5.
Lex leaned back in his leather chair behind his desk. Steepling his hands together in front of him with his elbows resting on the arms of the chair, he thought back to earlier in the day.
Chloe was hiding something from him.
And it ate at him that he didn't have the right to blame her, only himself for the distance he had driven between them.
After saving the Sullivans from the explosion, in which he had spent careful hours setting up, he had promptly torn her from her father and moved them both out of eachother's reach.
It was then he was supposed to make his move. He was supposed to have formed a bond with her, to use her friendship as his own father had for his own benefits. But in the end, when she had been moved into yet another house and he had provided her with himself as the only friendship she could grasp onto, he couldn't bring himself to go through with it.
He had finally come to the conclusion that he was not his father, and his plans of using an innocent girl while her wounds were still fresh had fallen through.
He'd only spoken to Chloe a few brief times over the summer. The fear inside of him that she would look too closely and be able to see through what he had planned had eaten at him until he couldn't visit her anymore. He had narrowed down their visits to short phone calls, letters written from her father, and the necessities she might need.
When the summer had ended and he had convinced her that Lionel had been the one to plant the bombs in her safe house, she had cried mostly. She'd leaned on him and sobbed out her pain.
It was a new sensation that had scared him even more. That he could even care that deeply for someone, that he had that emotion within him, an emotion that had been long dead since before Helen had come along, had frightened him enough to back away from her.
And one day when she had come to him with her fears when Lionel had been released from prison, he had turned his back on her. He had looked the other way when she had asked what was going to happen now. He'd told her that he couldn't protect her anymore, that she had to grow up, be the woman he knew she was.
It was that hurt in her eyes, that betrayal that had made her spine stiffen, that had hurt the most. He'd had his own worries, had needed his own pains healed and yet as he turned her down he felt her drift away. And he had thought it could only be for the good. As the beast inside him was calmed and he was no longer within reaching distance of Chloe, and could no longer doubt himself of whether or not he would use her.
He didn't want to use Chloe.
He didn't want to use another woman as he had used them all of his life.
But he had grown an appreciation for her. For her smile, her laughter, her tears.
And the appreciation had spread into something deeper. Something undefined. Something he had never acknowledged before. And he feared that something was love.
He came out of his reverie as a car door was slammed outside and laughter followed it. He got up from his chair and looked out of the colored panes of glass to stare down at the two figures embraced tightly. He could see from above the slight rocking motion to which they held eachother. And something that sounded like a strangled noise ripped from his throat as Chloe pulled back from his father and looked up into his face before placing her lips on the skin of his cheek.
Chloe placed a chaste daughterly kissed against Lionel's cheek and thanked him. "I'm glad we did this."
Lionel clasped her face gently between his hands and leaned down and kissed her forhead, then leaned his cheek against her hair, holding her tightly. "I will find out who sabotaged your safe house, Chloe."
Lionel could feel the eyes from above watching him and his lips turned down into a frown. And he had a pretty good idea just who had.
After watching Chloe leave, returning her wave to him as she drove away, he went back inside of the mansion, up the stairs and entered Lex's study without knocking.
Lex remained standing at the window, his hands on the stone ledges, his face bent down as if he could see the ghost of their embrace.
"What are you doing with her?"
Lionel moved into the room and stared at the back of Lex's head. "I could ask you the same, son."
Lex sucked in air through his teeth and turned around sharply to shoot a warning glare at his father. "You sick fuck." He reached for the nearest heavy object and threw it at the door behind Lionel's head, missing him by an inch. "Leave her alone."
His warning growl raised the hair on the back of Lionel's neck, but instead of showing his fear of his son, he arched a brow and narrowed his eyes. "I'll tell you what." Lex watched as Lionel moved around the room, pacing. "You don't tell me what I can and can't do with Chloe, and I won't tell her that you, her savior," he spat out the word, "rigged the explosion of her safe house."
Lex didn't widen his eyes, he wasn't surprised that his father had figured it out. He was expecting his father to rant some more but instead, Lionel turned around and smiled at his son. "It was a masterful plan, Lex." He chose his words carefully before he spoke them aloud. "However, Chloe is smart enough to know it wasn't me who tried to kill her." He walked to the doors of the study, wondering what Lex would throw next. "It's only a matter of time before she realizes what you did and what your reasons were behind it."
There was a perfectly plausible reason for what Lex had done, he was sure.
Lionel sighed heavily, letting the tension leak out of him that always seemed to settle in his bones when he was near Lex. He sometimes wondered if the roles had been reversed and if Lex had ever felt that of him. "If you just confided in her, Lex." Lex looked away towards the raging fire. "She would understand. You don't give her enough credit, son."
And with those departing words, Lionel left Lex alone in his study. To mull over their conversation. To find the words that would be spoken aloud later.
And Lionel knew, that the evil was spreading. And that Chloe, as the light, would have to intervene before long if he wanted to keep his son.