's attention while pointedly not looking the towards Clark.
He didn't want anything to give him away.
"I'm sorry sir, but I don't know how they got past us either."
His father chuckled. "You must be new. Young Clark here has had free reign of this house since he was fifteen."
Lex inwardly winced as Clark blushed and Claire looked at him with renewed suspicion. While he had only ever considered patricide, he wasn't above acting on it. "Please escort my father to a guest room and keep an eye on him."
As soon as his security left the room with his father, Clair pounced. "Is that true?"
He sighed. "Clark's my friend and has always been welcome in my home."
"Fifteen?" She asked incredulously. "How did they get around security anyway?"
"We went around to the side and jumped the fence." Clark answered her. "We just wanted to avoid the press."
"That was a good idea. You know what would have been better? If you'd stayed away altogether."
"Claire." Lex addressed her with a warning tone. "It's alright."
"We came because of the article. We wanted to help." Lana explained.
His head of PR looked at them shrewdly. "Did anyone see either of you come here?"
"Just the kitchen staff." Clark answered.
Claire turned to speak to Lex. "I don't want to have to involve any of these kids."
"Neither do I." He agreed.
"Good, then I'm going to find out if anyone else saw them or your father enter the grounds. And we'll talk about this later." She excused herself and left the room.
"What are you two doing here?" He asked.
"We wanted to see if you were ok." Clark stated. Lex could see his hands fidgeting with the ends of his jacket, like he didn't quite know what to do with them.
"And we also wanted to tell you how sorry we are about this. If I hadn't asked you to chaperone us this weekend, none of this would have happened." Lana looked truly apologetic…too apologetic. He thought back to his earlier suspicions about her.
"It's not your fault. I didn't even consider the press issues when I agreed and I know you wouldn't ever plan for something like this to happen."
"Of course not. And we really do want to help." She insisted.
Lex thought she sounded sincere and believed her. Whatever Lana had been up to, this wasn't it. "That's nice, but there's nothing you can do now."
A knock sounded on his office door.
"Come in." Lex said, silently amazed someone bothered to knock.
"Sir, Lionel Luthor's secure on the third floor." Jacob announced.
"Thank you. I want you to make sure Clark and Lana leave discreetly." He directed. "Try taking them out the same way they came in."
"Yes sir."
Clark looked like he wanted to protest.
"I'll talk to you later." Lex cut him off. "And tell your parents that my father has resurfaced."
"You're just trying to avoid Gabe, aren't you?" Clark asked Lana as they both climbed out of her car.
"No" She replied. "He already knows. Gabe's the one who showed me and Chloe the article this morning. I figured you'd want someone to act as a buffer in case your father freaks out."
"Did he yell?"
"Not that much. He knows Lex, so he didn't believe it." Lana fumbled with her keys, dropping them and picking them up again. "Do your parents still think all things Luthor are evil?"
"Um…they're kind of weird about that." Clark purposely slowed down, putting off the inevitable. "If I'm mad at Lex they defend him, but if I defend him about something, they'll give me the whole 'you can't trust a Luthor' spiel."
"Great," Lana half smiled. "All we have to do is go in there griping about how this is all Lex's fault and they'll be ok."
Clark considered it for a moment. "I think I'll just keep quiet and play it by ear. They don't read the Inquisitor, so maybe they won't have even heard about it."
"Right." Lana look like she believed that about as much as Clark did.
"Right." Clark panicked a little as he opened the door. "So you're staying for dinner?"
"Sure." She was braver than he gave her credit for, or really stupid.
No one was in the kitchen when they first went in, despite the food simmering on the stove. Clark heard Lana yelp and quickly looked over to where she was staring. The television was on, but muted. A report on the Inquisitor's article was playing and his Dad's shotgun was sitting on the living room table.
"Clark."
He actually jumped when his father entered through the hall door off of the kitchen.
"Hey Dad. Where's Mom?" He didn't think he sounded that flustered.
"She's upstairs talking to your Grandfather. Are you alright son?"
"Fine." He managed to say.
"Hello Mr. Kent."
Clark had almost forgot Lana was there for a moment.
"Lana. You staying for dinner?" His father was entirely too calm. It was scaring him more than all the yelling in the world.
"If you don't mind." She answered.
"Of course not. We'd love to have you." He smiled. Maybe he hadn't actually seen the news. He could have been watching something else and left the room before the story came on. But it didn't explain the shotgun.
"You have the shotgun out." Clark mentally kicked himself for just blurting it out that way.
His Dad stirred the vegetables and looked towards the coffee table. "I was cleaning it."
"Oh."
"Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yeah…it's just that…" Clark gulped. "Have you seen the news?"
"That thing about you guys staying over in Lex's penthouse? Is that what's got you so jumpy?"
"It's not true!" Clark said. "They made all that junk up."
Lana was staying quiet and looking at him like he'd grown another head. So much for playing it cool.
"I know," his father agreed.
"Your not upset about it?"
"I'm sure Lex will sort it out." He looked at Clark like he could see right through him. "Unless there's something I should be upset about…"
"No." Clark shook his head. "Nothing."
"Alright." He didn't look entirely convinced. "Why don't you two clean up for dinner, your mother will be down soon."
"Ok. I'll just go clean up now." Clark turned and practically jogged up the stairs.
Lana followed close behind him. "Great performance Clark. It's a good thing nothing did happen with the way you acted down there."
"I was just nervous." He turned on the faucet and washed his hands. "I didn't think he'd be that calm about it."
"Nothing did happen, right?" She looked suspiciously at him.
He shook his head and she let the subject drop.
A/N: I'm glad you guys are still enjoying the story. I'm a little confused as to why some of you think it's all over with. The last chapter was just a lull, it won't be done until a little more is tied up and revealed.
RaeLynn Skye: I'm glad you're enjoying it. I want the Lana/Chloe thing to be confusing right now, because they think they're just pretending and are fairly confused themselves. I'm pretty sure that the rest of this story's going to be focused on the Clex, but I'll try to address the girls a little bit more before the story's over with.
Fred God of: It isn't over yet, although I have been thinking about a sequel. If I do it, it'll be a lot more racy and Clark will be in on the manipulations - but that's a whole different story.