Title: New Game.
Author: Lucy Mars
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I've got nothing witty to say.
Really, they don't belong to me, but I'll return them when I'm done.
Summary: It was a new game now. New rules. New players and new losers.
A.N: This is the sequel to "Surprise,
Surprise" that I've been struggling with for what feels like forever,
avoiding for awhile and now trying my hand at again. I hope it doesn't
disappoint. And yes, Louis will be making numerous appearances...cause he's a lovable
wanker.
Prologue:
The morning mist was thick and dark as it curled up from the ground and vanished into the sky. Beams of sunlight cut through scattered clouds and dissolved the patches of grey coating the sleepy town. The rising sun warmed the chill stirring through the soft breeze and made the morning air as pure as summer rain.
Hands tucked securely in his pockets he watched with softness in his eyes as she drew in the gentle scent of innocence and simplicity that encompassed her with remnants of the past. Turning her face up to the sky and its purifying sheen, he echoed her smile as she stretched her fingers to the sun. He watched her lovingly as she reached heavenwards to try and touch the warmth that would mirror the glow she was shimmering with. Standing silently, fearful of disrupting the peace he could see settle around her, Lex could feel the fear that he'd been carrying dissolve around them, as did the dew of the previous night.
His eyes drank in the glory of her emerald eyes, the crimson upturn of her lips and the golden luster of her silken strands. Ultimately though, they drifted to her stomach as her sweater rose with her exertion and exposed the swell of her stomach that both fascinated and terrified him. Every since he found out that there was a life growing inside of her he'd realized that the stakes were irrevocably raised. The happiness that they'd found together had been taken to an entirely different level and there was no going back. This was a new game now. There was a life that they'd created together to take into consideration, but the planning, the preparation and the mixture of apprehension and anticipation could be dealt with later. Right now, she was smiling up at the clearing sky and beckoning for him to join her with the warmth of her smile.
"I'd almost forgotten how beautiful it was here," she whispered as she leaned back against the firm chest that she could always count on to support her.
Wrapping his arms protectively around the two most important people in his life, Lex pulled Chloe's body back against his and held her securely as his fingers deftly found the small bump sneaking its way into his heart. "You'll be safe here," he murmured against her temple, "both of you."
Laying confident hands over Lex's explorative ones, Chloe tangled their fingers together. "We'll always be safe with you."
His fingers splayed beneath her sweater and encompassing the cluster of cells that had come to mean more to him than anything else in the world, save its mother, Lex closed his eyes against the brilliance of the sun. "I love you." he whispered raggedly, his voice hoarse with unshed tears.
"I know," Chloe assured him as she brought his free hand up to her lips and pressed a tender kiss into his palm, "We love you too, daddy."
Hot tears seeping past his closed lids, Lex held on tight as the blazing sunlight washed over them and blinded him with its intensity. He could feel the air change as fantasy gave way to reality and he was left alone with the truth. He couldn't protect them. He'd failed the two most important people in his life. He'd failed and now mother and child were paying the price.
Falling to his knees when the warmth of her love disappeared and he was left alone to face the biting chill of failure, Lex pounded his fists against the unrelenting ground and cried. He'd failed them both and there was nothing he wouldn't give to bring them back. Nothing he wouldn't trade to hold them both in his arms again.
Bolting up in bed, a mass of tangled sheets soaked with sweat and tears, Lex swore at the darkness that filled a room once full of love and comfort. His breathing erratic as his heart pounded furiously, Lex twisted the sheets that Chloe's scent still clung too in a vain attempt to still his trembling fists. The cool satin scorched his feverish skin and he relished in the pain. Pain was all he could feel. Pain was what reminded him of what he had and what he had lost. This pain though, as fierce and unrelenting as it was, would be nothing compared to the pain he would feel if he didn't find Chloe. If he could never hold her in his arms again, feel the life inside of her grow beneath his palm, he didn't want to live. He had no reason to without his family.
Shuddering uncontrollably at the mere thought, Lex forced his useless tears down into the abyss they'd come from and pushed himself out of bed. The shadows of the room shifted violently as he stumbled on legs that struggled to hold his body up with the little strength they possessed and braced himself for a fall that never came. His eyes finding the hand that had caught him before he could plummet to the ground, Lex looked up at the empathetic eyes that shone in the dark room. The sympathy that glimmered behind the power the man wore like a second skin should have looked out of place but it didn't. It fit as father looked down at son with a mixture of pity and sorrow.
Pushing his body to move, Lex pulled out of his father's grasp and stood with more strength then both of them knew he felt. Fighting the cobwebs littered throughout his mind, Lex wrestled with his heavy head to try and find the power to scrape together the words weighting down his tongue. "What are you doing here?"
"How do you feel?" Lionel questioned purposely ignoring Lex's question.
"Fine," Lex lied trying to scrape together his scattered thoughts and make sense of the feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. "Chloe," he breathed in realization. He'd been dreaming, yes, but he was living his nightmare. "Chloe, where's Chloe? Have there been any developments?"
"No," Lionel answered as he moved back to the chair he'd been occupying for most of the night. "You may want to sit down. The sedative I gave you won't wear off for another hour."
"Sedative?" Lex managed to get out as he collapsed back onto his bed. "How long have I been out for?"
"Six hours,"
Bolting back up onto unsteady legs, Lex swayed dangerously towards his father. "Six hours? How could you?"
Unfazed by the venom in his son's voice, Lionel stood quickly and pushed Lex effortlessly into the chair he'd been sitting in as he watched his son struggle with the demons haunting his forced slumber. "What would you have rather I done, Alexander? Let you run blindly through the streets screaming her name? You would be playing right into their hands…"
"I don't care," Lex shouted fighting against the lethargy of his muddle senses, "I could have found Chloe. I could have saved her by now."
His eyes vacant of disdain and tinted with pity, Lionel stood stolidly before his son. "How would you have done that, Alexander? You may be a Luthor but that doesn't make you Superman."
Swallowing hard as he tried to decipher the messages his mind was trying to process at his father's words, Lex roughly rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he pushed himself to stand. No, he wasn't Superman but he could make up for that.
"Lex," Lionel sighed as he grabbed his arm, "Where do you think you're going?"
"Three guesses," Lex snapped pulling out of his father's grasp.
"I forbid you,"
His laughter as dark as the shadows haunting the four corners of the room, Lex braced himself against the bureau that Chloe had insisted they buy because it had looked lonely in the store and stared incredulously at the man standing before him. "You forbid me? Will you also be issuing me a time out, father?"
Narrowing his eyes, Lionel easily closed the distance that Lex had put between them as he had dangerously weaved his away towards the door. "I don't want to lose my future daughter-in-law, Lex, but I will not lose a son. You are the Luthor heir. Do you understand that? You are my heir. I am not going to let you storm our here to play hero and get yourself killed."
"Why is my life worth more than Chloe's?" Lex demanded as his anger expelled the sleep from his veins, "How can you just brush her wellbeing aside for the sake of protecting your heir?"
Anger rising through his face now, Lionel let all pretenses of patience evaporate. "Don't be reckless, Alexander. Let my men do their work. They will find, Chloe."
"Before of after it's too late?" His father's silence the answer to his question, Lex blindly groped for the door handle that would bring him one step closer to finding Chloe.
"Don't do this, Alexander."
His back to his father, Lex took a shaky breath before telling him the news that had Chloe glowing mercilessly with excitement. She would be pissed at him for ruining the elaborate plan she'd come up with to break the news to the great Lionel Luthor but she'd come to forgive him. She always forgave him. "You need to protect your heir and I need to protect mine. It's a new game now, dad."
Left alone in a sullen room that was brimming with brightness and joy just two days ago, Lionel Luthor let his composure slip as he watched his son stalk down the darkened hallway. "God," he whispered for only the dead to hear, "Chloe's pregnant."
End of Prologue.
TBC.