Title: Proceedings
Author: ty-rant84
Summary: oh, just read it already
Archiving: Just ask
Feedback: Rocks!
Parts: 6/1
Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville. I do own a really pretty picture of Tom Welling g
Rating: PG (maybe a little bit higher. It's got some questionable references. I just don't think it warrants a higher rating like PG-13)
A/N: beta'd by the amazing, outstanding, stunningly good looking rallalon! waves
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Dr. Jamison only had an hour before his break. He was at Smallville General, a small hospital in some hick town in the middle of the States. He'd only arrived seven hours ago and had been busy ever since. Finally, he would be allowed to stop looking at the same information again and again, trying to find another conclusion. Something different from what his colleagues had declared over and over. Something to give the family hope.
Apparently, Smallville General only dealt with farming accidents and what looked like severe mutations in the inhabitants of the town and surrounding area. Those surprisingly nature-defiant patients were usually only in the hospital for a day or two before either dieing or being shipped out to Belle Reve, the nearest asylum. The case he'd been working on wasn't one of those.
This one patient didn't have an unimaginable power from radiation exposure. He wasn't even hurt because of a 'mutant' as many of the few people they saw in the Emergency Room were. He most definitely didn't have a farming injury.
Dr. Jamison had seen cases like this patient's before. Those had been where he really worked, though. Those were all happening in the big cities and the gang-infested ghettos. You didn't see kids like him in Smallville. It just wasn't done.
The boy was probably one of millions of teenagers with troubled minds. He'd taken it one step too far and had landed himself here. This boy, Clark Kent, had taken the chaotic world of his life into his own hands.
The problem was that this Clark hadn't quite succeeded. Clark had effectively stopped whatever was troubling him so much. He'd halted his own pain, but he'd only prolonged it for his parents.
"God, I hate this," he muttered as he walked up to the room.
The parents would have to decide now. Fuck, why couldn't the kid have just killed himself instead of making his parents order it?
He opened the door.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent?"
He hated it when the kids screwed up their own deaths. Just kill yourself and be done with it. Don't make your parents have to shut off life support for a brain-dead shell.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Smallville High didn't look any different. In fact, every single person in there was the same as they'd been yesterday. Nothing incredibly life-changing had happened in the last twenty-four hours. At least, the students didn't know about it. The only unusual occurrences were outside of the building.
The sleek silver car just beyond the school line shouldn't have been there at 12:00 in the afternoon. It had been seen before, of course, but not this early in the day. Even that didn't mean anything to most of the students. After all, Lex Luthor could do whatever he wanted in this town. If he wanted to sit in his car doing nothing for an hour, then he could. Even if he was in a no parking zone. In front of a fire hydrant.
Lex had been driving around after leaving Clark. He hadn't quite realized where he was going until he got there. When he'd stopped next to the curb and put the car in park, he'd been surprised to look up and see the school. He had no reason to go there. He probably never would again. No one that mattered went there. Not anymore.
He'd left the hospital for the first time in a day. Lex had kept working while he was there, but that was only so he didn't have to deal with his father who would arrive without fail or concern to berate his son about letting the simple injury of a farm boy interfere with business production. Lionel never missed an opportunity like that.
Lex still tried to use the company resources to help Clark. The charity money he was in charge of had already been rerouted to head injury research and teen aid. He'd had the hospital call in some of the best doctors in the world to see Clark and give their own second opinions. It had all been simple enough. A few bribes and offers of obscene amounts of money as payment and Clark was in the most capable hands money could buy. Too bad money wasn't enough.
The Kents didn't know about any of the special considerations Lex had made. They weren't at their best; they hadn't even noticed the private room Clark had been moved into.
Lex was lucky he had so much money. Without it, he would never have gotten Clark's information or have been able to move him to the room. Hell, he wouldn't even have been allowed to see his friend.
Why would Clark try to kill himself? He'd had dreams and plans for his future. They'd talked about it. He wanted to go to college and see the world outside of Smallville. Clark wouldn't even get to graduate High School. He was never going to play pool or ask for advice again. Lex wouldn't be able to give him that damn truck he had sitting in his garage. Fuck, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
How could Clark just throw his life away?
Lex tried to think of what had happened the last few times they'd seen each other. Clark hadn't done anything differently. He hadn't been sad or depressed or… anything. Clark was Clark. Nothing was different.
Why would he do that? Fuck, why?
Lex stared out the windshield of his car. The school doors opened and a bunch of children, teenagers, came walking out. They were probably going to eat lunch outside. Yet another thing Clark would never do.
There was a flash of blonde hair in the crowd. Lex's eyes suddenly focused in on that one feature and slowly broadened his sight as the color came closer to him. It was… Chloe? Yeah, that was Chloe, and Pete was right behind her. Their faces kept getting clearer as he stared fixatedly at them.
Were they coming to him? What would they ask? Did they know?
Lex quickly put the car in gear and pealed down the street.
He couldn't deal with this right now. Not now. Not ever.
