"You can't tell her."

Lex's face was a mask of shock. He shook his head, he couldn't have heard her correctly. "What?"

"Chloe. You can't tell her about this." Lena said simply.

"She was just here. She already knows." Lex argued.

"She knows I'm your daughter. She doesn't know I'm hers. And she can't." Tears began to gather in the corner of her eyes. She got up and walked around the room, desperate to keep him from seeing them.

"If you think I'm going to keep something like this from her…" Lex's temper was beginning to rise and he stood to follow her.

"Do you want her to die? Because that's what will happen!" Lena whirled and screamed at him. Lex felt his heart plummet through his stomach.

"What?" he whispered.

Lena groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, a gesture Lex had seen Chloe do many times. "I shouldn't have said that."

"You came here to save her." he stated.

"I came here to save you both." she corrected.

Lex sank into his desk chair. He felt as if he were slowly going out of his mind. 'I'll wake up and this will all be a dream.' he thought. Then he looked at Lena, arms crossed and scowling, the perfect mix of himself and Chloe and knew it wouldn't. "What happens that's so bad you had to come back?"

Lena nodded, glad to finally be getting through to him. She took the seat across from him, the one Chloe had sat in earlier. His mind flashed back to their brief kiss and his heart clutched painfully. "Do you know a David Buchannan?"

Lex searched through his memory for the name. "He's an accountant for Steele Corporations. I met him at the press conference. What does he have to do with this?"

"He's Warren Steele's son."

Lex shook his head. "Warren and Elizabeth don't have any children."

"David is the result of a fling he had in college. He never knew." she explained. His mother didn't think he'd believe her. Rich boy knocks up diner waitress, it's an old story. She never even told David, just left a letter when she died." Lena began gnawing at her bottom lip, letting Lex process the information, hoping he'd piece together the truth himself and she wouldn't have to say it. Saying it would make it real and she came here to stop it.

"So when I bought the company, he blamed me for taking away what he viewed as rightfully his." Lex surmised. "But I still don't see why the point of the Quantum Leap."

"He worked his way up in LutorCorp, became your Vice President." she took a steadying breath. She didn't want to have to tell him this. "He tried to seduce Mom. She slapped him and he hit her back. That's when you came in. You nearly killed him, would have if she hadn't stopped you. He disappeared after that. Two years later there was an accident. Her break line was cut, it was instant." A tear trickled slowly down her cheek.

"Why would he do that?" Lex said aloud, more to himself than to Lena.

"He thought if he could make her fall in love with him and divorce you, the two of them could take the company. Or at least his part." she said. "But he underestimated her love for you."

Lex's head shot up at her words. Love. Chloe's love. For him. Lena saw the swirling going on in his mind. Recognized the love for Chloe she saw, had seen it every day of her life. "You two were really happy."

"You wouldn't happen to have thrown a rock through my window would you?" he asked suddenly.

Her expression answered for her. "Why?"

"I knew if I didn't things would happen just the way they had before. I've spent the better part of a month trying to keep you two apart so all of that won't happen." she whispered, eyes fixed on her hands in her lap.

"If we're not together, you won't be born." Her plan was so illogical, it was akin to committing suicide.

"I know."

"Why would you do that?" Lex's heart was thudding in his ears. This was all so wrong.

"I knew my whole life that you loved me. Never doubted it. But Mom…she was your world. You absolutely adored her. When she died, it was like you died with her. All the good in you just evaporated. My Dad vanished completely, in his place was a man that told me he loved me over the phone but hardly saw me. Grandpa Gabe said it was because I reminded you of her, and it hurt you too much to be around me. So I figured if I changed it so you two never got married, you could have better lives without all the pain. Even if I were never born, you'd both be alright." By now tears were streaming down her face, her shoulders shaking with suppressed emotion.

Lex sat in astounded silence. He had done this to her. He had done irreparable damage to his daughter because he couldn't get past his own pain. Just like his own father. Yet she still loved him enough to basically kill herself to spare him pain. He couldn't comprehend the depth of that kind of love. "No."

Her head snapped up. "What?"

"I'm not letting you do this. I know what's coming now, I can protect Chloe. And you can go home. It will be different this time." he told her calmly.

Anger flared up within her. "You can't just dismiss me. Don't you get it? It's not something you can control. David is psychotic, he'll find a way to kill her because he knows it worse than killing you. You have to fix this now."

A matching fire was building within Lex. "I'm a Luthor. I can protect her."

"Being a Luthor does not make you God. You can't save her-that's why I'm here. I tried to go back and stop the accident. It didn't work. I even tried to kill David. This was my only option."

His anger died in his throat. She had tried to stop it before and couldn't. So she came here to prevent it. "You have to give her up." Lena said softly. Lex's eyes began to water. This couldn't be happening. He had worked too long for this, for Chloe's trust. He couldn't bear to lose her now.

"I can't" he whispered.

Lena walked over and knelt beside his chair. She placed her hand on his arm. "It's the only way. If you love her, you have to let her go now. Otherwise she's doomed."

The truth settling over him, Lex began to sob. His daughter wrapped her arms around him and held him while he released the anguished coursing through his veins. Her own tears fell, for her parents and the love she had just cheated them out of.

………………

"You've been avoiding me." Chloe's voice rang trough the study. It had been a week since Lena's appearance and she had kept her distance in order to give them space. She had been expecting Lex to call her, come visit, send a message through Clark. But nothing came.

Chloe had finally been forced to admit the truth to herself. It was over.

"No, I haven't. I've been…" Lex started, but she cut him off. "Busy?"

He smiled weakly. "I'm sorry. Lena's taking up a lot of my time."

"Where is she?"

"Upstairs. She never gets up before noon." he smiled despite himself.

Chloe noted his smile and felt her heart sinking. The joy Lex had found in having his daughter with him couldn't be missed. He obviously adored her already. "How long is she staying?"

Lex saw the pain reflecting in the eyes that were so like Lena's. The knowledge that she would never know her made him want to cry, scream, drown himself in scotch for the rest of his life. But he couldn't. He had to keep Chloe safe at all costs. "Until she finishes what she came here to do."

"Cryptic much?" Chloe snapped at Lex's curt tone. It was obvious he wasn't going to tell her. The realization stung. Lex had always confided in her, even when he couldn't confide in anyone else.

"Chloe, I think it would be best if you just let me handle this alone. I don't want you getting hurt." He fought the emotion threatening to break his voice.

"I knew this would happen." Chloe aid to herself as she stood to leave.

"You knew what would happen?"

Chloe took a deep breath and felt a migraine coming on. She pinched the bridge of her nose to halt it's progress. Lex winced a the gesture. "I knew you find something else to occupy your time and you'd forget all about me."

"You don't seriously think that?" he asked incredulously.

"What am I supposed to think? You've pursued me for months now. And as soon as I began to let myself be swayed by you, your daughter pops up from the future and now you don't have time for me. It's so typical. The universe just loves to jerk me around like this." The anger and hurt was radiating off her and Lex wanted nothing more than to ran to her and wrap his arms around her, make it all go away.

"It's not like that." he tried instead.

"Don't patronize me Lex, I deserve better than that from you." she laughed bitterly at the irony of the situation. "I was willing to give you time to deal with this, but now I see that waiting for you is pointless. I can't just sit around until you're bored enough to resume your little game. I'll just end up alone again with a broken heart and I won't do that again."

"Chloe, I'm…"

"Don't." she snapped. "I'm done with this. Have a nice life Lex." She turned and stormed out of the room, tears falling as she hurried out of the mansion. Once in her car, she couldn't stop them. She sobbed brokenly into her hands, the feeling that her life was altered taking over her. Lex was the past now and she had to move on.

………………

Lex stood numbly in the same spot Chloe had left him. Lena walked in, having heard their conversation from the hallway. She wrapped her arms around her dad and held on tight, knowing he needed her now. For the second time in as many days, he broke down in his daughter's arms.