"And?" he said suddenly when he realized that she had finished the story.
She began stacking up their dishes, "And what?"
"What happened?" he clarified.
"You saw the ID. I enlisted. There isn't much more to tell," she said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"I find it hard to believe that there is four years of you staring at a wall between that story and now," he was looking at her with raised eyebrows. She looked at him for a long moment. He watched a smile creep its way over her lips. It became so large that her teeth were showing. "What?" he asked.
She leaned towards him slightly, "You're – still not mad?" She didn't really believe it, "I didn't know if you would still speak to me…"
"I'm just – shocked, to put it mildly. If you were anyone else, I wouldn't believe you," he never took his eyes away from her. He paused for a second, "And you never have to worry about me not speaking to you." Did a Luthor just say that he was shocked?
She kept her eyes locked on his. Rhone imagined herself leaning over the table and kissing him lightly on his head as a way of saying thank you. She nodded, "I can deal with shocked."
Maybe he didn't understand the full extent of what she had said. Maybe he just heard what he wanted to and didn't understand the implications of it. She narrowed her eyes slightly, "I've -- killed people. You do realize that?"
He let out a light laugh, "I do realize what 'eliminate threats to national security' means."
She narrowed her eyes even more, "I still do that." She spoke those words very slowly.
He smiled wider and laughed a little harder than he had previously. "I saw the ID," he reminded her of what she had said moments before. He had held more questionable company, much more questionable. And he didn't believe that she would hurt anyone that wasn't, well, evil or didn't deserve it. He had felt that Clark aura of protecting the innocent since they had met. Hell, he himself had made sure that certain people had met with – certain destinies. At least she had the courage to do it herself… Although he had to admit, there was an indiscernible feeling that he had regarding the situation. What was that?
"Damn it," she said softly. He looked at her questioningly. She decided to elaborate, "That means that Griffin was right."
Lex thought quickly, "The person you were on the phone with in the field next to the plant?" She nodded. After a moment he smirked, "Which is why only your cell phone experiences static." She just didn't want anyone to overhear that conversation.
"You learn quickly," she stood.
He stood up and started to walk beside her. He was thinking of the few sentences he had heard when he brought her the water in the field, "Who is Gell?" He saw her flinch.
"I told you that he quit," she began, "The things I told you were true. I just changed a couple of the words to make it sound like I worked in an office."
"Did you ever even go to college?" he pieced together what information he had of the chronological events of her life.
"Not a day," she looked at him, "If you don't want me on this audit anymore…"
He stopped in the middle of the hallway, "The thought never crossed my mind. As a matter of fact, Diane tells me you are the best she has ever seen. So, how did you receive your training for this?"
She really didn't want to go into the details of how basically eliminating sleep from your life can open up hours of time for any number of endeavors, "I studied it off and on."
"Where did you go last week?" he had been wondering that ever since she had left.
She started walking again; she decided to lead their walk to her car. He knows, she told herself. It's OK. "…Hong Kong," she answered simply.
He hadn't been expecting that. Hong Kong was practically half way around the world.
"Well," she spoke before he could say anything, "I never actually was 'in' Hong Kong." He looked at her. "It – was on the news. At least that is what my men told me," she added.
Hong Kong about a week ago… He read the papers but… No way. He gave her a questioning look, "There was that warehouse…"
"That warehouse contained hundreds of gallons of deadly chemical weapons," she said flatly.
"The paper said it was an accident, some kind of chemical reaction," he said.
"Mr. Luthor, don't make me get that little work of fiction found in today's Smallville Ledger to show you that you can't believe everything you read. Or if you watched the television news, I'm sure you would have seen something just as inaccurate there as well," she gave him a sideways glance.
He gave an instinctual reaction, "I read that article in The Daily Planet, not some small town leaflet like The Ledger."
"And?" her one word had an obvious questioning tone.
"It's a respected paper. People do research …" he started.
"For someone who hates reporters, you sure put a lot of trust in the media," she said lightly. When she told him she knew there would be a slight period of – adjustment to the truth. People accept certain things and when they are found to be false, it can be a little – off setting. She remembered it was even slightly difficult for her to adapt to some of the new knowledge she had gained. But if anyone could do it, it was Lex.
He thought about what she said for a moment. He sighed slightly, but smiled when he saw the look on her face. It was a raised eyebrow you-know-that-I'm-right look.
"We do a lot of – work with some of the people at The Planet," she said.
He was oddly relieved that her statement no longer had any underlying meaning. He knew what she meant.
"Work? Are you on their payroll as well?" he joked.
She wished there was a way to tell him how grateful she was for how understanding he was. That he could just accept what she was and move on with only a lot of questions to answer was definitely a fair trade. And besides, in a way she liked that he was so interested in her…
"My organization has had a certain – rapport with a number of informational news sources for quite sometime," she informed him.