Chapter Two
A/N: Here's the next chapter. Irealize that none of you likeAnna...that's kindof the point! :0) Justso you know, I'venever beento Boston (probably never will) andhave no idea what papers they have inMass. so the names I mention won't be right (unless by some freak coincidence I got them right). Also, I'm not surehow far towns arefrom each other in that state, but it's not very big (at least not compared to what I'm used to driving across) so travel timesmay be off as well. Cool? Cool.
"Chloe calm down," Clark did his best not to chuckle too loud. He was stretched lazily on the couch in his loft, watching Chloe pace back and forth across the floor. "You're wearing a groove in the floor."
She wasn't but she seemed to get the point anyways. "Calm down?" she stopped pacing and turned on him instead. Oops. "Why don't you get a little more worked up about this? Do you remember what happened the last two times that he got married? Do you?"
"Yes I remember Chloe," Clark climbed to his feet. He was worried about Lex, and he remembered damn well what happened the last two times, but at that moment he was more worried about Chloe giving herself a stroke. He led her to the couch sternly and made her sit down. "But you're going to give yourself an ulcer if you don't calm down a bit."
She huffed in annoyance but took a deep breath and looked like she was making some sort of attempt to calm down. Clark sat down beside her. "We have to do something Clark," she began again, this time without the gaspy hitch that came to her voice when she was really upset. "Something is going on here and we can't just let him marry her without knowing what she's doing to him."
"We'll do something," Clark assured her. "Now, first of all, how much time do we have?"
"The wedding's on Saturday," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Did I tell you that they're in Edge City tonight telling Lucas? Anna was going on and on about how she wanted us to be a part of the wedding, and that we could all be one big happy family! I just about made me sick—"
"Okay," Clark stroked her hand soothingly, not really wanting her to go off on another tangent. "So we have until Saturday…that's five days."
"That's not much time Clark—"
"We've worked faster before," Clark sighed. He was finding her behaviour particularly strange; it wasn't like her to panic, and it really wasn't like her to panic over Lex. They both knew that Lex Luthor could take care of himself…and yet she was on the verge of hyperventilating. "We can do it now."
"I guess so," she muttered, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"So I guess the first thing that we need to do is find out more about Anna," Clark continued, ignoring her pouting and really ignoring the nagging voice in the back of his head that kept wanting to point out reasons why Chloe was so bitter about Lex getting married (besides the obvious of course). "She said that she's from Hartford right? Maybe we could start there."
"We need to know her last name first," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not Lex never mentioned it. Come to think of it he probably doesn't even know it! That is just so like him…"
Clark rolled his eyes.
Lucas blinked once at his brother and the redhead in front of him. "Married?" he repeated. Lex nodded and the girl beamed hugely at him. Lucas couldn't help it, he started to laugh, leaning forward onto his knees and struggling for breaths in between. Lex frowned.
"Lucas!" he snapped, shooting a soothing glance at the girl –Anna, Lucas remembered—to reassure her. Lucas's chuckles slowly died down and he pulled himself back into his own version of the Luthor mask.
"Married?" this time he managed not to laugh.
"Yes," Lex nodded.
"This Saturday?"
"Yes," Anna chirped.
"To you…who are you anyways?" Lucas shook his head at the girl.
"I told you, her name is Anna," Lex gritted his teeth.
"Anna who?" Lucas snapped back. Lex blinked back at him and Lucas knew immediately that Lex had no idea what the girl's last name was. "I guess I need to wait for the invitations to come out then."
"Oh don't be silly," Anna swatted Lucas's arm playfully, seemingly not concerned at all that her fiancée didn't know her last name. "Anna Anderson. Ask him Lex."
"We would like you to be in the wedding party Lucas," Lex almost looked pained when the words came out of his mouth. "We were thinking you could be best man." Lucas almost burst into hysterics again, but the eager look on Anna's face, and the nervous one on Lex's, stopped him.
"What about Clark?" Lucas asked, surprised that Lex's closest male friend wasn't asked first. Or maybe he said no…
"We were wanting to keep the wedding party in the family," Lex replied. "You're family…technically."
"Oh will you do it?" Anna latched onto his arm like a big red leach.
"Sure," Lucas replied immediately, trying to shake her off.
"Sure?" Lex echoed skeptically.
"Yeah sure," Lucas shrugged. "All of the times you've gotten married and I never got to see it. This time I will."
"Okay then," Anna released his arm and grabbed Lex's hand, pulling him to his feet. "You have to be at the mansion tomorrow at three to get fitted for your tux. Can you make it?"
"I'll be there," Lucas nodded dryly, already not liking this girl. The worst part though was the way that she was hanging off of Lex…and Lex was making an abnormal amount of googly eyes at her in return.
"Perfect!" Anna clapped her hands and threw her arms around Lucas's neck, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Well," Lex seemed to have gotten over his shock and found his voice again. "We should be going, lots of calls to make tonight I'm afraid."
"Sure," Lucas nodded almost gratefully and led them to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye," Anna chirped and flounced out into the hall. Lex paused in the doorway.
"Seriously Lucas? Because if you're going to mess this up—"
"I'll be there," Lucas assured him. "See you tomorrow." He closed the door on Lex then and smirked. "Like I'd miss this."
As soon as the elevator doors closed on Lex and Anna, Lucas walked straight over to the kitchen counter. He flipped open a black address book and grabbed the telephone, dialing in the long distance number as quickly as he could.
"Hello?" Chloe's voice answered over the line.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Okay, bye," Chloe sighed and clicked off her cell. She turned to Clark. "That was Lucas."
"What did he want?" Clark struggled not to scowl at the mention of Lex's insane brother.
"He's concerned about the wedding too," Chloe told him, disbelief written across her face.
"Something is really wrong with this girl if even Lucas thinks something's up," Clark shook his head.
"Well Lucas may be an incredibly large thorn in society's side, but he has his uses," Chloe told him. When Clark look confused she smirked. "He got us a last name…Anderson."
"Anna Anderson," Clark frowned. "Why does that sound…"
"Familiar?" Chloe laughed. "Anna Anderson was the girl who came forward with claims of being the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov. She was an imposter, of course."
"Do you think that this Anna knew that?" Clark asked.
"Probably," Chloe nodded. "I doubt Anna Anderson is her real name anyways. But at least it's somewhere to start. We'll look up all of the Anderson's in Hartford and then go from there."
"What if she's lying though?" Clark asked. "Looking them up isn't going to help much if she is."
"We have to start somewhere," Chloe sighed. "We'll do that tonight and tomorrow I'll try and sneak a set of fingerprints to my contact at the lab. Maybe a DNA sample too."
"All right," Clark sighed and opened up his laptop, typing in a search for the Hartford White Pages. Chloe sat down beside him with a sigh. It was going to be a long night.
Chloe knocked tentatively on the door to the Torch. "Come in," Cooper called frantically from the other side. Chloe frowned but pushed the door open. She almost gasped in shock at the disaster area she found on the other side. There were papers strewn everywhere and Cooper and another guy were rushing around from desk to desk, scanning, printing and trying to get various machines to work. "Oh hey," he smiled at her and stopped, standing in the middle of the room and looking unusually helpless. "What's up?"
"What's going on in here?" Chloe asked, looking around.
"Oh, nothing," Cooper shook his head. "Just trying to make tomorrow's deadline. It's been a little hectic lately, two of my storywriters quit last week…hockey season, you know. Ben and I have been trying to pick up the slack, but… so what's up?"
"I um…I actually came to ask for a favor," Chloe felt guilty asking now that she saw how frazzled he looked. She was going to ask to use the computers… "But you're kind of busy right now."
"Not too busy for you," Cooper assured her, sitting down into his chair with a relieved sigh. "What do you need?"
"Could I borrow the rolodex for a couple of days?" he raised an eyebrow at that. "I just need to get in touch with some of my old contacts and I don't have all of the numbers." Cooper shrugged and handed her the massive Rolodex; she was pleasantly surprised that he trusted her so much with something so important to the paper.
"Is something wrong Chloe?" he asked.
"No," she lied. "It's just…Lex is getting married on Saturday."
"Really?" Cooper looked surprised. "I didn't know he was getting married. You never mentioned it."
"That's because they got engaged yesterday," Chloe ground her teeth. "He's marrying some girl that he met at the Halloween thing on Sunday."
"Whoa," Cooper sat up straighter now. "I know that he's had a history of impulsive behaviour, but isn't that a little weird?"
"Clark and I think so," Chloe nodded. "And so does Lucas Luthor. We're looking into it."
"I'll help you out if you want," Cooper handed her a piece of paper and a pen. "I can't tonight, we'll be working on this paper most of the night, but tomorrow. Write down what you know about her and I'll let you know if I find anything."
"Thanks Cooper," she sighed and scribbled down Anna's name and where she claimed to be from. "Clark and I already called all of the Anderson's in Hartford but we didn't find anything yet. I have some fingerprints and stuff that I'm going to bring to the lab today."
"Anna Anderson," Cooper read the paper and frowned. "Like the Anastasia girl."
"Oh yeah," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Apparently they're both imposters."
"I'll see what I can find," he assured her. Chloe nodded thankfully.
"Great, thanks," she climbed to her feet and fidgeted with the pen. "There's one more thing…see on Friday there's supposed to be a rehearsal dinner."
"Oh," he looked disappointed but managed to cover it up quickly. "That's fine, we can reschedule."
"Or," she could feel herself blush. "We could go to the dinner, I am allowed to bring an escort."
"Sure," he nodded and grinned in relief, his dimples showing now. She couldn't help but notice how cute he was.
"Great," she blushed again and set the pen down. Cooper jumped to his feet.
"I'll walk you out," he offered, leading her to the door. She smiled up at him and stepped out into the hall. "See you later."
"Bye," Chloe nodded. She was about to turn away when he leaned down quickly and pecked her on the lips, surprising her. Chloe froze momentarily, but the next time he leaned down she met his lips readily, the second kiss much more intense than the first.
"Bye," he pulled away finally and she giggled internally at the blush that spread across his cheeks.
"Chloe!" a twenty-something man in a white lab coat greeted in surprise.
"Hi Gary," Chloe smiled, walking through the glass lab doors and giving him a quick hug.
"Hi kid," he grinned. "It's been a while since I saw you. What have you been up to lately?"
Chloe hated that question, because lately she didn't have very cheery answers. "Well my dad…" she trailed off, not really wanting to say it out loud. Gary nodded solemnly.
"I heard about Gabe," he told her apologetically. "I'm really sorry about it too, he was a good man."
"Yeah…"
"I heard that you were living with Lex Luthor now," Gary raised his eyebrows at the ziplock bag in her hands. Chloe looked down at the teacup and toothbrush that she had stolen. "Why do I have the feeling that something's up?"
"Because you're psychic," she deadpanned, handing him the bag. Gary peered closer at the china cup. "I was hoping that I could get you to run some prints for me."
"And maybe a DNA sample?" he smirked, gesturing to the toothbrush. Chloe smirked back; Gary was no stranger to the meteor weirdness in town, and he was more than used to Chloe showing up with various artifacts for him to dust, scan, or basically turn inside out. In fact, he'd been the one she got the print sample for Mr. Kent from, as well as the guy that had tested the drugs that Lex had been receiving. "What am I looking for?"
Chloe sighed and told him the Anna story, explaining that the name that they'd been given was phony and they needed some info on her. "The wedding is Saturday at noon," Chloe told him. "So I need it back ASAP, if you can."
"Sure I'll run it after lunch," he promised her. "I'll let you know tonight."
"Great," she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him, her new cell number. "If I don't answer call the Kent farm and leave a message with Clark, okay?"
"Okay," he nodded.
"Thanks Gary," she nodded gratefully. "I'll let you work…I probably should go back to school."
"Okay," Gary agreed. "But…how are you doing? Without your dad I mean."
"I…okay," she sighed. "I've been laying off the investigating though, so it's been a little duller than usual. This is the first thing I've looked into in a while, and only because I know that something is really wrong with Anna."
"How does it feel?" he asked with a grin, knowing her better than she thought he did. "Getting back on the journalistic trail again?" Chloe shrugged quickly, out of habit, and then tried to hide her snarky grin. She waved goodbye and left; Gary laughed and set about finishing the tests that he was working on.
Chloe frowned openly, not even trying to hide her disgust at the reflection staring back at her. "I'm not wearing this," she announced to the others in the room, namely Anna and two seamstresses. She flapped her arms up and down, watching as the motion made her look like a big purple freak. The dress itself was made from a violet silk, which was fine, but the cut… "I look like a witch." She raised her hands high above her head and the large bell sleeves fanned out around her, the high neckline and uneven hemline making her look like a witch out of a lame horror movie…only purple.
Anna frowned at the word witch, and re-examined the dress (cloak) on Chloe. "It does seem to engulf you," she admitted. "Maybe we could tighten the sleeves?" The seamstress opened her mouth to reply but the loud bang of the oak doors opening caused all heads to whip around in the direction of the doorway.
"What the hell are you wearing?" Lucas stood framed in the doorway, dressed in an immaculately tailored tux, complete with tails, and several colorful ties and cummerbands in his hand. He frowned at Chloe in disapproval.
"Lucas get out!" Chloe snapped, hating that he was insulting her, even though she knew that he was absolutely right.
"I though Halloween was over Chloe," he shook his head, looking the dress over with a smirk. "Why are you dressed as a witch?"
"Shut up!" Chloe yelped. "And also, see! Even he agrees with me; can't we just find something else—"
"No hey," Lucas strolled over, thrusting the ties and cummerbands into Anna's hands. "Pick a color would you? Maybe you could just take the sleeves off…" he reached out and grasped the dress at Chloe's right shoulder, tearing the horrible sleeve off at the seam. Everyone gasped.
"What are you doing?" Anna cried, fumbling not to drop the items that he'd put in her hands. The seamstresses looked on in horror as he repeated the action with the other sleeve. Chloe smirked, knowing that the dress was looking better already. But the stupid high neckline was still there. Lucas shrugged, not knowing what else to do.
Feeling quite bold, Chloe snatched a pair of fabric sheers off of the nearby table and began to cut the neckline from the top of her right shoulder in a diagonal line to underneath her left arm. She handed the sheers to Lucas for him to cut the back, and once they were done the dress was one shouldered with a lot more exposed skin. Anna scowled at them in disapproval, thrust a violet tie and cummerband at Lucas and stomped out of the room.
Chloe and Lucas both smirked, and Chloe gave the seamstresses directions on how to finish her dress.
"Wasn't Lex mad?" Clark asked in awe later that night. Chloe and Lucas had joined him in the loft, waiting for word from Gary at the lab. Lucas snorted.
"Are you kidding?" he rolled his eyes. "He spent twenty minutes trying to explain to us why we had to try harder to get along with Anna."
"Apparently he hadn't seen the monstrosity that she was trying to make me wear," Chloe huffed. "I mean really, considering the fact that she wears clothes you would think that she wouldn't be quite so terrible at selecting them for other people—oh!" Her cell phone rang suddenly and she dived at it. "Hello?"
Clark watched eagerly as she conversed with Gary the Lab Guy. Once she hung up the phone she grinned triumphantly. "Well?" Clark probed eagerly. "What did he find?"
"She's definitely hiding something," Chloe told them. "Her prints matched a set that he pulled up; Serena Gilmore was arrested in Massatuchetts for drugging some Boston socialite named Trent Ford. But she was let off when the evidence mysteriously disappeared. Ford did a swan dive off of his office building the same day that she skipped town. No one's seen her since."
"So what…she just turns up in Metropolis and manages to get to Lex?" Lucas asked skeptically. "And he never did a background check on her?"
"Do you think she could be drugging Lex?" Clark asked. Chloe shrugged and opened Clark's laptop.
"I think we need to find out more about her," she typed the name 'Serena Gilmore' into her favorite search engine and they waited while the site searched. Five links popped up; she opened the first one, an article from the Boston Star. "Salem Woman Arrested in Suspected Drugging of Local Businessman," Chloe read out loud. "Yesterday afternoon Serena Gilmore, Salem, was arrested at her Boston apartment on charges of attempted poisioning and deliberate inhebriation of local businessman Trent Ford. Boston PD found a collection of various potent herbs, that were found in Ford's system, in the apartment. Ford, who had been brought into Boston General Hospital by friends two nights ago, remains in stable condition…"
"That still doesn't tell us much about Lex," Clark shook his head. Chloe agreed and they slowly made their way through the following links. The next three were bogus, one an ad for a sex site featuring the 'fabulous Serena Gils', another a fan site for the Gilmore Girls, and then a broken link. But the fourth site was another article, this time an editorial from the Salem Gazette.
"Local girl Serena Gilmore is being charged for the attempted poisioning of Boston businessman Trent Ford," Lucas read, both him and Clark hunched over and reading over her shoulders. "Police officials are still investigating, and Boston PD spokesmen have not yet announced if the sentence will be increased to attempted murder. Ford remains in hospital in stable condition, and Gilmore remains in police custody…"
"Not much here either," Clark sighed. "Should we try another search?"
"I have a couple more sources I can contact," Chloe sighed. "A cop at Metropolis PD who might be able to get something from Boston—"
"Or we could go there," Lucas suggested, cutting her off.
"Go to Boston?" Clark frowned. "Can't we just tell Lex that she's lying?"
"No Clark," Chloe shook her head. "We need something else besides the fact that she's changed her name. Desiree Atkins was a fake name too but he didn't care."
"She said that she had no family right?" Lucas remembered. "If we went to Salem we might be able to track someone down."
"What if she really doesn't have any family?" Clark asked.
"Someone will have to know her anyway," Chloe couldn't believe that she was agreeing with Lucas. "I think he's right Clark, someone has to go to Salem."
"I can go tomorrow," Lucas shrugged. "I'll just borrow the jet—"
"And where will you tell Lex that you're taking it?" Clark rolled his eyes.
"Disney World—"
"No Lucas, you can't take the jet. Lex can't know about this, and neither can Anna," Chloe turned around in her chair and looked at them sternly. "Also, you aren't going alone."
"Aw," Lucas pressed a hand to his heart. "You're worried about me."
"No it's more like I don't trust you to do this by yourself," Chloe rolled her eyes at his pout. "We'll all go—"
"Chloe we have school tomorrow…" Clark trailed off helplessly, knowing that saving Lex was more important than handing his history homework in on time.
"We'll take a commercial flight," Chloe continued as if she hadn't even heard Clark.
"I don't need the entire Scooby gang with me," Lucas rolled his eyes. "I think I can track down one girl on my own."
"I don't doubt that you can Lucas," Chloe assured him. "But this girl seems to have a way of…getting away with things. If all three of us are there it's going to be a lot harder for her if she finds out, or if someone warns her."
"With Magnet-For-Trouble-Boy there," Lucas gestured at Clark sarcastically. "I'm sure nothing will go wrong."
"Chloe, not to spoil the plan or anything," Clark cut in sheepishly. "But I don't really have the cash for a flight to Boston."
Chloe smirked and reached for her purse, zipping it open and withdrawing her credit card out of her wallet. "It's on Lex," she assured him. "It's only fair, we're going to safe his ass after all."
"…4581," Chloe finished, reading the number off of her credit card. "Expires 0906. Yes…great, thank-you." She hung up her cell phone and left her bathroom…where she'd been hiding with the water running so no one in the house would overhear her. She slipped her favorite blazer on, picked up her overstuffed backpack, and left her room, running her cover story over and over in her mind.
She found the others in the dining room, Lex, Lucas and Anna, already eating. "Chloe if you don't hurry you're going to be late for school," Anna tutted at her, a fake smile ever plastered on her face. Chloe sent her an equally fake but more snarky smirk in return.
"I was just on the phone with Lois," she lied. "She's going to meet me in Grandville after school."
"You know that you could just take one of the cars Chloe," Lex tore his adoring eyes away from Anna for a moment to shake his head at Chloe. "So that you can drive it back tomorrow."
"That's okay," Chloe ground her teeth together and forced a smile, hating the way that Anna was staring at her. "The bus is fine with me, I'll get some homework done on the way back."
Lex shrugged and went back to his intense study of the various shades of red in Anna's hair. "Speaking of getting the hell out of this cow town," Lucas shoved the last of his pancakes into his mouth and washed them down with some orange juice. "I've got some things to take care of back home. I'll be back Friday morning."
"Fine," Lex still stared at Anna and Chloe was beginning to get a little creeped out by him.
"Have a nice trip," Anna chirped at Lucas, who had pushed his chair out and climbed to his feet.
"Uh, thanks," Lucas mumbled uncomfortably before turning to Chloe with a perfectly planned annoyed expression. "Hurry up and I'll drop you off at school on my way."
Chloe rolled her eyes, also planned, but grabbed an apple from a bowl in the middle of the table and stood as well. Anna jumped to her feet quickly, startling Lex and forcing him to move his gaze, and threw her arms around Chloe's shoulders energetically. "Have a nice visit Chloe," she gushed. Chloe patted her back awkwardly, almost feeling bad for wrecking this for her…almost.
"Thanks," Chloe forced out a smile. "See you tomorrow, you too Lex."
"Bye," Lex nodded absentmindedly, his eyes falling adoringly on Anna once more. Chloe sighed and joined an impatient Lucas in the hallway. "Drive safe," he remembered to call after them. Chloe huffed in annoyance; at least he'd remembered.
They strode quickly towards the front doors, where Walden met them with a leather duffle bag in his hands. Lucas took the bag and fished his car keys out of his pocket. "The chopper?" Chloe asked Walden.
"It is waiting at the Kent Farm, Miss," Walden told them, shooting a paranoid glance down the hallway towards the dining room.
"Don't worry Walden," Chloe assured him. "He won't find out." Walden nodded, not looking the least bit reassured. She smiled comfortingly and followed Lucas out into his waiting car.
They arrived at the Kent Farm ten minutes later, where Clark was waiting on the porch anxiously. Mr. and Mrs. Kent came out when the car pulled up; apparently Clark had filled his parents in on what they were doing. Typical.
"Are you sure about this?" Mr. Kent asked them, referring to the interfering and meddling that they were about to do…not to mention skipping school.
"Dad we can't let Lex marry Anna if she's doing something to him," Clark reminded them. Martha and Chloe nodded and Jonathan sighed.
"Chopper's out back," Jonathan nodded towards the back of the house. "Just please be careful."
"We will," Clark promised him. They all walked around back to where David, Chloe's favorite of all of Lex's pilots, was waiting. "Are you sure Lex isn't going to find out we took this? Doesn't he go into Metropolis every day?" Clark asked as they were strapping themselves in.
"David will have it back at the hanger in an hour," Chloe assured him, having to yell over the roar of the propellers. "And he's working at the Smallville plant all week so that she can get a hold of him for wedding crap."
Clark seemed convinced and pretty soon they were off on their way to Metropolis. By nine o'clock they were already onboard their flight, heading east to Boston.
TBC...
