The bullets tore into Lex's chest and shoulder. Three if he felt correctly through the waves of pain.
God, he hated being shot.
And now the guard was dropping his pistol and bringing his previously ignored rifle to bear. So Lex hit the second button on the dispersal bomb trigger.
Great fountains of dirt geysered from seven truck beds as the explosives he insisted be included in the design of the lead dispersal bombs went off. Every single guard looked up at the fountains of soil rushing into the air - including the guard that had been bringing up his rifle toward them. The air was suddenly thick and obscured by drifting particles of dirt.
Chloe looked at him in shock, "I thought you said they weren't bombs."
He forced a smile through the pain. "I lied."
Chloe mumbled something uncomplimentary about Luthors that he didn't pay any heed to, as he pulled her arm with his uninjured one. "We need to move now, while they are distracted. That blast wasn't meant to be anything more than a diversion."
Without further comment, they rushed out through the door and into the yard.
Outside, there was just as much chaos as there had been inside. Chloe and Lex removed their masks and waited until most of the personnel of the facility had rushed for the far side of the building. Then they made a quick dash across the yard and to the place in the fence they had made their opening. The wire ties holding the gaping hole shut tore easily and they quickly ducked through.
A moment later, they were in the car, speeding away with Chloe at the wheel.
She should have known how badly injured he was when Lex didn't argue when she jumped into the driver's seat. She had been too elated by the success of their mission. She thought his cursing and cries of pain were more for her benefit, a way of reminding her that he had taken the wounds for her.
After all, he was Lex Luthor. He had been poisoned, set on fire, drove off a bridge, nearly drown, been driven insane and electoshocked, and a thousand other things. Nothing as small as three tiny bits of metal should have been able to do him any real harm.
But when he went silent and she looked across at him, a sudden terror seized her heart.
The entire front of him had gone wet and red, though his skin was pale and waxy.
"Lex!" she screamed at him, fighting between watching where she was driving and his slack face. She hadn't really been paying attention to where she was going, but she brought the car to sudden stop at the end of the parking lot of The White Deer Motel.
Part of her said she should run for the office and ask Doris to direct her to the nearest hospital. Or she should dial 911 on her cell phone.
But she hadn't named this town Bumble-F*** for no reason. They were miles from anything that could help Lex, and instinct told her it would be too late.
"Lex!" she screamed into his face, reaching across the seat to feel for a pulse in his neck. It was there, but getting weaker. He was losing a lot of blood. One of the bullets must have pierced something and it had taken time to show. That or in their flight to escape, Lex had ruptured something. She tried pulling at his jacket and shirt to see the wound, but between the blood and his dead weight, she couldn't properly move enough to see.
Looking at his slack face, she searched for some sign, something to tell her what to do.
He had taken the bullets that had been meant for her. She had seen the guard raising the handgun, but hadn't had time to get out of the way, when Lex had suddenly pushed her clear. The bullets hit him with a sound that was too loud to be real. She had been around gunshots before, but she had never gotten used to it. There was just something that felt wrong to her about something so small causing so much damage. So to see the three bullets hit Lex it had felt unreal, especially when he retaliated by exploding the devices.
But now he was dying just the same. He was dying when it should have been her.
Lex was not a good man. He was not kind or gentle or any of the things that she would have expected in someone that would take a bullet for her, but he had done it just the same. He had seen something coming to kill and acted to stop it.
Now that did actually feel like Lex. In his own twisted way, he sought to protect. He really thought he was saving the world with his experiments and secret projects.
Well, saving others was part of her too. And maybe by saving him, she could show him there was a better way. That you didn't have to control and contain everything to make the world a better place. That if you gave people a chance, they could surprise you by doing the right thing.
That they could heal as well as harm.
Taking a deep breath, she placed a hand on his bloody chest and willed him to life.
A warm glow surrounded them, bathing both Lex and Chloe in a soft golden light. A moment later three dull thuds sounded as the bullets were forced out by Lex's healing flesh. His pulse and breathing evened out as Chloe's own stuttered and fell.
A moment later the light died out, leaving two silent forms covered in blood unnoticed in the car at the end of the lot outside The White Deer Motel.
Author's Note: For those of you interested in the Smallville Sunken Ships Event - I am not sure what ships I will write for exactly but it will be either Chloe/Lex, Chloe/Clark, or Chloe/Davis. I will be posting prompts for other ships, but that is what I will likely fill. Exactly how many stories and exactly which ship will depend on the prompts posted/muse interest. Whatever I create there will be cross-posted to here after the event is over.
Of course if you want one of your prompts to be posted/picked, you have to sign up and do a work (art, vid, or fic) for another person. You can find the event link on my profile.