Title: In Time

Author: Terri

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Smallville, it's stories, characters and everything else does not belong to me.

Spoilers: Major Reckoning and Lockdown spoilers.

Summary: "Lex is everything and without him she is nothing."

Authors Note: This is the result of watching the Reckoning clips (which hasn't aired in the UK, but I have no self control). Reviews completely welcome (actually encouraged), please review. Also, there is one more part to come.


When he tells her that he wouldn't lie to someone he loves she believes him. He has never lied to her. His hand runs up her arm and she yearns to touch his skin. When he brushes her hair and lingers there her eyes drift shut and she can't help but lean into it – savour it.

This is all she's wanted for a long time now. Lana can't remember when, or even why, she decided that Lex was better than Clark. She just knows that it's what she thinks. Clark lies to her, hides things from her and expects her to sit by patiently and wait for him. Lana tried that – time and again – eventually she got tired. Secrets and lies are not what she wants from life. Clark, it seemed, personifies them.

Lex was night and Clark was day. Although she thinks that Clark should be night, because secrets can hide in the dark. Either way, Lex, she knows has something darker in him than the wholesome farm-boy could ever imagine, but he tells her the truth. He sugarcoats things she is sure; he protects her from things and mostly she's thankful. Some days she begs him to tell it to her straight and he tells her everything she wants to know.

Leaning into his touch still – flames surrounding her (inside and out) – she knows what is coming next. Lana can feel it. This is what she has wanted and dreaded for as long as she has been with Clark (and longer). When Lex's lips touch hers she will burn, it will be everything she has ever wanted and she isn't sure she will be able to stop him.

Alcohol permeates the air and the thought that he is drunk flitters through her mind, before being replaced by the sheer bliss his kiss brings. For a second her arm moves to reciprocate, then Lex shot and bleeding is in front of her and she pulls away. Lex got shot trying to protect her.

She's gone before anything substantial can be said, Lex's apology floating behind her. Lex nearly died for her, she thinks that maybe he would die for her – willingly. It is what made her pull away. Lex is everything and without him she is nothing. If she gives in – let's the fire claim her – then when everything goes to hell (and it will) she will have further to fall.

Clark is invincible; he is expendable. Clark can love her and she can pretend. Safety is paramount with him and he has no-one gunning to kill him. Lex is everything she wants – all she's ever wanted since the day she first imagined her fairytale wedding and subsequent perfect life. He is her fantasy. Lana's reality is everybody but Lex.

She cannot decide which is worse: having him and losing him or never having him at all. There are moments – like the kiss – where all she wants to do is surrender. Times when she thinks that surely it must be better to be with him, to let him possess her. And in those moments she has never been happier. Until something – anything – pulls her back and she remembers how it felt when she thought he was dead. How her world ended and it hurt to breathe. Months of agony, heartbreak over Clark, devastation over Lex and that was all before she figured out that she loved him.

The pain is unimaginable. Lana decides she cannot take the risk. Yanking open her car door she resolves to forget it ever happened. When she barely survives the accident with the school bus and she climbs back into her car (telling Lex to forget to) his kiss still burns her lips and the fire is back. Only this time it's real, outside her car door dressed impeccably, waiting to consume her.

And it will; it is only a matter of time.