Lois Lane had admittedly struggled to get back to work at the Daily Planet - to life before Clark Kent. While she loved her work enough to quickly find herself buried in it again, there was still a twinge of pain when she looked over towards the cubicle where Clark used to sit and see it still empty. A glance across the room found Jimmy Olsen's old desk empty as well. Both places, which were still untainted by dust, even if only because the custodians meticulously dusted, were otherwise unchanged from when they'd last been occupied, as though someone were expecting either of them to come back and get back to work. Even as a few new interns had been hired, they'd been placed in off-corners, rather than filling those two particular spots.
Perry, it would seem, was struggling with the loss too in his own way.
After a particularly long day, which needed to be followed with a night at home on her laptop working on copy of her latest story, Lois stopped by a local divey coffee shop in downtown Metropolis called the Rise and Grind, if only because it was a local establishment that was less college-hangout, more working professional. It was calmer, and that was something that Lois Lane would admit that she was occasionally entitled to.
When she entered the coffee shop and got into the line, which was a bit lengthy at the end of the work day, she found herself in line behind a woman in scrubs rifling through her work bag, pulling out her phone and looking at her phone. Lois paused when she realized that she recognized this woman's face - the nurse that had been photographed with Lex Luthor extensively in the past month.
Lois had attempted to insulate herself from news related to Lex Luthor, and Perry had been great about allowing her that space, assigning her to stories that would keep her far from anything with the name Luthor on it, but there had been a great deal of buzz about Luthor going free and having this woman with him at all times, something between a nurse and a new personal assistant. Even if work didn't throw the story in her face, tabloid and news shows were not nearly as kind, and Lois wondered what would possess a young woman to do what this one was doing.
She looked so regular, Lois said, unable to keep herself from looking at the girl. She looked so young, and at the same time, so tired.
Claire, as it turned out, was extremely tired. She'd had a long day at the clinic and managed to assert herself enough over the phone to Mister Luthor that she needed time to regroup, and she could travel just fine by cab. She'd hung up before he had the opportunity not to allow it, and now, for the first time in weeks, she felt truly alone - truly unwatched - and it had never felt better.
"Excuse me."
Claire paused at the sound of a woman's voice behind her and slowly turned around, hesitating and gently leaning away from the woman as best as she could while standing in line. The older woman offered her a smile that Claire attempted to return, but seeing that Claire was uncomfortable, the red-haired woman offered her hand gently to shake.
"Lois Lane," she said gently. "I'm sorry - I know this is probably incredibly intrusive, but I couldn't help but recognize you."
"Of course, I know who you are," Claire said cautiously, gently crossing her arms over herself after calmly shaking the red-haired woman's hand. "I'm a Metropolis girl, born and raised. It's a smaller world than one might think."
At this moment, the last person in line ahead of Claire moved out of the way and she made a polite, wave-like gesture to excuse herself before turning to the counter to place her order - a caramel latte, double shot of espresso.
"Can I get that for you?" Lois piped in, her arm jutting forward and offering a twenty-dollar bill to the cashier before Claire could refuse. "Do you have a few minutes to sit and talk?"
"...sure..."
Claire moved out of the way and allowed Lois to step forward and place her order - she stood awkwardly to one side to wait for the older woman, and then both stepped across the shop to wait for their drinks to be finished. There was no exchange, no conversation, just silence as they both waited for their drinks, collected them, then moved to sit at one of the smaller tables in the shop.
"Listen, before we start, I can't tell you anything," Claire said, gently raising her eyebrows and taking a drink from her mug. "I'm not interested in being a front page story, and I don't want to have a reason to dislike you."
"I'm not talking to you as a reporter," Lois corrected, which elicited a small scoff from Claire. Lois allowed herself a weak laugh as well - the idea of not being a reporter in any context was admittedly a bit of a stretch. She chalked up one point for the younger woman as they both took a sip from their drinks. However, even after this brief moment of levity, there was still the matter of who Claire was involved with. "Lex Luthor isn't a good man," Lois said quietly, her expression falling, and he saw Claire's immediate reaction - her body tensed, her grip on her cup tightened, her lips pursed as her jaw clenched.
Lois found herself grow suddenly worried for Claire as she realized that the younger woman was protective of him.
"You know that, don't you?" Lois asked gently, placing her mug down and gently leaning across the table. "I know it's none of my business and I have no right walking up to a stranger and telling them how to live their life but... here I am," Lois shrugged. "Why are you doing this?"
"Listen, Miss Lane," Claire said, gently holding her mug with both hands and resting her elbows on the table so that she was slightly hunched, leaning across the table towards her. "I can tell that you mean well, but your advice isn't helping me in my situation."
"Your situation?"
"I'm not where I am right now because I asked to be," Claire said simply, her face a strange mask of calm that even Lois Lane struggled to read - even Lois Lane, who prided herself in being able to pry any story out of anyone, was not sure what line of questioning to even pursue with the younger woman. Claire inhaled deeply through her nostrils and breathed out, clearly attempting to keep her tone and expression even. "I'm trying to do as close as I can to the right thing."
"Is Lex Luthor blackmailing you?" Lois asked, gently tilting her head to one side, her expression one of both worry and compassion for the younger woman. What if, Lois realized, Claire Branigan needed saving? "Is he -"
"Lex Luthor is the last thing I have to be afraid of right now," Claire said shortly, shifting so that while one hand still held the side of her mug, the other crossed over her midsection in an almost defensive gesture. "And I can't tell you anything else, Miss Lane. I'm sorry."
In some ways, this was very much a game to Lex Luthor - but he was of course wise enough and savvy enough to be aware of the fact that this was a critical period in his interactions with Claire Branigan. Despite all of his nonchalance, he was very much averse to the idea of losing her loyalty, because loyalty was so hard to come by. After a move as brazen as the one he'd made in the elevator, the next few interactions would bear disproportionate weight. She was in chaos now because of him, and in chaos came the opportunity to completely reorganize.
If he succeeded in establishing this new order in Claire Branigan's head - in her life - then he could ensure loyalty from her that he would not lose. And now, he was at the very least able to acknowledge that he did not want to lose her loyalty.
So, when Claire had let him know that she was going to catch a cab and grab herself a cup of coffee before getting herself home, he decided that the best course of action was to keep Claire on her toes. He knew that there was a downtown Metropolis coffee shop that she favored - the Rise and Grind. She showed up at the Mansion from time to time with coffee with the logo emblazoned on the little corrugated cardboard sleeve. So, he knew that this was a prime location to begin his search for her.
Despite being correct on the very first try, he would admit to being surprised by the fact that he did not find her alone.
Still concealed behind the dark windows of his car, he looked inside the window of the Rise and Grind to see Claire, still in her scrubs, sitting at a small table with one hand gripping her coffee mug and the other gently crossed over herself - Lex realized, glancing at her, that he'd never seen her look nearly this guarded and withdrawn around him. It was a sort of defensiveness that, admittedly, was unsurprising when one was seated across from ace reporter Lois Lane.
But more unsettling than how Claire looked like he was feeling was the fact that Lois Lane was trying to engage one of his allies, and it was a feeling that was all too familiar. Lex looked on with slightly narrowed eyes as Lois left the coffee shop first and got into her own car, driving off into Metropolis traffic. Claire, however, was still sitting at the same small table, rubbing at her temples with her head slightly bowed. Whatever the interaction had been, it was one that did not appear entirely welcome.
Now was the time to pounce.
Lex, first putting on a pair of sunglasses, stepped out of his car, locking it with a flourish and striding through the rustic front door of the Rise and Grind. Claire was still evidently distracted giving him enough time to stride over to the table and pull up the chair across from her, turning it backwards and straddling it, leaning over the back of the chair and pulling off his shades, laying them gently on the table between them.
"So what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"
Claire immediately looked up and gently rolled her eyes, shaking her head when she realized who was now at the table with her. "Jesus Christ," she muttered, rubbing a hand over her hair tiredly. "Don't sneak up on me like that."
"If you were more observant, maybe you wouldn't be so easy to sneak up on," he said, cocking his head to one side and regarding the expression on Claire's face - tired and indifferent. "But I wasn't about to let you take a cab home in peak Metropolis traffic. Have you smelled the back of a taxi at the end of a... long hard day of chauffering around sweaty tourists?"
"Have you?" she retorted with a quirk of her eyebrow.
"Touche." Lex reached over and gently removed Claire's mug from her hand and looked at what was left of the drink, swirling the contents before raising it to his lips and downing the remainder of drink. Caramel latte, double shot of espresso. "Well, it looks like you're done with your caffeine fix, so how about we hightail it home, missy?"
Claire blinked incredulously at the fact that he'd really just done what he had - but she couldn't muster the energy to feel surprised by it. She sighed heavily and got up from her seat - Lex quickly did the same, turning the chair back around and walking a few steps ahead of Claire, humming vaguely and reaching out to hold the door open for her, cognizant but nonreactive to the stares they were receiving. Claire, on the other hand, felt herself shrinking at the fact that every eye in the establishment seemed to be on them. Even if there were bound to be no consequences, this felt like consequence enough.
Lex went as far as to hold open the car door for her, and reminded her to watch her leg as he shut the door behind her. Finally, when Lex had gotten into the driver's side and closed the door behind him, Claire turned to face him with her expression set.
"This is getting ridiculous," Claire finally managed to speak up. "Last night - the elevator this morning - I don't even -"
"You don't think that maybe you're blowing things out of proportion?" Lex asked calmly as he pulled out of the parallel-parked spot and onto the road. He chuckled, casting a sidelong glance towards the passenger seat. "I'm not sure what you're so bent out of shape about -"
"Are you shitting me right now?" Claire interrupted in disbelief, now running both palms over the sides of her disheveled ponytail. Lex, however, didn't even honor her outburst with a reaction, instead making a somewhat exaggerated show of checking over his shoulder as he changed lanes. Claire again groaned, leaning back in her seat and shutting her eyes as she rubbed her temples. Her effort in going along with all of this and trying keep proximity to Lex Luthor was growing more and more dubious by the day, more and more tiring. In her fatigue, she had very nearly forgotten the favor that had been of her earlier in the day. "Mister Wayne dropped by the clinic today," Claire spoke up accepting defeat in their previous line of conversation, knowing she would never be able to call him on it without him getting the satisfaction of knowing how much it bothered her. "He wanted to know why you hadn't responded to his invitation for Saturday."
"Can't say I've had the time," Lex replied in a slightly sing-song voice, though Claire saw the brief tensing of the tendon in the side of his neck at the mention of Bruce Wayne. "I wasn't under the impression that it was incredibly important, nor was I under the impression that you and Mister Wayne were extremely chummy."
Lex's grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly, though luckily by now they had gotten past the heaviest of Metropolis traffic and started the uphill road towards the mansion - there were few cars around, so even if his driving grew jerky and slightly erratic from his vicegrip on the wheel, it wouldn't put them in so much danger. But perhaps more threatening was the brief realization that he was growing... possessive over her. First Lois Lane, then Bruce Wayne, both encroaching on his territory, circling his only ally like vultures.
"I'm not chummy with him," Claire answered shortly. "But that isn't any of your business, is it?"
Clearly now annoyed but not to the point of action, Claire reached over to one of the LED-illuminated knobs of the car's stereo system and flicked on the radio, anything for noise to fill the silence between them with something other than conversation.
"And now, we're streaming live from the press conference of Mr. Bruce Wayne in front of the new Metropolis site of Wayne Enterprises, which is scheduled to open its new research and development center in the next week. Let's listen in."
"Mister Wayne, what inspired your decision to resume operations in Metropolis?"
"You know, I think it's finally time," Bruce's voice rang out over the speakers of the car stereo, filling the inside of the car and causing Claire to again feel slightly uncomfortable as though this were all some kind of divine coincidence. "I think it's time to move away from the past and start over. It's time," he repeated.
"I'm sure you're aware that LexCorp is currently the largest job creator in Metropolis," the reporter chimed in, and a smile curled onto Lex's lips at the fact that he was mentioned - that he was again ever-present in all of Metropolis's workings. "And we as a city are well aware that Mister Luthor is committed to innovation and green technologies - what can Wayne Enterprises bring to Metropolis that we don't already have?"
"I don't intend to try and steal anything away from LexCorp, not by a long stretch - Wayne Enterprises is a completely different entity, and I don't foresee any conflict between our two companies unless Mister Luthor sees a reason for there to be," Bruce replied with confidence, and Claire felt herself shift into a cautious state of concern at the fact that Lex again tensed, his jaw clenching tightly as they pulled into the front driveway of the mansion. "One of my company's most well-loved projects in Gotham is the Thomas Wayne Memorial Free Clinic - a safe zone in one of the highest-crime blocks in the city. My executive board formed an exploratory panel earlier this years and found that there is no such low-cost clinic in Metropolis. LexCorp has made extensive, impressive forays into medical research and pharmaceutical research. Amazing work," Bruce repeated. Lex's lip curled slightly into a sneer, and he muttered under his breath, as Bruce Wayne continued speaking.
"Which is why Wayne Enterprises has also bought out the commercial space on the corner of First and Lincoln and will be opening a new site for the Wayne Memorial Free Clinic in the near future - because while technology will continue to leap forward, Wayne Enterprises is committed to not leaving people behind."
Lex made no pretense of hiding his hostility when over the speakers, he heard the crowd at the press conference burst into applause for Bruce Wayne - they were applauding Bruce Wayne for mocking him. Lex forcefully shut off the radio and got out of the car, storming towards the front door. The sight of him this way was the first thing the entire day to remove the thoughts of what happened in the elevator from her mind, now replaced with a stomach-churning sensation. Worry. Concern. Internally, she found it infuriating, but she knew that above all else, what he'd just heard was something that would send him on a downward spiral - while as an incognito emissary of Batman's, it was not her job to be concerned with such things, as Lex Luthor's nurse, it was. She got out of the car as well, following Lex up the front steps of the manor and striding in the door behind him.
"I don't suppose you knew anything about this, did you?" Lex asked before slowly turning around to face Claire, who had already shut the front door behind her and flinched in surprise to see him stalking purposefully in her direction until he stood toe-to-toe with her, leaving very little space between her back and the door. "About the new clinic opening in Metropolis? Him coming by to your workplace today, that was a - a fabulous coincidence?"
"I knew about the clinic," Claire said evenly, drawing herself up to full height and refusing to be cowed. "He mentioned it to me today. Said to consider working for him when it opened. I didn't agree to it. I don't know anything else."
There were a few seconds of elctrifying, almost scalding eye contact between the pair of them, but nothing like the searing, sensual exchanges that in Claire's mind had started to become all too frequent. Now, the wheels in Lex's mind were turning furiously, so much so that Claire could have sworn that she felt the heat emanating from his eyes. He was afraid. He felt genuine fear at the prospect of the legacy he had only just started to rebuild in Metropolis being trampled under the feet of Bruce Wayne. But Claire's fearless honesty - the fact that she had come back at all to face him - seemed to shield her from being an object of his fear and anger by extension.
"So," Lex began, his eyes narrowing slightly and his voice taking on a menacing tone. He chuckled darkly, swiping his thumb across his lower lip and looking upward, taking a step back and beginning to pace back and forth - something about seeing him this way hearkened back to the night of the gala here at the mansion, the way Lex had been sent literally to the edge of his sanity at the thought of being bested, being humiliated. "So Mister Wayne wants to play hardball on my turf now. Gutsy move," he said, still pacing and turning his head to face Claire, gesturing with a wag of his index finger. "Let him know that we'll be at his little shindig. Five o'clock sharp. I'm excited to see what the hubbub is all about."
"Lex," Claire said - and she looked at him with that look again, the look that had started all of this in the first place. Lex's face again flickered with a look of confusion at the fact that after all of the effort he had put into unsettling her, in to legitimately scaring her, it was still that look. "You don't have to do this, Lex," she said gently. Her hand reached out and grabbed a gentle hold on his forearm, stopping him in his tracks the way only she seemed to be able to. "You don't need to show up just to prove something-"
"Yes, I do, Claire," he said, gently pulling his arm away from her and straightening out his clothes. He couldn't allow himself to be distracted by her compassion this time, not when something as vital to his entire being as his company was actually at stake. LexCorp could not come in second in Metropolis, especially not to Bruce Wayne. "I really think I do."
Claire sighed, shaking her head - but something about this exchange took on the function of a hard reset between the pair, throwing them back into the roles in which they had originated: Lex, the patient, and Claire, the caring nurse and the voice of reason. Lex drew himself back up to his full height and crossed his arms over himself. "You look like you've had a long day, though," he pointed out, noting Claire's rumpled scrubs and mussed hair. "Your things are in the guest suite. Make yourself at home."
And as he walked off, Claire paused with a need to process the fact that the tone in his voice had sounded nearly like concern.
A/N's
First of all, I just want to say, without any specific spoilers, that I think some of my reviewers are mindreaders. But, I'll leave it to you to figure out what I mean by that! In any case, like always, I am super appreciative of all your reviews and feedback. We broke 100 reviews with this past update, which is super exciting for me! Just barely two months old, and my little story hit this big milestone already. Thank you all for being absolutely amazing!
The next few chapters, which I will try to post in relatively rapid succession (i.e. not having to wait a week between updates), are going to get into more Lex/Claire nitty-gritty and are heavily focused on the pair. So, buckle up! As always, I always love to get your reviews to see how you're doing on this crazy ride. Also, just to give this a little structure, I have two or three planned story arcs to include in this story, so we're in this for the long haul! When more movies come out, it will obviously be AU, but hopefully it's interesting enough that you guys stick with it!
Until next time, which will hopefully be very soon, cheers!