Guh, hey guys. I've risen from the dead yet again. I gotta admit I struggled with getting this chapter out (obviously). But I've been wrestling with the idea of following canon, and the more I struggle, the more I feel like I just want to ignore most of the events, and just do whatever I want.
If I do, hopefully that won't turn you all off! But in the meantime, hopefully you aren't too disappointed with this quiet chapter.
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Peyton pulled slowly to a stop in the driveway and turned a smug grin to Lex who returned the look with a humoring bemusement.
"And that's how it's done," she said. "Not one ticket the entire ride. I know it's a crazy concept."
"I'm an excellent driver." Lex argued. "Barring the incident on the bridge. And there were extenuating circumstances."
It was a relief to finally be well enough to hurry out and get her driver's license. Or, at least, a license for this universe. Already being a regular driver made passing the driving test a breeze, and she couldn't help but feel a bit smug at the way she parallel parked without hardly thinking and got to watch the DMV employee grip the chair in apprehension.
But the mention of the bridge sent a brief twist in her gut. Her fingers twitched before she stopped herself from reaching up to touch the spot on her head where the bruise was. She swore, sometimes, that she could picture Clark's face through the windshield as they careened over the side.
But that obviously was some hallucination. A false memory induced by the trauma of the crash. Because Clark was alive and well. Still. She didn't like thinking about it much, so she didn't.
They stepped out of the car and Peyton stretched an arm over her chest as she breathed in the fresh air. Her headaches and eye strain were mostly gone and now she could drive, legally, and it felt good. It made her feel like she could start taking steps forward instead of being stuck living in a weird sort of limbo.
"I do think the guy at the DMV was a little suspicious of me though." She said to shift the conversation. "You should have seen his face when I parallel parked without even thinking about it. He asked me several times if I'd never gotten a license before."
She laughed and Lex grinned.
"You're an heiress in a small, country town," he said. "He was going to be suspicious of you no matter what."
Peyton rolled her eyes and followed him as he headed for the mansion.
"I'm not an heiress."
"It doesn't matter what you weren't in your dream world." He argued back. "Here, you're Peyton Woods, heiress to the Woods corporate enterprise."
Lex opened the front door and stood back to let her pass first. She shot him a sharp glare as she passed by him, something in her prickling at his choice of words.
"It's not a dream world. It's my world. And I will get back."
He held up a hand in acquiesce but she saw the look on his face. He didn't believe her. Peyton wasn't sure if it was concerning her world being real or that she'd get back to it, but either option irked her. She stiffened and jutted out her chin as she passed him, intent on not letting his opinion sink in. Of course, she hadn't forgotten that he could be irritating. Or just the tad bit selfish. Even if she wasn't going to hold his past actions against him didn't mean she was going to forget.
"Hey, I believe you; I'm sorry." Lex trotted up to fall instep with her. "You just have to adapt your thinking a little if you don't want to draw people's attention. That's all I'm saying."
She swore there was a hint of amusement to his words, and she cut her eyes to look at him. Definitely a sparkle to his eye.
"Hm."
They found themselves back in the large office room and it seemed to be the regular gathering place. Peyton supposed it could be considered a living room, though the desk in the middle of it would always be a little unusual.
She swung her purse over onto the nearest couch and sighed as she grabbed the laptop left sitting on the coffee table.
"Found a job you wanted yet?" Lex prompted as he watched her.
Peyton's heart sank a little and she kept her chin up despite the instinct to duck down. Either the places she'd applied to were filling up quickly, or they weren't paying nearly enough. For cutting edge doctors, scientists, it was going to take significant cash; and she wasn't willing to make Lex fork out the payments for it.
She wasn't going to owe anyone. Use anyone. Least of all him.
Except.
She still needed a decent job.
Peyton rolled her shoulders, her only display of discomfort, and she opened a browser to go through the motions of searching again.
"No." She said simply.
Lex moved over and dropped down next to her, casting a speculative look at the job search site she had pulled up.
"Yikes." He said, tone bemused. "Sounds like slim pickings."
"Smallville is certainly living up to its name."
They were playing a game and Peyton was loath to acknowledge it. She would waste her time searching for a job that didn't exist, going through every effort to avoid the simple option given to her. And the entire time Lex would wait for her to exhaust her limited resources only to be ready to remind her the PR position was still on the table when she gave up.
She didn't want his money. She didn't want the whispers that would come with people believing she was his girlfriend and getting a decent position through nepotism. Nepotism or worse.
The people of Smallville already weren't fond of Luthors. She wasn't entirely sure how they felt about the Woods family, but they were probably wary of them as well.
The Woods family who also had money. And who were her supposed parents here.
Peyton sat up and snapped the laptop closed. Lex blinked in surprise, his look turning shuttered and suspicious as she looked at him brightly.
"I just remembered dear ol' mom and dad." She said.
Lex leaned back; confusion flashed across his face before he frowned.
"You think they're going to give you a job?"
"Why not? I'm their heir, right? You said so yourself."
She jutted her chin and gave him a challenging smile, but he continued to look less than convinced that her new idea would be successful.
"Your parents have a trust fund for you," he said. "But I hardly think they're going to be willing to give you a working position. Remember how I said there is no 'other' Peyton? When you weren't...here, your stand-in could hardly function. Let alone make decisions to help run a company. "
"Things have changed. I'm here now and it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere without help. So, even if I have to prove myself to them, they can't outright deny me if I'm showing initiative."
The laugh he let out was genuine and Peyton raised a brow as he continued to grin in bemusement at her.
"I admire your optimism." He said. "Your father was always more humoring than mine is. Maybe he'll give you a chance to step up to the plate."
She let herself smile at him then. It was a relief that he wasn't going to argue about it. As much of a convenience, and despite how interesting a challenge, being PR for Luthor Corp. might have been, it didn't sit well with her. And it would probably end up backfiring as Smallville residents complained about that nepotism. Or the worse.
"I'll have to give them a call and start trying to convince them some time today," she said.
Lex stood in one smooth movement and walked to his desk across the room. Peyton wondered if what she said had irritated him in some way. It seemed like he started moving around if conversations didn't go the way he liked.
"I'm sure they'll be thrilled that you initiated conversation for once."
Peyton frowned.
"Is she really so strange? The… other, 'not' me? The picture you have of her is a bit strange, I'll give you that, but- Susceptible to suggestion? Empty? How would she even be alive when I wasn't here?"
"Do you want to see the video?"
Her stomach flipped and Peyton paused. It would be good to know. Good to know that Lex wasn't lying about the Other Peyton and good to know how to act if Lionel came back around. But the build up made her feel like something truly terrifying, wrong, was on the video.
Of course, Lex could also have just been being dramatic. He did have a penchant for that.
Peyton twisted her lips and then straightened.
"Yes." She said. "I think I would."
Lex tilted his head in acknowledgment and reached for his laptop. Peyton stood as he went through the process of finding the stored files. A dated video player popped up on screen and Peyton had to remind herself that it was currently the latest available.
He hit play and she crouched over his shoulder, eyes intent on the screen.
The setting looked to be some sort of private office, there were quiet sounds from within the room, footsteps, and then a man in a lab coat walked into frame. He checked a chart on a clipboard and then waved someone over from off screen. Peyton watched herself walk into view and loiter in front of the man. He motioned to the exam table before him, and the Peyton cocked her head to the side as if confused.
"The table" The man prompted.
"Uh, yeah." The Peyton said. "Ha. A table."
There was an emptiness to her voice. Just to the left of ditzy. It was enough that you could convince yourself that was all she was, but it still rang too hollow.
"Please have a seat on the table." The man said.
"Yeah, I can sit on the table."
Peyton shifted next to Lex as they watched. It was so disconcerting to see herself on camera but know it wasn't actually her.
"So she's a little dumb." Peyton tried to rationalize. "Or, I don't know, has a sort of condition. She still has to be someone. Or else, who's talking? Moving? Otherwise she'd be in a coma."
"Doctor's said it was akin to something like rudimentary functions. Things to keep the body alive and functioning."
"That still doesn't make sense."
"But there it is."
Peyton frowned. The doctor on screen shined a flashlight in the Peyton's eyes and she didn't flinch. He then had to go through several explanations of how he wanted her to follow the light with only her eyes before she finally followed his very specific directions.
Peyton winced.
"Okay. I'll admit it's weird." She said. "Still."
Lex wordlessly handed her a scan from the pile of paperwork he'd originally given her, still on his desk, and Peyton looked over it. In the corner was an image of what a typical "healthy" brain would look like while a person spoke. Several different patches of the brain were lit up, Peyton assumed, depending on how the person was recalling information or processing information. The scan of her brain, in contrast, was largely gray and dark.
"The part that's lit up is the part of the brain that manages subconscious functions. Breathing, organ functions, cellular repair."
The room was quiet. Peyton stared at the scan, trying to understand. Trying to process what Lex was saying to her. If she didn't know him in the slightest, and she knew she still didn't know him well enough, she'd say it was a prank. Or that the scan was faked.
But the doctor who had examined her seemed genuinely surprised at her speaking. There was this video. The fact that Lex was a responsibility saddled corporate heir who had no clue if she'd even ever show up in his life again.
The dedication it would take to lie to her about something like this would be insane.
"So, what you're trying to tell me is that talking, interaction, is just- what? Operating under the subconscious' control when I'm not here? That the body is considering it a basic life function?"
"Enough to keep the body moving." He agreed. "I understand that it's a lot to process. And like I said before, we're in unprecedented territory here. But the bottom line is that there's nothing to feel guilty about. You alone are Peyton."
Her jaw ticked to the side and she walked away from Lex and the laptop. She needed some space. All together, she wasn't sure which was worse. That she could have been taking over some other girl's body or the fact that there was no other girl in the first place.
"The doctor's said they've never seen this before?"
Lex caught her eyes and his gaze was heavy, intent. Peyton thought he could undo people with a focus and attention so direct.
"They haven't."
She pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth and forced herself to take a deep breath.
"That means I'm starting with nothing, then. Just the bits that they were able to scrape together from your tests. It could- it."
She didn't want to say it. That it could take years. Years of research. Of probing. Of figuring out just how she'd managed to slip her consciousness into a body that wasn't technically hers, even if it was a husk.
Or was it a husk because she'd forced her way into it?
The thought made her feel ill. Peyton clamped her teeth together and wrapped one arm around her waist and pressed the fingers of her opposite hand against her lips. Lex stood and he frowned in something like sympathy as he made his way over to her.
"Hey," he said. "It's going to be okay.'
"No, I know. I'm alright. I'm just thinking."
"I'm going to help you."
He took her hand in his and Peyton watched as his hands covered her own. She loosened the tension in her fingers and hoped he couldn't feel the stress she tried to bury somewhere in her bones.
"Whether you take the job at Luthor Corp. or get one with your parents, I'll be here."
He kept reiterating that. His consistency. His loyalty. Peyton appreciated the sentiment; she did. Generosity and loyalty were traits in a person she greatly admired, but she couldn't figure out the reason he would be so dedicated to her.
"Why?"
Lex blinked and furrowed his brows.
"Why?" He parroted.
"Why do you care so much? You know so little about me; you've only met me a couple times. Why put so much effort into this? Into helping me?"
She expected him to pull back at her questioning, or maybe get irritated at the implications. But instead he let the question sit a moment.
"Because," he finally said. "Whether you realize it or not, you were there for me in moments I needed you. You didn't care who I was. And for all your kindness to me, I betrayed you. For that I'll always be sorry. But you showed me what a friend could really look like, and I'd like to be that for you."
Peyton swallowed.
"Oh."
She hadn't expected something quite so candid. Peyton rolled her tongue in her mouth and broke eye contact.
"Well." She said with a clear of her throat. "Alright. I'll allow it."
Lex laughed. Again she noted how much more she liked him smiling than sullen and stressed.
"Good to know I have your blessing."
[[L.L.]]
She was stubborn. It was a trait Lex was growing fond of even as it irked him. If anyone else put so much effort into denying his job offer, he would have been offended. Assumed it was because they found him and his father's company so evil they didn't want any association with it. But Peyton was so dogged in trying to be as unobtrusive and unburdensome as possible, he couldn't be mad about her seeking other options.
Miffed, perhaps, but not mad.
She really would do well in public relations.
Lex looked over the factory's infrastructure and budgeting as Peyton meandered about the manor, straightening things as she went about the room, and worked up the nerve to call her parents.
Though he noticed she still avoided calling them that.
The quiet sounds of another living person, murmurs and hums and footsteps, filled the silence of the manor in a way Lex didn't expect. He'd been prepared to live in the large house alone. The hired help there for cleaning and the Peyton imposter didn't count as any sort of companionship. Having the real Peyton around, it made his banishment to Smallville feel not quite so desolate.
He focused his attention back on the factory reports. His father had beaten him in the fencing match, but Lex didn't plan on submitting to the terms. Layoffs weren't an option. Not while he was in charge.
There was some wiggle room in the operational budgets. If they shifted some numbers around and cut some spending, found some more favorable suppliers maybe, he could make something work. It was risky, but doable.
It would just mean another personal visit from his father.
Visits from his father would be even more of an issue now that Peyton was actually there. He wasn't lying when he told her he'd like to keep his father as much in the dark as possible. Despite their families long friendship, he didn't put anything past his dad.
Permanent, the doctor said. Most likely permanent. He shouldn't be so happy about it, but he was. It was selfish. He had a feeling Peyton would rub that point in, which was why he didn't plan on expressing the thought. But he was. Absolutely relieved.
Everytime she left, it felt like he lost a little bit of himself as well.
Maybe she didn't understand it, but he needed her more than she needed him. He'd help her in whatever way he could, of course. He owed her that much. But he didn't have to hope for any success.
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Peyton's finger hovered over the call button on her blocky cell phone. There were only a few contacts listed and one happened to be "Parents". From the video, she wasn't sure how they'd respond to her suddenly, well, thinking. But if she wanted to start on the path to working, she had to call.
She took a deep breath and hit the green button.
The phone rang for several long moments. Long enough that Peyton wondered if anyone would be available to pick up. But the phone finally connected and Peyton bit her lip as a woman answered.
"Yes?"
"Hi… mom." Peyton said. "It's me. Peyton."
"Oh, Peyton darling. You're doing well, aren't you? Is Lex there?"
Peyton briefly scrunched her face. She had to sound more sure of herself. The hesitations were only compounding the idea that nothing was out of the ordinary.
"No." She said, her voice more distinct. Firm. "He's in a meeting right now, I think. I actually wanted to talk to you about something."
There was silence on the other end of the line. Peyton frowned.
"You're sure you're alright? Nothing's happened?" Her mother prodded.
"No. Everything is fine. Or, well. It is now. I suppose I should let you know I was in a car accident. But I'm actually calling because I'd like to start working in-"
She was cut off by some muffled movements over the receiver and the distant sound of the woman calling out.
"Samuel! Samuel, come here! Peyton called. No," she said in response to whatever he asked. "She sounds quite active."
Peyton let out a huff and waited as movement on their side settled down. The phone jostled, or was set down, and then Merrill's voice was more tinny and distant.
"Your father's here too, darling." She said. "Say to him what you said to me."
"The part where I was in a car accident or the part where I would like to start working at Woods Industries?"
There was another brief hesitation.
"A car accident." Samuel said.
Peyton bit the nail of her thumb. It was obvious they did notice something was unusual. And maybe that would be the final nail in the coffin. If people who were supposed to be her own parents were blown away by the mere fact that she was calling them and making statements, then there couldn't be much to the other Peyton at all.
"A truck dropped part of its load while we were driving over a bridge into Smallville," she said. "Lex tried to swerve around it, but it all happened too fast. We- ah. We went over the side."
She could still swear she saw Clark's face, stretched wide in shock and fear as they barreled into him and over the water. It made her feel queasy and anxious to think about. Even though he was fine. Even though they had to have missed him.
He'd be dead otherwise.
Her breath hitched as she remembered the brief glance of water. The overwhelming helplessness and terror as they dropped and there was nothing they could do.
She cleared her throat.
"But we're both okay. A local boy fished us out and I really only got a concussion."
The mention of the concussion was purposeful. In any other case involving people not really her parents, she would have glossed over it. But they were spooked by her new personality, and she hoped that they would take the concussion as the reason for her new liveliness, and not the fact that she was a new person altogether.
"Over a bridge!" Merrill shrieked. "A concussion! Peyton, Lex should have called us immediately! Where is that boy?"
"Merrill," Samuel said. "Peyton is answering questions." He sounded a bit flustered by that, but Peyton appreciated him trying to reign in the focus either way.
Lex walked back into the room and it momentarily distracted her. He gave her a smirk and raised his eyebrows, almost taunting her with a look that asked her, "so? How's it going?"
She wrinkled her nose at him.
"That's not why I called though. I know in that past I may not have been the most… responsible, but I want to be better. I'd like a chance to prove to you that I can hold a position in the company."
Another thick silence settled. Peyon gave them a moment to process her request. Obviously they weren't just going to give her a corner office with a window, and she was prepared to argue for them to let her have even an entry level position to start.
'I understand your hesitation, of course." She continued as the silence stretched. "I haven't exactly shown any interest in working before. But, I feel different now. I want to be better."
"Does Lex know about this?" Merrill asked.
Peyton frowned in insult.
"And what if this is just a passing fancy?" Samuel cut in.
She decided to focus on that question instead.
"I can assure you it's not, but I completely understand the uncertainty. I would be willing to accept whatever position you offered me to prove myself in."
To Peyton's surprise, and relief, her ploy actually worked. Merrill hummed and mumbled in the background in what sounded like disbelief, but Peyton wasn't overly concerned with what the woman thought.
Samuel proved himself to be more reasonable, and more generous than Peyton would have expected. Seeing as how she was currently in Smallville, and not entirely able to commute for the couple hours drive it would be back into Metropolis, he promised to set her up with a position overlooking correspondence that she could do offsite.
When she brought up the question of payment, he actually laughed.
"You are my daughter, aren't you?" He said. "You'd like to prove yourself, but not for free."
"I'd just like to avoid getting you in any legal trouble, really."
He caught the slyness in her voice and laughed again.
"I'll pay you what's on the job listing.
"I'll take it."
Peyton couldn't help the satisfied smile on her face as she hung up the phone. She shoved the phone in her pocket and clapped her hands together.
"That's settled." She said.
Lex stared intently at her yet again; his lips twitched and he leaned back in his office chair.
"Congratulations," he said. "You look very proud of yourself."
"I am. I have a license, a job, and a personal reputation still intact. I consider that a successful day."
"To be honest, you might have made the better move. My father is sure to be irate when he realizes my plan for cutting costs at the factory. I have a feeling he'll be back for another visit."
Peyton sat down in one of the office chairs across the table from him, brows raised.
"Oh?"
"I'm going to cut the operating budget instead of the workforce."
That gave Peyton pause. It was a bold move, to be sure. It could sink the factory faster than cutting workers if it ended up being the wrong decision. But if it worked, Lex would be one step closer to being a respected boss and leader. At least the people of Smallville wouldn't be able to say he didn't try.
It would, of course, mean some serious number crunching either way.
"You think it's a mistake."
Peyton shifted her focus back to Lex and his scrutinizing gaze. Her own expression furrowed.
"Not at all," she said. "I was just running through outcomes. I think given the situation it's a smart choice. Risky, obviously, but smart. And I don't understand why your dad would give you this plant to run if he wasn't going to let you learn from it. He shouldn't be mad when you're doing what he asked."
"I believe the implication was that I follow orders like a good son."
Peyton hummed. The last thing she felt like doing was letting Lex's dad sully the rest of their day when he wasn't even there.
"Are you busy?" She asked.
Lex tipped his head back in suspicion, though he looked to be willing to humor her.
"It's nothing I can't put off a bit longer. Why?"
She pushed herself out of the chair and twisted her hair into a bun at the back of her neck.
"We haven't made cookies in awhile and I'm craving something sweet."
