He opened the front door to the mansion and observed her always-present pause when he did so. It was like she never expected it, even though he did such things for her at every opportunity he had. He thought the world was an unjust place; undeserving women like Victoria Hardwick were recipients of politeness and chivalry just because they were wealthy or promiscuous, while worthy women like Rhone Chade were left to feel unwanted because they were strong and unconventional. Yet, a part of him secretly relished in the fact that he was the only one who treated her this way. Did she find it – appealing? She had never told him to stop…
They walked in the direction of her car. "Are you leaving so soon?" he asked.
"I hadn't planned on it," she began, "Did you have something you needed to do?"
He was relieved, "Nothing."
"Are all billionaires so – insipid?" she asked lightly, a smile creeping onto her face.
He returned her slight smile, "Not everyone can save the world everyday."
"You never did answer my question," she started. He tilted his head and looked at her questioningly as she opened her trunk. "Do you think that a woman can be a hero?" she didn't make eye contact. She was getting her portfolio out of the trunk.
There was no response to her question. She grabbed her portfolio, straightened, and looked at him. He was just looking at her. He broke his gaze long enough to turn and close her trunk with one hand. Then he took a small step towards her and looked into her eyes, "Now I do."
"Is this a recent development?" she asked as she moved to put the portfolio over her shoulder, but maintained the gaze.
His nod was so small that it was almost imperceptible. Lex held out his hand to take the portfolio from her. "You don't have to…" she started.
He continued to hold out his hand with a look on his face that said he didn't have to carry it in, but he was going to. She hesitantly gave it to him; it wasn't her artists' tube, but she still wasn't used to people doing stuff like that all the time. When she was back on base, she was one of the guys. They didn't treat her differently because she was a woman -- usually.
They began to walk back toward the mansion. Another question found its way to Lex, "Where is this – secret base?"
She chuckled, but when she looked at him she realized that he was serious. "You have to realize, Mr. Luthor, there are some things that I just can't talk about; hence the phrase 'secret base," she said with an honest look on her face.
"I assume that if I asked your real name, I would get a similar answer," he said dryly. They looked at one another. He didn't look angry, more like disappointed – possibly sad. She felt a pang of guilt.
"At least before I told you something like that, I would tell you that it didn't matter," she started. He looked at her as he opened the door for her. "I have been Rhone Chade for a long time. I am her," she finished.
"Then what does it matter if you tell me who you – were?" he said after a moment.
She put a foot on the first stair to go toward his office. "There is an office building in Metropolis where no work gets done," she said vaguely.
"From my experience, that is the situation in most office buildings," Lex quipped as they ascended the stairs.
"Well, this office doesn't even pretend to do anything," she smiled. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "It's empty, except for one phone. No computers, no desks, no mailroom clerks, no office workers, no janitors, no one -- nothing," she said.
"That sounds like quite a waste," he didn't know what to say to this odd little anecdote.
She noticed that he didn't see where this was going. "I work there," she paused for a moment and corrected, "She works there."
"I thought you said that no one works there," he pointed out.
She began to explain, "When I joined the E.I.F. and officially became Rhone Chade, my old identity had to go somewhere. Just like the identities of all of the people I work with had to go somewhere."
"Why don't you just forge some death certificates and make your new identities? You obviously can," he observed.
She continued her clarification, "Because sometimes, we're lucky enough to get back to them."
"Lucky enough to get back to them?" he was furrowing his brow at her.
She didn't really mind talking about it, but it was kind of depressing in a way. "If you live to see retirement, you might need work experience to get a different job or a place to live. So you act like you have worked in that empty office for the time that you were an Elite. And I think there is something sentimental in it for a lot of people, pretending to have had amnesia when you return to your family or the people you knew."
Did she just say, "If you live to see retirement?" Lex realized what his earlier feeling was that he couldn't identify. The realization of how dangerous her job really was settled in on him. She could get hurt or – die at any time. He set his jaw and looked at the floor; for some reason, he felt nauseated. She said that Bishop guy was in his 50's… "How old do you – do Elite Independent Forces have to be before they can retire?" he had to ask.
"Don't think that they have you for life or anything. You can leave anytime you want once you're out of the red," she saw the look on his face.
"The red?" he questioned.
"More of that government bull shit we all know and love," she said, "It's a standardized formula, the government spends X amount of dollars to train and make ready a functioning unit – a soldier. As you know, spending money without any return is a debt, a subtraction. And if all you had were subtractions, in an accounting book it would be underlined or written in red. When you have made or worked off the amount that they sunk into you, and any other expenses, you are out of the red. Once you start turning a "profit" then you are in the black, in the positive."
"But you get paid," he commented.
"Even common soldiers get paid, it doesn't effect your equation," she said matter-of-factly. "We just get paid – more," she added.
"Are you – in the black?" he had to know. Maybe he could convince her to take up a safer profession.
"In my line of work, that is the equivalent of asking someone his or her age," she said with a grin as she entered his office.
"You don't seem like the type that would be offended buy a question like that," he replied.
"I'm not, I was just commenting," she finished, "And yes, I am in the black."
"How long does it take to get out of the red?" he asked.
"Are you looking for a new job, Mr. Luthor?" she smiled widely as they sat at the table in the room adjacent to his office. That was the second time she had asked him that, maybe he was unconsciously in the job market.
She observed that they sat in the same seats they had the first and last time they were in this room working on the comic book. Human beings are creatures of habit, making them predictable – a dangerous thing for someone like her. She observed the small distance between them. She briefly closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and silently, concentrating on his scent. Some habits were definitely worth flaunting with predictability for.
She watched his smooth hands unclasp the portfolio and begin to take out its contents.
Lex realized what he was doing, and turned around to see her watching him with a faint smile. "I didn't mean to…" he began sliding the portfolio over to her.
"To what?" she looked at him, slightly confused.
"I just started going through your things," he gestured to the portfolio.
"Our things," she said with an encouraging smile, "We're partners." She slid the portfolio toward him so it bumped his hand.
His heart jumped. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to reach out to her and pull her close to him. The things she said to him made him feel – wanted, like he meant something to someone. It had been so long since he had felt like that.
The only thing that he could do was smile. If only he could just tell her what she meant to him, what having her there meant to him.
She couldn't really read his expression. She got the feeling like she should be catching more than just a smile, but she couldn't tell.
He withdrew a piece of paper from the portfolio and stopped to look at it. "I like this," he said, not taking his eyes off of it.
"I was going to run that by you, a little subplot that I thought might add something," she looked at it as well. "I made some notes on the other side," she gestured toward the paper.
Lex turned it over and there was quite a lengthy description of what was happening on the front. He started reading it when he heard a familiar soft ringing. He watched her reach for one of her cargo pockets.
Shit. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and looked at the display screen. She looked up at Lex to see him gesture with a slight nod to take it. She pressed the button and with a barely audible sigh said, "Rhone Chade."
He realized that any call she could be getting could be really important. He definitely didn't want her to leave again, but it could mean the difference between a disaster and helping hundreds, maybe thousands. It was the least he could do – right?
"What happened?" Griffin's voice asked.
"Griff, what do you mean?" she said into her cell phone.
Lex looked up at her. She talked to this guy a lot. Whenever she was on the phone, it seemed like it was always with him. He thought about asking her about him when she was done talking.
"With Lex Luthor, what happened?" Griff asked again.
She paused for a moment. She stole a glance at the subject of their conversation. "…Nothing," she said.
"Nothing?" he questioned. From the tone in his voice, she could tell he didn't believe her. "…Where are you?" he asked after a small pause.
"Is this what you called me for?" she asked flatly. She heard someone say something in the background on Griff's end of the line. Then there was another pause.
"…You're there," he said softly but she could tell he was still grinning insanely. She looked at the watch on her wrist, damn it all.
She stood and began to step away from the table. Lex looked up at her. The last time this happened she was gone for more than four days.
She held up her index finger to imply that she wasn't going anywhere. In a way, she wished that she were. Even though he couldn't hear the whole conversation; she was feeling slightly embarrassed about the whole situation. Her? Embarrassed? Her eyes remained on Lex. No, she didn't wish at all that she were going anywhere. "If you were going to do that," she began, "Why didn't you just do it in the first place? -- Who else is there?"
"Just a couple of the guys…" he said vaguely.
"How many is a couple?" she asked more specifically. She was a little more than slightly alarmed that more people were – involved in this conversation.
He thought about lying to her, but realized that if she tried hard enough that she could just figure it out on her own. "Including me?" he asked.
Lex saw her posture change into one of slight irritation. He wondered what they were talking about. He wondered if he was actually listening to a conversation that involved saving the world.
"Including you," she said in a moderately mocking tone.
There was a pause, "Twenty-five. But they're all busy; none of them are paying any attention."
Instantly, she turned her back to Lex. "You devote our resources to things like this while I'm away?" she said in a firm but soft tone.
"Stop trying to avoid the subject, what happened with the billionaire? Did you tell him?" the last part was said in a voice that spoke genuine concern.
God, she wanted to turn and look at Lex. It bothered her that he was there and she couldn't admire him. She figured that if she turned around, he would figure out that he was the topic of the conversation. Lex was a smart guy. She started to walk toward the door. "Yeah," she answered Griffin's question.
"Holy shit. I didn't think you would."
"What does that mean?"
"It means – well, lets not kid ourselves here. You've never trusted anyone that much," he said.
"I know," she said simply with a sigh. She was in Lex's office and could allow a little more of her emotions to reach the surface.
"What did he say?" he asked interested.
Rhone thought about it for a moment, "Nothing really."
"Nothing?" he questioned in a disbelieving tone.
"Not really. He just wanted to know more; he asks a lot of questions," she said absently.
"Whoa," was the response she got.
"What?" she asked at his vague reply.
"I think he likes you as much as you like him," Griffin said softly.
"It's not like that," Rhone said quickly.
"Right," Griffin shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "What would I know about something like that anyway?" he asked both her and himself. "I thought that I would call you and you wouldn't even pick up the phone," he finished.
She didn't say anything. She didn't really know what that comment was supposed to mean. "Did you think Lex wouldn't be talking to me after I told him?" she asked.
"Does that thought scare you so much that you think you would be incapable of motor movements if it happened?" he said in a tone that told her he was smiling.
He noted that she had called the topic of conversation Lex. He wondered if they had finally moved to a first name basis. "Actually, I thought that if you told him, you would be too – tired to answer the phone," he allowed any implications that could possibly find their way into that statement to be there.
She blushed. She was really happy that she had changed rooms and was alone. "You're a pervert, Griff," she made her voice stoic.
He exhaled loudly, "Whatever. …By the way, I do have something for you." He started typing on the keyboard in front of him.
"What is it?" she asked although she had an idea.
"…Potential applicants," he said.
"Send it, I'll link up in five," she said and hung up the phone.