Author: Drake of Dross
Spoilers: Seasons 1 & 2, especially "Insurgence"
Goes AU after Insurgence, but does parallel the show. "Suspect" never happens because Lionel opts not take over LexCorp, but most of the other episodes follow a logical progression of slightly more and more AU aspects due to the events occuring in this story.
Warning: incest, slash, mpreg
Pairing: Lex/Lionel
Summary: While negotiating with his father in the LuthorCorp vault to save his company from reprisal, Lex discovers he may have made a mistake.
Note: Alright, now in the summer between Seasons Two and Three, we're hitting almost totally alternate AU. Since Martha wasn't coming home from Lex's wedding, she wasn't involved in the rollover, so the kid didn't miscarry, so Clark wasn't driven to Red K.
Lex had the keys to his Aston Martin in hand as he walked (albeit very slowly and carefully despite the fact that he was running late for his next appointment at Cadmus) down the main stairwell of the mansion. It was taking a great deal more effort move around lately and stairs were particularly difficult. He didn't notice he wasn't alone until far too late.
"My God, Lex, what did you do to yourself?"
The instinct to startle had been trained out of him and that probably saved him from a painful tumble down the stairs. Instead, he went very still. His knuckles turned white on the rail, and adrenaline kicked into his bloodstream. Unfortunately, at nearly eight months along, flight wasn't an viable option.
"Dad."
Lex didn't look away from the stair below him, but he could hear his father's steps on the wooden floor as he moved nearer. "You look pregnant," the older Luthor observed derisively. As Lex lifted his eyes to favour the man with a dark glower, he began to realize that even with that astute diagnosis, Lionel didn't actually believe that he was pregnant. Lex wasn't sure he wanted to know what other explanations his father might be imagining.
Had been imagining. Lex could see in his eyes the moment he realized that his words accurately described the younger man's condition. Revulsion crossed his face. Lex looked away, not willing to risk letting his expression give away what he was feeling or thinking. He didn't turn back until he was sure his face was completely neutral.
His father had also schooled his expression to cool disinterest in the meantime. "You've done a fair job of covering up this abomination."
Lex's lips tightened, but didn't let his mask slip any further than that. He inclined his head, accepting the offered compliment while trying not to acknowledge the insult that sat couched inside it. "Thanks, Dad, that means a lot, coming from the master of cover-ups."
For a moment, Lionel's eyes flashed in anger, and Lex let the corner of his mouth flirt with a brief smirk. Unlike in past battles, however, the argument did not pick up as if this exchange didn't occur. Wheras before Lionel would just surpress the emotion and they'd continue to try get the other to lose their temper, this time he just leveled a look of disgust at Lex, turned his back on him, and started to walk away.
Frowning in confusion at the break in routine, and suspecting that something was very wrong, Lex asked, "Dad?"
Lionel stopped, his shoulders showing tension. That was further indication that something was off. Their arguments had gotten ugly before, but this one was the first that left him feeling cold. "Dad, what -"
"Get out of my house, Lex, and don't call me that again."
Lex blinked. It took him a second to realize what was happening. "No. Oh, no, Dad, you are not laying the blame for this on me. Bad enough I need to go through this. You are not cutting me off for something you helped create. 'Just let it happen, Lex,' that's what you told me when you had me up against that pile of refined meteorites. We both knew what those rocks can do to people, we both knew I'd been affected by them before, but we weren't thinking about that then, were we, Dad? So now my unborn daughter will also be my only sister, and your unborn daughter will also be your first grandchild. And people thought the Luthors were fucked up before this happened."
Lex wished he'd had the chance to goad his father into turning toward him before snapping out that tirade, but it had looked like he was about to leave. Lex couldn't afford to be disowned. Particularly not now. Regretably, he was now only given the older Luthor's unnaturally still backside to watch as his father processed the revelations. It would have been nice to see his face. It wasn't very often that he could shock his father.
when he felt he had allowed sufficient time to come to grips with the information, he added, "I've found a family willing to take in the girl. They think I got Helen pregnant and have sworn not to tell anyone she's mine; I've got the signed agreements to that effect in my safe. No one besides the Kents will even know a bastard Luthor ever existed. Martha's going to pass my kid and hers off as twins. Even you weren't supposed to ever know."
Slowly, Lionel turned around again and regarded him with an expression that was completely unreadable. Then, very deliberately, he nodded. "It's a good plan."
That was the first unqualifed compliment he could remember ever receiving from his father. He just wished he didn't feel like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
His father's mouth twisted into a poorly surpressed sneer as his gaze landed again on Lex's swollen midsection. "You realize I will disown you if the press gets wind of you new . . . creation ability."
As far as 'welcome back to the family' speeches go, it was about what Lex expected from his father. "Of course, Dad." It was the same message he'd gotten when his father discovered he did drugs or slept with guys. Just don't get caught.
Lionel's nod was sharp and businesslike. "Just so we're clear, Son."
"So I can get pregnant again as long as the press doesn't find out?" That was, perhaps, pushing it, but his feet hurt, his back ached, he was late for his check-up, he had just narrowly avoided being thrown out of his home, and he hadn't had sex since Helen left five and a half months ago. He was entitled to be irritable.
His father's lip curled but hand made a vaguely dismissive gesture. "That is entirely your business, Lex." There was a slight pause, then he added, "In the future, I will make it a point to use a condom whenever I engage in intercourse of any form to avoid this sort of problem. As your concerned father, I suggest you do the same."
Lex frowned at his father's back as he strode from the room, apparently having reached the conclusion that their discussion was over. Lex had no idea how to interpret that 'fatherly' advice. He was fairly sure it wasn't an order. What he couldn't dismiss so easily was that it might have been a promise that, if and when they had sex again, a condom would be used. Or maybe it was an apology. It was hard to say.
But just because his father had given it, with or without hidden messages, didn't mean it was bad advice. He wondered if it would look unusual if LexCorp bought Trojan. Probably.
