Chapter 23 - Talon

A couple of days after the incident with the masked bandits—who, according to the news, were arrested shortly after Clark left their apartment—Clark checked in with Lana to make sure Whitney was okay. He'd seemed pretty down when Clark had run into him at the shop. Lana said she felt helpless trying to help Whitney, but he was getting by—she had another concern on her mind. She'd tried to talk to Lex about restoring the Talon, where her parents had first met, and Lex had shot her down.

Clark almost offered to talk to Lex for her, but he stopped himself at the last second. No one was supposed to know about his friendship with Lex. Lana had seen them talking to each other once at the Beanery, and Clark had asked her to keep it quiet, but that didn't mean she knew they were friends. Some secrets were better left unspoken. So instead, he just suggested she make it a business proposal, and he even offered to help her with some of the research. He knew keeping the plant open was important to Lex, and that he'd probably be more practical than sentimental when it came to his investments—he took his work pretty seriously.

The next time Clark saw Lana, she was elated. She said she couldn't thank Clark enough for his suggestion. Clark felt like he was flying.

Clark planned to ask Lex if it would be okay for him to help Lana with setting up the Talon for a little while instead of coming to the mansion, but Lex beat him to it. They were putting a rush on the grand opening, and there was a lot of work to be done. For the next two weeks, Clark spent every day after school helping Lana at the Talon.

Ironically, the biggest obstacle to this was his dad, who was uncomfortable with the fact that Lex was involved with the Talon restorations. He didn't think Clark should be missing his internship for two weeks solid. Clark almost failed to hold back his laughter.

He mostly stayed away from Lex while he was at the Talon, since Lana's other friends from high school were usually around, and they all knew Clark. Lex looked pretty stressed, anyway, so Clark figured it was better to let him focus on his work. He wasn't exactly complaining about having the extra time to focus on Lana. She was clearly loving every minute of this—she positively glowed.

Clark wished he could help Lex, though. He really looked stressed.

Lex hadn't been sure about what it would be like to work with a teenager, but he decided to take his chances with Lana when he saw the sheer amount of work she'd put into the proposal for the Talon. It turned out to be more enjoyable than he expected. Lana was naive about quite a lot of things related to running a business, but they were the types of things for which he admired her innocence. She didn't know how to be cutthroat, and that kept him honest.

Honesty was something he wasn't used to. He expected it from his employees, and he gave it in return—up to an appropriate extent, of course—but his competitors lied through their teeth, the LuthorCorp board could be underhanded and manipulative, and his conversations with his father were nothing more than an ongoing game that they'd been playing since Lex was a child. But when it came to the Talon, Lex found himself playing by the book. It was good practice for his friendship with Clark.

However, his new resolution to honesty wasn't quite enough to get him to open up to Clark when he ran into Max Kasich. He didn't want Clark getting involved in anything related to that terrible night at Club Zero, and besides, telling as few people as possible would protect Kasich. Clark did ask why Lex seemed stressed, but Lex just muttered something about the plant.

He still kept his growing dread to himself when he heard that someone by the name of Jude Royce had applied for the assistant manager position at the Talon. He figured it was someone's idea of a sick joke. But when Kasich's hand showed up in a gift box at the Talon, addressed to Lex, he began to panic.

Kasich had claimed to have seen Jude Royce—they could be dealing with another shape-shifter, or worse. Something truly dangerous was going on. He wanted to tackle it alone, to protect anyone else, but dangerous could get out of hand fast in Smallville, especially if meteor rock was involved.

After they found the hand, Clark came to visit Lex at the mansion. "What's going on, Lex?" Clark asked the question as soon as he entered the study. "And tell me the truth this time."

Lex poured himself a drink. He tried not to drink too much while Clark was around, but he really needed it tonight. "The truth is, I don't want you getting mixed up in this. Some secrets are better left alone."

Clark was quiet for a moment, then he shook his head. "No."

"No, what?"

"Not this one. I'm not leaving this alone. Not until I know you're safe."

"Clark—"

"You know my secrets. So you know I can protect you."

"I don't want your protection. I want you to be safe."

"And I want you to be." Clark crossed his arms. "I want to help."

"Clark, whoever killed Max Kasich could come after you, too."

"Only if they know I'm your friend. How could they know that?"

Lex rubbed his forehead. There had been news reports about Clark saving Lex's life at the bridge. Weeks later, the cameras had caught a moment of Clark hugging Lex after the hostage situation at the plant. People who lived in Smallville knew the circumstances behind the encounters; someone from the outside might assume Lex and Clark were close.

"Look, whoever this is . . ." Clark winced. "If they are coming after me, the best thing you can do is let me know what to prepare for."

Lex took a deep breath. It was a story he'd never told anyone—Amanda's life depended on him keeping it secret. "Clark, you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

"Your secret's safe. I promise."

Lex swallowed hard. "Three years ago, I had this friend. Amanda Rothman. She was a nice girl—smart, pretty. I liked her. She was engaged to a lowlife named Jude Royce, who cheated on her every chance he could get."

"Wait, Jude Royce—the guy who sent in an application at the Talon?"

"That's his name." Lex took a deep breath. "Anyway. I didn't want to try to tell Amanda the man she loved was a worthless piece of trash, so I showed her instead. Found out where Jude was going to be, took Amanda out as a friend, so she'd see him there, with a girl on each arm. Then she'd know who he was."

"That must have been a shock to her. You didn't give her any warning?"

"No. I wanted to deal with the fallout myself." Lex didn't suppose it would be worth anything to explain to a fourteen-year-old that he'd only been nineteen at the time. He'd had this glorious image in his mind—thought Amanda would run into his arms, that he'd wipe away her tears, and over time, she might come to love him. "I . . . really liked her."

Clark raised his eyebrows. "Oh! That's . . . oh!"

Lex let out a short laugh without smiling. "Not that it's a side of me you'd have seen, but I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic."

"I wouldn't have guessed that."

Lex hoped Clark would never come to see that side of him. Hurting over Victoria in front of him had been embarrassing enough. "Well, anyway. Amanda sees Jude. She throws her engagement ring at him, storms out. I gloat a bit before following her out. We're trying to get through the crowds, and suddenly Jude comes up behind me and starts a fight. He pulls out a knife and stabs me in the shoulder, then I hear a gunshot, and I look back, and . . . Amanda's got a gun. She's killed him."

Clark's jaw dropped. "What happened to her?"

"She's okay, as far as I know. The cops showed up. This dirty cop who works for my father came to talk to me. I told him I killed Jude."

"Why?"

"To protect Amanda. If my father thought I killed someone, he would pay to have it covered up." Not that Lex had exactly escaped that without consequences—his father had been quite creative about punishment.

"So what do people think happened?"

"Well, if you ask the dirty cop, I killed Royce. If you look at the police report or the newspapers, Royce was killed by an accidental shot from a security guard, and I was never at Club Zero. The dirty cop told me I could never contact anyone from that night again. Not Amanda. Not the security guard, who was my friend, Max Kasich." Lex swallowed hard. "Then, the other day, Kasich shows up at the Talon saying he's seen Jude Royce. And Lana says a man by that name just filled out a job application for assistant manager at the Talon."

"Could—could he be another shape shifter? You know, a meteor mutant?"

Lex had thought about that possibility, though it was sometimes difficult to think rationally about anything having to do with Club Zero. "I don't know, Clark. All I know is, he's circling in. He attacked Kasich, then the Talon—if he has any idea we're friends, you might be next."

"Any chance they could know about my weakness?"

"I don't see how they could."

"Then I'm going to stay close by to protect you. Maybe I'll tell my dad I'm working late nights at my internship to make up for lost time."

"I'll pay you overtime."

Clark rolled his eyes. "You don't have to do that."

"Gotta keep up the cover." Lex smiled. "And if they do come after me—"

"I won't let anyone hurt you." Clark's voice went soft: "Not again."

Lex let his eyes fall closed. A big part of him still wanted to tell Clark to stay away. Lex didn't like the idea of Clark getting himself mixed up in this, but there was a good chance that Clark being on high alert would protect both of them. That alone made it worth it.

Besides, the only way to convince Clark to stay out of it would have been to refuse to tell him what was going on. In Lex's experience, secrets and lies only tore apart relationships. That was the last thing he wanted to happen with him and Clark.