Author's note: I think it's only fair to warn you I'm close to finishing the story. It'll have about another 2-3 parts and an epilogue.

Part 17

The conception of Alexander Lane

It was close to 8 PM and Chloe Sullivan was sitting at her desk feeling tired and frustrated. Her desk was full of half eaten chocolate bars and a still unopened bottle of coke. That was all she had eaten in two days since the chaos had started. Somewhere in the corner, Mavis from publicity was hugging herself and crying and Chloe wondered when the hell she would finally run out of tears. Their economical analyst was rocking himself back and forth perched up on his desk. Two of their reporters were sleeping on the floor somewhere and Perry's secretary was doing her nails for the millionth time to keep herself calm. From the bathroom screaming and pounding could be heard. She sighed.

Her phone suddenly started ringing and she startled. She picked it up and after taking a moment to remember what she was supposed to say, answered it:

"Daily Planet, Chloe Sullivan speaking."

"Hey, Chloe, it's Lex. I wanted to see how you were doing," he said and she sighed relieved it wasn't another lunatic with a death threat that considered her the reason the Lang Pharmaceuticals factories had been destroyed.

"Other than losing my mind, I'm doing fine," she replied chuckling nervously.

"I told you it was going to get bad. You should've left," he told her.

"Are you kidding? I can practically feel the Pulitzer in my hands!" she said with a smile. "We'll have exclusive on this story."

"Exclusive?" he asked unsure. "How about all the other fine journalists in Metropolis?"

"They were the first casualties. The media's blamed for everything that goes wrong," she reminded him. "Poor bastards didn't see it coming. Plus, it didn't help that half the Enquirer was doped up on LP migraine meds. You haven't seen scary until you've seen Peggy Shaw with an axe in her hands trying to chop your head off."

"Sounds brutal," he said grimacing.

"I know, I just wish someone would've thought about chopping her head off," she said sighing. "But enough about Metropolis night life. How are things with Lana? Cause I assume that's why you headed back to Smallville."

"How do you know I'm back in Smallville?" he asked and she could feel him smirking all the way from the Smallville Inn.

"Please, Lex, I've been documenting your life for over two years now, I think it's safe to say I know a thing or two about you," she pointed out. She paused for a moment before adding: "So…"

"So, nothing. I'm here. She's here. We're getting separate rooms…," he said and she interrupted him:

"Lex, I just spent two hours barricading the doors to the men's bathroom so our psycho colleagues – people I see everyday, eat and joke with everyday - won't kill us with random objects like staplers and chairs. Now I need to hear something wildly romantic to even feel mildly better about life," she demanded.

"Okay…," he gave in, but only continued after a long pause: "This one time, we were on the jet and she thought we were going to the opera in Milan, but I took her to this little private island off the coast of Australia. Its owner was a business associate of mine and the moment I saw it I knew I wanted to take her there. We were alone on the island for over a week. I even sent the bodyguards and chefs to Sydney. I think those were the best seven days of my life," there was a long silence after those words. "But now it's over…"

"Lex…look…," she rubbed her face tiredly. "You hurt her…no, worse, you destroyed her, you let her be destroyed," she stopped for a second before going on: "But…deep inside her, somewhere, I know she has certain feelings for you. I'm not saying I agree with them or that they weren't just something Isobel shoved into her subconscious, but they're there. But Lex, you have to think seriously about this. What are you going to do if you convince her to come back to you? Try to be a better person? Cause that's something I'm not buying again."

"I love her," he only said.

"But that still doesn't answer my question, does it?" she pointed out. She sighed again: "Why did you really want to talk to me? Because somehow I doubt this is just about my health."

"Lois," he said, not bothering to deny her allegations.

"A-ha, there's the problem," she said and couldn't feel but disappointed that he had indeed only called to find out something from her. For a second she had felt like she was back in highschool when being on a first name basis with Lex Luthor hadn't been such a miracle. "I'm sorry, but I probably can't help you since I haven't talked to Lois in quite a while."

"No, it's not about that," he assured her. "I just want to know what you told Lana about her."

"Lana?" she asked and then it suddenly hit her: Lana must have seen Lois and her son in Smallville. Biting her lips she said: "Everything. I told her everything," she said and thought to herself that this way maybe Lana could have a shot at an honest relationship if she couldn't help her feelings toward Lex.

"Thank you for your honesty," he said. "Take care of yourself. Try not to get in the way of any ax totting lunatics."

"Don't worry, I won't," she assured him. "Bye."

"Goodbye," and with that he hung up.

Chloe stared blankly at the floor and wondered if she had done the right thing, but right then the doors of the bathroom could be heard breaking and she didn't have more time to think about it, but focused on finding a solution to keeping her deranged colleagues under lock and key.

Nearly two years ago

Metropolis

"Yes, well, about time you found out I suppose," Isobel said as she stared unimpressed at the severed head displayed on the table in front of her. Sergio Precarrio looked at her with dead eyes as if expecting some sort of reaction from her.

"That's all you have to say for yourself?" Lex asked angrily as he pulled her chair roughly toward him.

"What would you like me to say?" she asked with a smile. "I'm sorry?" she was mocking him. "Because I'm not."

"Don't you feel anything! At all?" he asked blocking her from standing up by putting his hands on the chair's wooden arms.

"Oh, please, are we playing the feeling game again?" she rolled her eyes. She seemed more amused than worried about his anger. "Because quite frankly it's starting to bore the hell out of me."

"Our marriage…," he started saying, but she interrupted him:

"Was a strategic move on my part. One I'm quite content with despite the fact I have to be in your presence most of my day," she said calmly.

"You took a vow!" he reminded her furiously as his hands encircled her neck. "Till death do us apart! Remember? Don't you remember?" he yelled as he tightened his grip around her fragile neck. She didn't react. She just stared at him sternly and after a few moments said:

"If you continue to do that, you'll break my neck."

He let go and then, walking away from her, crashed into a chair like a broken puppet. Isobel was silent, focusing on the closed windows for some unknown reason. Then suddenly, she stood up and walked over to a wall length mirror and inspected her neck.

"This is going to leave a bruise," she said unsatisfied. "Now I can't wear my Prada dress to the benefit tonight. Great work, Lex. You'll have to accompany yourself to the party because I'm not going looking like some rag doll you like to smack around," she walked over to the table and picked up Sergio's head and headed toward the doors. "Have a good day." One of the maids came in just as she was going out and she threw her the head: "Here, throw this out with the day's trash," and with that she was gone.

Lex sighed and ran his hand over his scalp as the maid dropped Sergio's head and started screaming uncontrollably.

Later that night

He was sitting at the bar alone with his bowtie hanging loose around his neck and the top buttons of his shirt opened. He had gone to the benefit by himself, but after no more than an hour he couldn't stand it anymore. The looks, the whispers, the words spoken behind his back, the questions regarding Lana's whereabouts…he knew that if he had stayed he would've gotten drunk and made a fool of himself at his own firm's benefit. Better to do it there, at a high class bar that prided itself in discretion.

"Lex Luthor, alone and drunk on the night of one of Luthorcorp's most important parties of the year for the rich and generous," a voice said from behind him and he turned to find Lois Lane in an evening dress standing a foot away from him. "That's likely to make headlines."

"I think they'll be otherwise occupied," he said and thought the media was probably going to be speculating the reasons for Lana's absence from his side for the very first time since they had gotten married in the next day's papers.

"Married life's a bitch, isn't it?" she asked with a smirk as she took the empty seat at the bar next to him.

"What would you know about that?" he asked absently.

"Well, I was at the benefit earlier, you were downing gallons of scotch like there's no tomorrow," she said as the bartender poured her a drink. "Your wife wasn't there. Let's just say it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together."

"How'd you get at the benefit? How'd you get in here?" he asked irritated.

"Oh, I have my ways," she said mysteriously and after a beat added: "And a cousin who's a reporter ergo a member of the press and that gets her in for free pretty much everywhere."

"But you're not her," he pointed out.

"For one night only, I am," she said waving her press pass in front of him. "Chloe's feeling a little under the weather so she sent me to fill in for her and I – as a person who could never say no to free drinks I can't otherwise afford – said yes."

"Charming," he grimaced and finished another glass of scotch.

"And yes, that does mean I can write a story about the billionaire ditching his own party to get drunk away from the prying eyes of the public," she said smiling and downed her drink in one motion.

"I can't stop you," he shrugged.

"Oh, that doesn't sound like the Lex Luthor we love to hate. Where are the death threats? The butch bodyguards?" she asked amused, but he remained silent. "Oh, you're no fun. Bartender, fire up another round."

The following morning

When he woke up, his head felt like it weighed a tone and the sounds of the morning traffic reached the room through the window left wide open. He blinked several times before he got accustomed to the light. He half stood up and only then felt the warmth of another body next to his. Had he gone home and made up with Lana? He scanned the room quickly and realized that wasn't his bedroom. In fact, it looked like a hotel room. That could only mean that he had…He reached down toward the covers that were completely covering the other body and hesitantly pulled them down.

"Lois?" he asked incredulously staring at the naked girl sleeping beside him. He vaguely remembered meeting her at a bar the previous night, but from there on everything was a blank.

"Who turned on the lights?" she asked grumpily. "Chloe, I told you a million times, if you…," her eyes opened and coming face to face with Lex, she jumped up, pulled the covers up to her chin and started saying: "Damn it, damn it, damn it. We didn't just do what I think we did…," she said with a glimmer of hope, but seeing their disregarded clothes scattered all over the floor she realized they probably had. "Damn it!"

"Calm down, I'm sure this is just…some sort of misunderstanding," he said, sounding skeptical of his own words.

"Yeah, a big misunderstanding!" she let out rolling her eyes and started looking around for her underwear.

"Security tapes," he suddenly realized what would happen if they ever reached the media. He got dressed quickly and ran out of the room after cautioning Lois to stay there.

By the time Lex got back, Lois was still looking for her underwear. He had managed to bribe the security people into letting him have the tapes and had made another disturbing discovery.

"I think these are yours," he said clearing his throat and handing Lois a pair of women's underwear he had found in his pocket.

"Oh, ew," she let out embarrassed and took them from him. He put on the tape so they could both see what had happened since they had entered the hotel the previous night. They had made out from the lobby to the receptionist's desk to the elevator. Except, in the elevator they hadn't just kissed and fondled. "We had sex in the elevator with the cameras watching?" she asked incredulously. "Okay, I've never been that drunk in my life. What do you people put in drinks at parties?" she asked covering her face. "There's just one solution to this. We just have to pretend it never happened."

"Deal," Lex said as he took the tape out and started destroying it.

Later that day

Isobel stormed into his office and shut the door angrily after shoving his secretary out brutally.

"Lois Lane?" she asked throwing a stack of pictures of him and Lois leaving the bar together and kissing in some dark alley. "I knew you'd try to get back at me somehow, but Lois Lane? You're lucky I'm not selling these to the tabloids so you can see just how big a mockery you're making of yourself!"

"How did you get these?" he asked flipping through the pictures.

"I had you followed or do you really think you can get away with something that easily?" she asked with a disgusted smile.

"Who said I was trying to get away with anything? You didn't exactly bother to hide your affair with Sergio either, did you?" he pointed out annoyed. "It was pure dumb luck that the media didn't find out. And that's mostly because I treated him as a friend and welcomed him into my house without suspecting I'd also be sharing my wife with him!"

"Oh, please, stop being so dramatic," she scoffed. "And next time try not picking the first piece of trash you find in the gutter," she said and smirking one last time, walked out of his office.

Two weeks later

"Miss Lane, Miss Lane!" the secretary followed Lois into Lex's office, trying to stop her from disturbing her boss. Lex looked up at them and after a beat said:

"It's all right, Janice," and the secretary, after giving Lois one last frustrated glance, left the office. Once they were alone, he looked at her and sighed: "I thought we agreed that it would be best for the both of us if we didn't see each other for a while. You burst into my office like that, people might start asking questions."

"Well, they're gonna be asking them soon enough anyway so why not start early?" she said nervously.

"What are you talking about?" he asked frowning.

"I'm pregnant," she said with a forced smile.

End Part 17