Chapter 13: Part 1

When Chloe woke up the next morning, she was immediately worked into a fit of blinding rage. The wave of gratefulness and affection she had felt the night before for Lex was gone. In it's place was the startling realization that Lex had purposely kept her daughter from her. Noble intentions or not, the facts didn't change.

She pondered all the things he had said to her while she was at the mansion. Alive. That stood out the most prominently in her mind. Something happened to her in the future that threatened her life. While she understood Lex was only trying to keep her safe, he hadn't thought her capable of handling the truth.

After everything Lex and his father had put her through, he should know her better than that.

Flinging the covers off, she was determined to show Lex Luthor exactly who he was dealing with.

…………………

"Okay, no more excuses. Tell me the truth."

Lex looked up at the sound of Chloe's angry voice. She looked ready to take his head off.

"Chloe, I thought we went through this last night." he said with a deep sigh.

"No, we went through your run-around version of the truth so I wouldn't really find out what's going on last night. No more. I want to know everything."

Chloe settled herself in the chair across from Lex's desk, crossing her hands in her lap, the perfect picture of attentiveness. Lex's heart ached painfully at the hurt in her eyes.

"Chloe, believe me, if there was anyway I could tell you I would."

"Just tell me why you thought I didn't have the right to know that your daughter is my daughter, too." she said.

"When I found out, the first thing I wanted to do was tell you. I thought you deserved to know. But she made me promise." Lex confessed.

Chloe let out a bitter laugh. "That's rich. She made you promise. When did promises mean anything to you?"

Lex's eyes hardened. "I take my promises seriously Chloe. You of all people should know that."

"Promise or no, you should have told me!" Chloe shot to her feet and glared down at Lex, breathing hard and flushed with anger.

"I couldn't!" Lex regretted instantly yelling at her. He never yelled. The sheer fact that Chloe could make him lose control enough to lose his temper made him realize that he had been right all along about his feelings for her.

Stalking over to the other side of his desk, Chloe glared daggers at him. "Chloe, your life is in danger." he said in a deadly calm voice.

She never thought he'd actually admit it. She had been expecting to have to practically beat it out of him. His eyes flashed briefly with pain, but she hardened herself against it. "And you didn't think that was something I should know about?"

The accusation in her voice was unmistakable. He rose slowly to his feet, towering over her small frame. "If you insist on getting yourself killed, I can't stop you. But I'm damn well not going to help you."

"I love you Chloe." he said after a beat.

"I don't believe you." she replied, never missing a beat.

Lex felt as though she had just punched him in the stomach. He'd just laid his heart on the line, something he had been avoiding his whole life, only to have her say straight out that she didn't believe him. It hurt more than he ever thought he could hurt.

"Why would I lie?"

Chloe shook her head, eyes full of pity. "I'm not saying your lying. But you don't know what love is. That's why I don't believe you. I don't think you can love me."

He whirled and sent everything on his desk flying to the ground. Chloe took a step backwards, not sure if he was entirely stable at the moment.

"How can you think that? After everything, how can you think I don't love you?"

She snorted. "Just what 'everything' are you talking about Lex? The trial? The safe house? You did that for you. I was just your means to an end."

The look in Lex's eyes sent a chill down Chloe's spine. She backed up, hitting the window behind her. He advanced on her. "You have no idea what I've given up for you."

"Like what? Lana?"

"Lana is insignificant. Just a means to an end." he shot her words back at her.

"Then what exactly have you given up for?"

Lex pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her. With a frown, she unfolded it and stared at the image. She felt as if her heart had fallen through the floor.

The picture had obviously been taken when she and Lex had no idea because neither of them were looking at the camera. Instead, they were both gazing down into a crib, matching looks of total contentment on their faces. Her hair was longer, pined up on top of her head, and her hands were entwined with Lex's wrapped around her waist flat on her stomach. She was leaning back against him, his chin resting on her shoulder. They looked peaceful and in love-with each other and the tiny occupant of the bed in front of them.

"Lena's showed me a few pictures. But that one, she dropped it one night. I don't think she ever intended for me to see it."

Chloe flipped the picture over to see her own handwriting on the back. 'The Luthors' scrawled in blue ink, faded with time, took her breath away. Below that were the names 'Lex, Chloe, Lena' and 'Photo by Gampy Gabe' in the lower right corner. Actual proof, undeniable fact from a future she knew she may never have.

Tears began to leak out of her eyes. She flung the picture away in frustration, closing her eyes to block the pain. "I hate you." she whispered. Looking up at Lex she repeated the phrase, louder this time. "I hate you. How could you do this to me?" she kept repeating it over and over, and began beating his chest with her hands, tears still falling.

Lex caught her hands easily. She struggled, still screaming at him, before collapsing against his chest in sobs. He let her wrists go, wrapping one arm around her back and placed the other on the back of her head.

"Why do I feel like this is the end?" she finally asked.

"I don't know." He hated lying to her, but hated more the idea of telling her that it was the end. That the picture she had just held in her hand reflected a moment that would never be. That they would never have that happily ever after.

"We are going to have that are we?" she asked softly.

If he weren't brokenhearted, Lex would have laughed at her ability to seemingly read his mind. She looked up into his eyes, pleading with him to tell her something different. Just waiting for him to tell her that they would get that moment in front of the crib.

But he didn't.

So Chloe placed her hands on either side of his face and pulled his lips down to hers. If she couldn't have forever, he could at least give her now.