A/N - Just a reminder, the previous chapter takes place on Monday morning. This chapter takes place the day before on Sunday, directly after the events of Ch. 8


Sunday

"First order of business," Lex said briskly as soon as he buzzed Mercy into the penthouse. "Breakfast. Then, I need you to book Steph a massage and facial," he said to his personal-assistant-slash-bodyguard. "She's had far too much stress this morning."

Steph looked up from the couch where she was slumped around her drawn up knees, wearing the flirty dress that she'd expected to put on today for a fancy Metropolis brunch when she'd packed it.

"I don't really want to go out, Lex," she said numbly.

"Oh, of course not, sweetheart," Lex said soothingly, coming back over from the door to sit beside her. "We'll have breakfast delivered, and the masseuse and aesthetician will come here to the penthouse, too," he assured her. "They bring the table with them and everything," he promised.

"Oh," Steph mumbled. "Ok," she whispered. She kind of wanted to say no, because - what if they'd seen the morning's paper? They probably had. Would they call Cat Grant and tell her more juicy gossip about the supposed gold-digger all cozily shacked up for the weekend in Lex's home, getting private spa treatments?

"They're people I trust and they've signed confidentiality agreements," Lex softly rumbled in her ear. Steph's chest relaxed the slightest bit.

"I'll go make those calls in the office…?" Mercy checked with Lex, who nodded at her. She gave Steph a sympathetic smile as she left the room.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you, baby," Lex said gently enough, but Steph heard the reverberating notes of both rage and grief coloring his voice. "I should have realized we'd be a paparazzi target - but normally Cat Grant et al don't bother about my social life. I'm usually far too boring, I suppose." Steph curled into the arm that he wrapped around her shoulders.

"It's not your fault," she said softly. "I just can't believe they'd be so mean to me," she said in a shaky voice. "Saying I'm a gold-digger - and that I was after Tim, too?" She sniffed. "I'm going to be such a joke back on campus."

"Do you have any classes at the moment?" Lex asked, frowning. Steph shook her head no.

"I have the summer off. I've finished most of my degree requirements by now except for the practicums and stuff I'll do this upcoming year."

"And then you'll graduate?" Lex asked her and Steph started to nod, but hesitated.

"I don't know, anymore," she blinked. "The baby is due the end of February. It won't even be worth starting the spring semester, I guess," she said, biting her lip hard as she began to realize just how badly she'd screwed herself over.

"Can you double up on your courses this fall?" Lex asked. "Or get into a late summer session to help you finish early?" Steph sighed.

"No, the last few I need are sequenced classes. They only offer the second set during spring semesters." Lex hummed in genuine sympathy.

"We could get a nanny if you want to try to finish this spring anyway," he offered. Steph ground her jaw in frustration and reluctantly shook her head no.

"Physically I'll be wiped out for weeks and weeks after giving birth, and the courses are hands-on field experience. Besides, I didn't keep my last baby. I don't want to miss anything with this one," she said wistfully. "Sacrificing so much time with them right when they're first born wouldn't be worth it to me," she said, but she sighed from deep in her soul. "It just kinda sucks. I worked so hard," she said miserably.

"You'll still graduate, baby," Lex promised. "We'll make sure of it. Even if it's later than you intended." Sure, Steph knew hypothetically that she could - and dammit, she swore to herself that she would - but she'd lose so much momentum by taking a whole year off. Hell, she'd probably forget half her coursework in that time, and then how would she pass her boards after she finally graduated?

She didn't realize that a tear had rolled down her cheek until Lex was wiping it away. His eyes were distressed and full of so much compassion for her, but no matter how great Lex was, he couldn't change the reality of her college situation. God damn it.

"I'd be infuriated that Cat printed that slander against you under any circumstances," Lex said grimly, "but that she did it amidst all the turbulence and upheaval to your life that our baby has brought you -" He cut himself off, looking downright foreboding. Steph's conscience poked her.

"But you won't really get her fired or evicted or anything drastic like that, right?" she checked with Lex, only slightly nervously.

"Oh, sweetheart, of course not," Lex chuckled ruefully. "I was having a melodramatic moment earlier."

"Ok, good," Steph sighed in relief. "But you do think you can get her chewed out, though?" she asked with a small but eager smile. "And to leave me alone from now on?"

"I'm sure of it," Lex confidently promised. "Cat Grant will get the tongue-lashing of her life and will never print another word about you ever again. Until we announce our engagement, that is," he winked at her. Steph burst out in giggles.

"You're too much," she told him. "Baby steps, Mister." She shrieked in surprise when Lex dipped her backwards along the couch and bent his head low to press a kiss to her belly.

"Tell your mother that baby steps are for you, Little One," he growled to her stomach. "Daddy wants Mommy to take big, fast, grownup steps." Steph's hands dropped to cradle Lex's head as he pecked tiny kisses to their baby. The tears in her eyes were happy ones when he finally lifted his head up and tenderly smiled at her.

She was having a baby. With Lex Luthor. And yeah, losing time from school was gonna suck, and maybe she'd need months and months of tutoring to relearn what she forgot in the meantime, but - Lex loved their baby and he really, really liked her, too. Her situation could have been a lot worse.

Steph had the receipts.


Lex and Mercy had closeted themselves away in Lex's office after breakfast to brainstorm Lex's best approach to getting Cat Grant to lay off while Steph got pampered with a deep muscle massage and a multi-step facial by two very polite technicians who gave no hint that they'd either seen her face splashed across the Daily Planet or would even remember her face once they'd left Lex's penthouse.

The massage had been mind-blowingly amazing. Why didn't the Bats get regular massages, Steph wondered, as strong fingers worked out years of knots and stiffness? She was gonna make a new team mandate when she got home - weekly massages for everyone. Bruce was rich. He could afford it.

It was the few hours of time that a massage required that none of the Bats wanted to spend, but that was stupid, Steph decided, as her aching hip finally relaxed. For an investment of ninety minutes a week, Team Batman would be kicking more butt than ever.

Well. Except for her, since she was pregnant and gonna have to step back from patrol for the time being. But even so, she'd still get some benefit from weekly massages. She'd been really sore and achy during her first pregnancy. Having a means of relief this time around would be awesome.

And sure, some people - like Lex, who could afford luxuries - apparently got massages on the regular whether they had health conditions or not. Steph wasn't exactly comfortable with being that frivolous, though. Hell, she still felt guilty about his super-soaker-shower, and rightly so, she thought.

So maybe she had let Lex buy her a twelve million dollar necklace (that thought made her slightly dizzy) but Steph vowed not to let herself become spoiled and needlessly self-indulgent as a result of Lex's devoted pampering. She had to be strong for their kid and set a good example, after all. Limit luxuries. Bring their baby up to be grounded and in touch with normal, everyday people and their financial struggles.

Steph almost forgot to stress about the super public walk of shame she'd be doing once she got back to Gotham as her body relaxed and her mind wandered during her massage, but when she was left alone with goop on her face and cucumbers on her eyes, her fears came back to hound her.

She worried that her apartment neighbors would never shut up about her and Lex. Most of them were fellow college students, and Steph could only imagine the constant teasing that she might endure. Maybe she'd borrow a prosthetic nose and a couple of wigs from B, at least for trips to the grocery store, so she wouldn't get it from the cashiers and other shoppers, too. Ugh.

Thank God Lex hadn't actually been planning to go full-on super-villain on Cat, though. God. Steph almost felt foolish for her moment of fear, but, well, she knew who Lex really was, ok? Even though he'd dialed back on a lot of his villainy since Conner had come along, Steph still hadn't been quite sure if her baby daddy had been serious earlier about destroying Cat's life, or if he'd only been pissed off and venting when he'd started ticking off possible methods of revenge against a certain bitch of a reporter.

And, ok, yes, Steph had loved every single one of his Cat-focused suggestions in the heat of the moment and her hurt and rage had even convinced her that revenge was justified. Deep down, though? Steph knew it wasn't fair for Cat to be fired. As cruel as the reporter had been, she was doing her job - chasing scandal and cooking up exciting headlines to sell papers.

Revenge with seriously damaging consequences to Cat wouldn't make Steph feel good - even though it was damn tempting. But as long as Lex could get Cat to stop printing gossip about her in the future, that was what really mattered.

Although. Lex saying he was gonna cancel Cat's gym membership had been pretty funny. Steph was maybe petty enough to secretly wish that Lex wouldfollow through with that particular idea, for the laughs alone of Cat being annoyingly inconvenienced. After all, Steph was gonna be harassed and embarrassed for a long time because of Cat's article. Wouldn't justice dictate that Cat had to pay in some small but tangible way, too, in her daily life?

Steph knew she wouldn't share her little fantasy with Lex, though. He might get big ideas and go too far. (A certain twelve million dollar necklace came to mind.) Alas. A girl could dream.

Steph did wonder how in the hell Tim's PR team was going to be able to control the narrative of her pregnancy in the press once she started showing. Tim was very fond of controlling narratives and his WE team was smart and slick in how they went about it, but Steph felt kinda doubtful that they'd manage to spin her as anything other than a slut, even if they managed to counteract the gold-digging part.

She probably wouldn't be able to go out on any more dates with Lex for awhile - at least not in public. Steph's rapidly waning common sense said that maybe this was a good thing, but her evening with Lex last night had been fantastic. Best date of her life.

Lex had given her the choice of which touring Broadway show she wanted to see and Steph had happily picked Phantom of the Opera, even though Lex swore that he could get them tickets to the sold-out Hamilton run.

"I've always wanted to see Phantom," Steph had explained with eagerly sparkling eyes. Lex had raised a teasing eyebrow at her.

"Sweetheart, you're from Gotham. All you need to do is look up to see the Phantom of the Opera," he'd joked, making her giggle. She was surprised when Lex said that he'd never seen the show, either. "I don't usually go out to the theater," he'd shrugged. "I'd rather be working."

"There's more to life than work," Steph had scolded him. She hadn't expected the way that his eyes melted into hers when he replied, "So I'm learning." God, she was falling way too fast, and she shouldn't be - but -

Her head was tucked into Lex's shoulder now in the backseat of his limo, because he'd insisted on driving her back to Gotham so she wouldn't get airsick again in the helicopter. One more freaking sweet, thoughtful point for Lex Luthor, Steph had silently tallied.

She'd tried to protest - "That's a long time for you to be on the road when you have to work tomorrow," she'd pointed out with concern - but Lex had shrugged it off.

"Mercy and I will stay overnight in Gotham and drive back in the morning before rush hour," he said. "It's no trouble, sweetheart," Lex had warmly promised. "Anyway, I'll feel better if I can see you safely settled back in at your apartment with my own two eyes," he'd admitted slightly bashfully. How could Steph help but feel soft, squishy squees of tender fuzzies at that?

So for the last hour, she'd been drowsily cuddling Lex while Mercy drove. She felt boneless and relaxed from her massage, and safe and cozy curled into Lex. He'd proudly emerged from his office after her at-home-spa-day to inform her that he'd had a heart to heart with Perry White, the Planet's editor-in-chief, and that the Cat Grant situation was resolved.

"How?" Steph had been curious.

"Better if you don't know," Lex had easily responded. "Plausible deniability if anyone questions you about it. But you can rest assured that the Planet won't be printing any more unauthorized gossip about you," he said with deep satisfaction.

"What's gonna happen to Cat?" Steph had asked. Lex had smirked.

"She will be thoroughly chastised by Perry," he promised. "And actually, it turns out that Cat wouldn't personally have been a problem for us in the future after all, although her replacement could certainly have followed up on today's story with more disgusting drivel, had I not intervened."

"Her replacement?" Steph asked, crinkling her nose in confusion.

"Cat's apparently been planning to step down from the Planet for personal reasons," Lex explained. "Maybe family issues. Perry wouldn't tell me why. I can't say I'm sorry," Lex had grinned at Steph, "but I'm extremely relieved that Perry and I came to an agreement, regardless. We didn't need the new gossip columnist coming after you, too."

"Thank you," Steph had breathed out in equal relief. She'd leaned into Lex's hug and felt cherished and protected.

She stirred slightly in the car against his side when she realized that they were driving through her neighborhood. Lex's arm had not so subtly tightened around her shoulders when they'd entered Gotham, and Steph hadn't thought much of it, but now he was looking down at her with concern.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're almost there," Steph answered, stretching her arms out long and yawning. Lex tensed. "What?" Steph asked in confusion.

"This is where you live?" Lex asked her, sounding horrified.

"Yeah," Steph said easily. She looked out of the window and tried to see the brick and plaster apartments and multitude of tiny street level shops from a sheltered billionaire's perspective. "It's a nice neighborhood. The apartments are pretty decent. It's only a few blocks from campus, too," she explained. Lex freakin' squawked.

"This is a nice neighborhood?" he sputtered.

"… yes?" Steph glowered. Lex rolled the dividing window down.

"Mercy?" he barked.

"Yeah, boss?" she answered warily from the driver's seat.

"Is this what you would call a nice neighborhood?" he demanded. Steph's jaw dropped. Mercy glanced apologetically at Steph in the rear view mirror.

"I clocked at least five drug deals in the last three blocks," she said slowly. "Saw an apartment being robbed through the fire escape window. Number of people carrying poorly concealed guns."

"Yeah," Steph brightly agreed.

"You say that like it proves your point," Lex growled.

"Uh, because it does?" Steph said slightly sarcastically. "You didn't see any physical assaults, right, Mercy?"

"No…" Mercy said cautiously, meeting Lex's eyes, now.

"Those don't usually happen until after dark," Steph smiled. "Very safe. As long as you stay home in the evening or go out with a big group."

"You're moving," Lex said flatly.

"I'm not," Steph frowned. "We've had this conversation."

"Not to Metropolis," Lex huffed. "Just - somewhere safer."

"This is safe," Steph argued. Lex took a deep breath and was about to counter, but Mercy said, "We're here," and pulled up to the curb of Steph's building.

"Here?" Lex gaped.

"Yes," Steph said shortly.

"Baby - there's not even a doorman," Lex spluttered, peering out the limo window at the unstaffed, humble glass-doored entrance to Steph's building. Steph gave Lex a Look.

"Only rich people have doormen," she said in a warning tone that bordered on patronizing.

"Well, I'm rich, and I want you to have a doorman," Lex began to protest, but Steph rolled her eyes and scooted over to open her car door. "Let Mercy get out first!" Lex yelped, tugging Steph back with an arm around her waist. "She can protect you."

"I can protect myself," Steph snorted. Lex didn't let her go, though, until Mercy had checked the street in both directions and opened the door herself.

"Quickly," Lex urged Steph. "Let's get inside quickly. We can let Mercy in when she brings the bags up."

"Lex, it's fine," Steph grumbled, brattily scuffing her feet along more slowly the harder he tried to push her along. "You being all weird is what's gonna attract attention. Or the limo," she groused. "I told you we should've taken a regular car."

"I don't own regular cars," Lex muttered, glancing nervously all around them as he tried to hurry Steph to the front door. He fussed in nervous agitation until Steph punched in her door code and let them into the meager stairwell full of post office boxes that passed for a lobby. "Stand behind me," Lex ordered, blocking Steph's body from the windowed street view as he waited impatiently for Mercy to approach the door with Steph's luggage.

"Quickly, quickly, get inside," Lex ordered his bodyguard when she got to the door he pushed open for her. He almost yanked her into the building. The bodyguard immediately scanned the lobby and stairwell for threats before glancing back outside at the street.

"I need to stay down here and keep an eye on the car, Boss, or we're gonna lose it," she said apologetically. Well. That was probably true. Steph had tried to warn them that taking a limo into Gotham was a bad idea, but Lex had insisted. "I can watch the street from here and listen for you in case you yell from upstairs," Mercy offered.

"We won't need you," Steph said confidently, but Lex was giving his bodyguard a tense nod.

"What floor do you live on?" Lex asked.

"The top," Steph cheerfully replied.

"No elevator?" Lex gaped, glancing up the eight flights of stairs in dismay.

"This is how non-billionaires live," Steph grinned. "It's good exercise," she goaded him.

"I bet," Lex sighed. He reached for her suitcase from Mercy and batted Steph's hand away when she tried to take it herself. "You're preg-"

"SHHHHH!" Steph hissed. Lex swallowed.

"Allow me," he said instead.

"Mercy, wait, why'd you bring Lex's bag in?" Steph asked in confusion, just registering that Lex was also slinging his weekender bag over his shoulder. "Aren't you guys staying in a hotel tonight?"

"Mercy is," Lex answered. "I thought I'd stay here with you." Steph froze. "Unless you'd rather I didn't…?" Lex asked slowly.

"Talk about it upstairs," Mercy advised. "It's safer." That was all it took for Lex to gently but firmly guide Steph to the stairs with a hand on her low back, but she saw the wounded look in his eyes and felt her stomach sink.

"It's not that I don't want you to stay here," Steph tried to explain as they climbed. "But - um. This is a nice neighborhood for Gotham," she said quietly. "And it's a nice enough apartment, too, but it's so far below what you're used to -"

"I don't care about what I'm used to," Lex interrupted in a softly insistent voice. "I care about spending time with you." Fuck, that was sweet. Too sweet. Ack.

"Tim and Bruce are gonna want to see me in person tonight, though," Steph groaned, and she was not looking forward to that one single bit. "Trust me, a phone call ain't gonna cut it. And if you're here, they're not gonna feel like they can talk freely, by which I mean lecture me and freak the fuck out."

They also wouldn't be able to talk about Bat-related things, which was unfortunately the way more important conversation they were going to have to have. Fuck her life. Steph would far rather rip the band-aid off, though, and see Tim and Bruce (and probably Babs. Hell, probably the whole damn family) tonight instead of tomorrow. She'd be too anxious to sleep otherwise.

"Can you go to their place instead?" Lex asked her. "Mercy and I can drive you over and maybe they could give you a ride back?"

"Yeah, I guess that would work," Steph thought out loud. "But Lex - my mattress is nowhere near as comfortable as yours. Or as a hotel's," she blushed, "and my bathroom isn't exactly clean. I wasn't planning on having company. Well, except for Tim, but he doesn't rate a clean bathroom," she snickered, but embarrassment was washing through her bones.

They could probably fit six or eight of her showers inside Lex's giant waterfall cube. Her furniture was from IKEA. Her toilet was grungy. She probably had some laundry on the bedroom floor and God knows when she'd last changed her sheets.

"Sweetheart, I'll be fine. I promise," Lex chuckled reassuringly. Well, maybe seeing how well - or poorly - Lex Luthor handled himself in a tiny, underprivileged apartment would convince Steph's brain to kick back in gear so she could kick Lex and his desire to date her to the curb.

Yeah, she knew it was a longshot. Shut up, Heart.

"I won't stay if you really don't want me to, baby," Lex said gently.

Dammit.

She did want him to.


A/N - What's that? You've noticed some... DISCREPANCIES from the last chapter? ... heh heh