Without a Doubt – Chapter 3

Lex walked into the cold office building much earlier than he had anticipated. He had previously told his staff he would not be in on account of his 'mourning' his father. He as well as his staff knew that was a complete falsehood. He sat down at his desk and reread the folder of documents from the night before.

"Pontius, I need you to do something for me." His best investigator looked at him as Lex handed him a copy of the folder. "I need to see if you can get any leads off of this. They were left along with the named in the picture in front of the mansion last night."

Pontius stared at the contents and then back at Lex. Lex watched as Pontius' face looked as if it was making a judgment call and angrily changed his stare at his top detective. "Sir."

"I don't need you to judge me – I need you to help me. I have already sent the forms off to be authenticated and would hope you would just try to focus on the task of finding the person who delivered it."

"Says they don't want to be found."

"And whenever have you seen me let something like that deter me from finding out the truth. Don't come back to me until you have scoured for the sender or I can get someone else for the job."

"Yes sir. And what of the …" Pontius looked at Lex, realizing his questioning was not allowed and didn't finish the sentence. He picked up the papers and walked out of the door, passing the man that Lex had come in early to meet. Hitting a button on the side of the desk, the man watched as the doors closed behind.

"Mr. Luthor. I was quite surprised to hear from you but I got the paperwork this morning and it does match an exact file that we had in our records." The doctor presented an exact replica of the documents in another folder.

"What happened to the name tabs?"

"I can't honestly say – we actually found this file in what we call 'anonymously discharged,' meaning no name was ever revealed. I can tell you that I was there and the other half of the test has been performed already." Lex nodded as he listened to the man speak. He flipped through the original folder looking for some kind of clue. He could narrow it down somewhat, but the year had been bad for him. It could be anyone. "Mr. Luthor, did you get the instruction that I sent to your place last night?"

"Oh yes," Lex stated as he turned around and handed the man a small plastic bag. "How long will it take?"

"Sir, we can have the sample analyzed within the next few hours. I will be contacting you before the end of the evening." Lex nodded his head and watched as the man excused himself from the office. Lex sat and stared at the original file from the office – everything of pertinence had been blocked out or never filled in. He flipped through a small phonebook and stopped on a name. He stopped and thought before picking up the phone and taking a chance.

"Chloe Sullivan."

He waited as she answered, wondering if he had made a grave mistake. Taking a deep breath, he pooled his courage, "This is Lex Luthor. Are you busy?"

Chloe pulled the receiver away from her ear and stared at it. Lex hadn't spoken two words to her since he had hidden her away almost a year ago. What the hell was he calling her for? She put the phone back up to her ear and questioned, "Mr. Luthor? I'm at work."

"This is somewhat work related, using all your investigative talents." Chloe's interest was peaked now, but why would Lex Luthor need a high school graduate to help him do something.

"Ok, I'm curious now."

"I can't tell you over the phone, but if you would stop by my office at Luthorcorp, I'll tell security you are coming." Chloe was stunned – Lex had completely ignored her for entire summer while sticking her in the middle of nowhere just to be found and almost killed anyway. Then for the last year, nothing – not even a dirty look. He just plain ignored her; now he wanted her help. "Look, I can tell by the long silent pauses you are considering that I haven't spoken to you and that's my fault. I just know that you are the only one I really can trust after what you did to put away my father."

"I'm sorry by the way."

"No, he doesn't deserve your pity and neither do I. You know what he did and he doesn't deserve anything but what he got. Back to the point, will you please meet me?"

Chloe looked at her watch and cursed under her breath. "Lunch? I'm starving."

"I'll have something delivered." He waited until he heard her cover the phone and tell someone she was leaving for the day. "See you soon." He hung up the phone and closed his eyes. God, I hope this helps, he thought.

Walking into his office behind his security, Chloe noticed he had already set up an exquisite lunch for the two of them. "You must really need my help." Chloe sat down as Lex amicably pointed to her chair. Waiting for Lex to react, she bit off a piece of the garlic bread that was in the basket. He laid the folder down next to her and watched as she gazed at the different pages and then stopped on the photo. Holding it up to him, she looked at him quizzically. "Lex? Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack."

"How?"

"It was delivered the last night. Here's the card that came with it." Chloe read and reread the typed note, staring at Lex several times between the sentences. She sat the folder down on the table and proceeded with lunch, which was most important to her at the moment.

"Lex, why me?"

"From what you've read, I really don't want people that I don't trust out snooping around on this. I trust you like you once trusted me. I need your help finding this person. But you can't tell anyone – not Lana, not Clark, no one." Chloe stopped and looked at him. He was serious. His face was worried; Lex was worried, concerned.

"I'll do my best, but I can't guarantee you anything."

"I understand." Lex walked over and picked up the ringing phone as Chloe flipped through the pages again and ate. She halfway listened as Lex continued with several choice comments to whomever was on the other line.

"Are you sure? There's no doubt?" Chloe intensified her concentration as she saw Lex cringe and sit down, losing color in his face.

"Mr. Luthor, it's most definitely positive. You are welcome to run another set of tests, but the results will be the same." Chloe watched as Lex silently hung up the phone without even ending the conversation.

"What is it?" Lex licked his now dry lips, closing his eyes trying to focus on not losing his footing. He looked at the folder spread out on his desk and sat down. Chloe saw him waver in the front of the chair and hurried over to push the chair under him. Grabbing his arm, she pressed forth, "Lex, what is it?"

Focusing on his desk, he choked the words out, "I'm the father."