Author's note: Next update, only after New Year's.

Part 18

The Birth of Alexander Lane

"Clark, you made it!" Lois said as she greeted him with a smile from the living room. She was attempting to feed her son some mashed apples and biscuits, but Alexander was in the mood for games so he kept refusing the food. She stood up exasperated and taking Clark by surprise, drew him into a hug. "Oh, don't act so shocked, Smallville. I haven't seen you in ages and despite first appearances, I did get attached to you. Like you would to…. say, a dog. Or given my allergies, how about a cat?"

"Very funny," he said smiling as she went back to the table and continued to try and convince Alexander to eat.

"Alexander's being very stubborn at this hour," she said frustrated. "I give up."

"Mind if I try?" he offered nearing the table as the boy watched him with his big blue eyes.

"Knock yourself out, but I don't think…," she started saying but as soon as Clark neared the spoon to his mouth, the boy instantly ate its content. "Oh, the little traitor!"

"He's just trying to impress me," he assured her with a smile as he crouched down in front of the boy. "What's your name, little fella?"

"Alex," he said shyly hiding his face.

"Well, nice to meet you, Alex. I'm Clark," he said and playfully shook his tinny hand as Lois looked on amused. The scene was suddenly interrupted by a man clearing his throat. Clark turned around to see who it was. To him, the man was a total stranger.

"Clark, I'd like you to meet Gerard Bouvier. He's one of the few friends I still have since the 'incident'," she said making quotation marks in the air to emphasize the word incident. "He's staying over for a few days."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bouvier," Clark said standing up and extending his hand toward the new arrival.

"Likewise. I've heard a lot about you, Clark. Lois, although she hides it, thinks the world of you," he said and looking down at his still extended hand added: "Do you mind if I not? I have a germ problem."

"Gerard's one of those weird people that constantly clean the cleanest things," Lois explained.

"Oh, sorry," Clark retrieved his hand.

"It's all right, it's a sickness," Gerard lied. He was just trying to hide the tattoos on his wrist. Tattoos Clark was very likely to recognize from the cave.

"I'll go talk to the maid about bringing lunch in," Lois said walking toward the living room's entrance. "You boys play nice while I'm away," she added and walked out of the room. "Especially you," she said giving her son a dirty look to which the boy replied with a giggle.

"How do you know Lois?" Clark couldn't help but ask once the girl was gone.

"Her father and I were acquainted at one time," he explained. "I'm afraid he doesn't look fondly upon me helping his daughter out after he threw her out though."

"The way I heard it Lana La...Luthor was the one who helped her out," he said, the name Lana Luthor still making him choke somehow.

"And who do you think convinced her?" Gerard asked with a smirk.

"So you know Lana…," he assumed.

"We share some common cultural interests," he only replied.

Meanwhile as Lois was heading back into the living room, one of the maids stopped her.

"Ms.Lane, Mr. Luthor's at the door," she told her in a whisper.

"Lex?" she asked raising her eyebrows surprised. "Tell him I'm not home."

"But Ms. Lane...," the maid hesitated. "He said he's here to see his son."

"You tell Mr. Luthor that no son of his lives here," she told her coolly and then putting on her biggest smile walked back into the living room.

Over a year ago

Metropolis

Lex was sitting in his office, staring at his phone. He had tried to focus on the paperwork in front of him, but every time he did, his mind kept wandering back to the phone. It had been exactly 5 hours 34 minutes and 10 seconds since he had received the call. He had been restless ever since. The people at the clinic never contacted him directly. They had been told that that number was for cases of extreme emergency only. Were there complications? Was the baby arriving early? Would that affect his son's health? Was something bad happening to Lois?

He had managed to keep Lois away from the prying eyes of the public and especially those of his ever vigilant wife up until then. He had barely seen her himself although he had sent her about a million gifts both for her and the baby. He had arranged for her to get a supposed trial scholarship at a European university exclusively available for the children of war veterans. And the general had seen his share of wars. That had been the only excuse Lex had been able to find to make anyone believe Lois would deserve a scholarship. So while people – general Lane included – believed she was in Europe having the time of her life, he had actually sent her to a private clinic in Central City where an army of doctors had looked after her day and night. Fortunately, since the same clinic was one of the Luthors' charities of choice, his numerous gifts weren't really questioned.

While she could not contact him through telephone, mail or her personal e-mail address, she had taken the liberty of making up a phony e-mail address each time she wanted to contact him. The last e-mail she had sent him had said: "To whom it may concern, L, previously a gorgeous young woman with a life full of possibilities in front of her has turned into a deranged giant cow confined to her bed. Now all she wants is a drink, but she is stopped every time from getting one by the annoying medical staff that – she suspects - watch her every second of her life. PS Have I told you how much I HATE you lately?"

The phone suddenly rang and he startled before picking it up quickly.

"Yes?" he asked urgently.

"This is doctor Callaway from the Rosemond Clinic in Central City. Congratulations, Mr. Luthor, you're a father," he said and Lex couldn't help but smile.

Unfortunately for him however, he wasn't the only one hearing the doctor's words. Halfway across Metropolis in the brand spanking new offices of Lang Pharmaceuticals, Lana Luthor listened incredulously. She unwound the tape and pressed the play button.

"…you're a father…," the doctor's voice was heard saying clearly.

"That lying bastard," she said scoffing and stood up from her chair abruptly.

Later

Central City

"She's resting now," the nurse told him in a whisper as she cracked the door to Lois' private room so he could see her.

"Wait," Lois muttered, sounding very tired and drowsy. Lex exchanged a glance with the nurse who nodded shortly in reply and left, letting him enter Lois' room.

"Hey," he said softly nearing the bed.

"Hey right back," she said with a slow smile, barely managing to hold her eyes open. "I just wanted to tell you not to freak out when you see the name…I was out of ideas and the doctors had me in a corner so I told them the first thing that came to my mind. I mean what else could I call him? I would've named him after my father, but I'm pretty sure he's gonna freak over the illegitimate son when he finds out…and your father…," she chuckled. "Your father's name was bound to give me nightmares."

"You and me both," he replied with a smile. "Get some rest," he told her gently and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"You should see him…cutest little bug...," she muttered with a sleepy smile and closed her eyes.

He made his way out of the room quietly. The nurse was waiting for him outside.

"Now, would you like to see your son?" she asked him with a broad smile.

"Yes," he let out in one breath, the word son sounding so odd in his mind. The fact he hadn't been by Lois' side every waking hour of her pregnancy had made the entire event distant and something he had not yet gotten accustomed to. Even if every time he had a chance he would sneak a peak at the sonogram pictures she had made sure he would receive on a regular basis, he still felt as if he had been held at a distance. A stray thought about his own father and the situations he had put him through to make him strong crossed his mind. The nurse guided him down a long corridor and toward a maternity window.

He looked at it hesitantly for a moment, then, not rushing, neared it and started searching the rows of newborn babies for a sign…

"Alexander Lane," he muttered when he saw the name written down on the bracelet on a little boy's tiny wrist. His features softened considerably as he looked at that small baby. He couldn't believe that it was his. His own flesh and blood. His son. He touched the glass and felt a sensation of longing like he had never had before. He wanted to hold him, take him away, protect him, make sure nothing ever dared harm him. He wanted the whole world to know he had a son. He smiled.

In his rush to reach the hospital, he hadn't noticed he had been followed. After the intriguing discovery that her husband had been hiding a woman pregnant with his baby somewhere in Central City, Lana had trailed him all the way to the Rosemond Clinic. She had stood at a safe distance from Lex, but close enough to see which room he had visited. She then waited until he was gone to make her way into the same room. She was shocked by who she found there.

"Lois fucking Lane," she let out incredulously. "Of all the rotten people," she said angrily and threw a fresh vase of flowers into the wall above the bed, startling Lois awake.

"Lana! What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked, her tired mind registering the events as something surreal.

"What I'm doing?" she laughed bitterly. "You two-bit slut, what am I doing? How about you? Good, fine, having a baby?"

"Who let you in here?" she asked and reached for the alarm button, but Lana pulled the small remote away, throwing it across the room.

"You know, usually I don't like to get my hands dirty, but with you, it's going to be an absolute pleasure," she said with a grimace and grabbing Lois by the hair threw her out of the bed roughly. She tried to scream, to alert someone, but her voice was too weak and her throat too sore. She had screamed too much in the last few hours.

"Lana, stop it, I know you're angry, you have every right to be, but this isn't the way to solve things," she muttered weakly as she tried to gather herself off the floor, but to Lana her words didn't mean a thing. Lois didn't even really exist, it was just her and the target of her all consuming anger as her mind raced to find an explanation for her recent discovery:

"What the hell did he do to convince you to breed him a litter of illegitimated bastards?" she asked as she kicked her in the stomach two times hard and then buried heel in her palm. "You hated him! I know you did!" she leaned down and picking Lois up from the ground threw her into the table. "What did he promise you? Money? Is that it? You sold you womb for a little extra cash?" she banged her with her head against the wall. "Why even bother? White trash like you never really washes off the stench of the slums!" she said as a bleeding Lois reached out for the fallen alarm remote while she ranted. "I'm going to make him pay!" she let out frustrated as the door to the room suddenly opened and two strong looking medical assistants entered. They looked shocked at the scene before them and one told the other:

"Get the police, now." The other assistant nodded and left in a hurry as the first one neared Lana and said: "Ma'am, I need you to step out. NOW."

"Who do you think you are?" she said and raising Lois up by the hair said: "We're having a conversation here."

"Lois!" Lex appeared in the threshold and looked at Lana shocked.

"Surprised to see me here, Lex?" she asked with a malicious smile.

"Oh, god," he neared her and pulling Lois out of her grasp handed her over to the medical assistant, then pulled Lana out of the room roughly. "What are you doing here?" he asked her as he led her into an empty room where they could speak privately.

"I should ask you the same thing, daddy," she replied disgusted. "So you knocked up the army brat because…"

"Because you wouldn't give me the son I wanted," he cut her off abruptly.

"Oh, come on, Lex, we barely got married, I wasn't about to let you get me pregnant just yet," she pointed out.

"You promised me a son in exchange for Lang Pharmaceuticals. You let me believe that it was true!" he said raising his voice.

"You're a joke," she said grimacing. "Your killer instinct just seems to fade away when you're up against the most basic of lies. I let you go on and on thinking you'd be smart enough to realize my promise wouldn't add up to anything. But I did have to spell it out for you in the end, didn't I? When you got so hyped up you went out and bought a goddamn crib. The tabloids wouldn't stop raving about it for days and days…So I had to give them something else to write out."

"Your affair," he realized.

"Those little wheels of yours are finally starting to turn," she said rolling her eyes. "Well, we'll just have to take care of your mess," she said after a pause as a stunned Lex could not bring himself to speak.

"Take care?" he asked looking at her suspiciously. When she said 'take care', someone usually wound up dead. "You're not touching Lois again. Or my son."

"Well, if you think I'll live with this, you have another thing coming," she said turning on her heels.

"If she dies, it's going to be all over the media. Half the hospital probably knows what you did by now. They know he's my son," he pointed out.

"Dead people don't tell," she replied grimly.

"If you touch a strand of hair on her head again, I swear I'll…," he started threatening, but she only smirked:

"Kill me? You don't have the guts to kill the body of your small town princess. And even if you did, I'd still make sure that bitch and her kid are going to be meat for the grinder before you have the slightest chance to touch me," she laughed . "Divorce me then? I'll marry one of your friends that likes to keep me company when you're on business trips faster than you can say I do," she paused for a moment and then added: "Or I could make a fortune by selling all your dirty little secrets to the media. I could even write a book."

"You wouldn't dare," he said stone-faced.

"You wish," she said smiling coolly. They stared into each other's eyes intently for a long moment. Lex wanted to make a threat. To at least pretend he could bring himself to have her killed, but he knew it was useless. She knew that in his heart, he would never be capable of harming her. "I'll make you a deal. This one time. I'll let go of this if you give up all parental rights to Lois' bastard son and you never see her and him ever again. And I'm talking no mysterious presents, no birthday cards, no Christmas gifts, no weekend visits, no secret trust fund. That's the only way I will ever back out of this. The only way your son won't die smothered in his sleep. Well, are you in or are you out?" she stared at him and after a long moment of hesitation, he nodded. "Good. Quite frankly I'd rather see you suffer for the rest of your life than for a brief tragic moment in which you'd learn your son is dead."

With that said, she walked out of the room and just like that Lex Luthor lost the son he had barely gotten.

Two weeks later

"She's suing me!" Lana said throwing a piece of paper in front of him. "That cheap tramp thinks she can bully me into giving her a few dozen millions!"

"What are you talking about?" Lex asked taking the paper and looking it over, smirked. It was from Lois. She was suing Lana for physical assault. "Well, she has a very strong case. She has witnesses and the physical evidence to back her story up."

"Are you just going to stay there and stare at me?" she asked frowning.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked raising his eyebrows.

"I want you to hire the best attorney in town and…," she started saying, but he interrupted her:

"I'm afraid he's taken," he said pointing toward the signature on the document that belonged to Metropolis' biggest shark.

"How could she ever afford him?" she asked confused.

"She's probably paying him with a percentage of the sum they'll get off you," he said shrugging. "I suggest you settle. We might just escape without a public scandal if you do."

Lana looked at him incredulously, but nothing in his features betrayed his involvement in the matter. It had been his last gift to Lois and his son before he had stepped out of their lives. A business card of the top lawyer in town.

End Part 18