"Not cool, not cool at all." Chloe murmured to herself as she absentmindedly navigated the halls of Luthor manor while simultaneously trying to erase the image of, oh it was too mortifying to imagine let alone peak of, out of her head. It was 4:00 in the afternoon for godsake, it wasn't her fault!

Lex rounded the corner from the garage to the rest of the house and was plowed into by Chloe Sullivan, causing them both to drop the various objects in their hands. Lex's papers were scattered all over the floor and Chloe's digital camera was in 2 pieces.

"Shit!" She exclaimed as she knelt down to pick up the broken piece of electronic equipment.

"Good day to you too Chloe." Lex said sarcastically as he knelt joined her in picking up the mess. Chloe didn't join him in the verbal judo, she just shook her head and handed Lex a stack of papers. "I'll replace the camera if you'd like." His tone was soft.

"No Lex that's okay. It's my fault anyway." She looked up at him and he could see she was crying.

"Chloe what's wrong?"

"I just…Nothing it's stupid."

"Chloe whatever is wrong may be a lot of things but nothing you have ever said has been stupid."

"Thanks Lex." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and let Lex lead her to his office.

She dropped her bag, containing the now broken camera, on the floor and plopped onto one of the obscenely soft leather couches, she grimaced when it squeaked though. 'Too many bad memories.'

"So what has you so distracted that I am now buying you a new digital camera?" Lex asked, hoping to get her in a better mood, as he poured himself a drink and grabbed a bottle of water for Chloe.

"Don't get your MasterCard in a bunch. It's brand new and still under warranty. I'll get a new one for free." He sat down next to her and handed her the bottle of water. "Thanks." She took it and sipped carefully.

He took a sip of his scotch and waited for Chloe to continue the conversation.

"Can I have some of that?" She asked, motioning to the scotch.

Lex chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think so Chloe."

"Why not? You know I have drank before." She said matter of factly.

"Oh yes, I'm sure you and Lana lived it up. What's your drink of choice, Bailey's and coffee?"

"Why does everyone think I'm an idiot? And no, my cousin Lois, and tequila, and vodka, and anything else she can procure from her dad's recruits." She a bit bitter.

"Still no. I'm not sending you home drunk Chloe."

"Well then give me something besides water. I need to get scarring images out of my head."

"Chloe what scarring…" He stopped to think, then a sly grin crossed his face. "Clark and Lucas are home aren't they."

"That's putting it mildly." She said dryly.

"You didn't…"

"Get a free show, oh yeah."

Lex tried to keep their conversation clinical. "Well Chloe you have to understand when a certain stage of pregnancy is reached the hormones reach such a level that the person experiencing it becomes…"

"Super horny?"

"For lack of a better term yes. What happened?"

"I went to the Kents to see Clark about something and they told me that they already left and I'd probably be able to catch them here. Surprise, surprise. So I came over and Douglas told me they were upstairs so I went up there and I heard what I thought was talking in the TV room. Not thinking I just walked in, and when I did they were naked and there was moaning and GOD YOU KNOW!" She looked over to see an amused expression on Lex's face. "What's so funny?"

"I figured a journalist like yourself wouldn't be so judgmental."

"I'm not being judgmental Lex. I just never thought of my friends as having sex before. Let alone walking in on it."

"You mean you never walked in on Lana…" He trailed off.

"No, no, no." Chloe said with a laugh. "Lana's still wrapped up in the fairytale of being a virgin until she gets married."

"Lana is innocent to the core."

"I just, god I feel so stupid. I mean I knew how the twins came about I just never, really thought about it."

"Well that's good because if you were spending hours upon hours pondering Clark and Lucas' sex life I'd worry about you."

Chloe gave him a ghost of a smile. "Yeah that would be kind of ick." She stopped talking as her face twisted into a thoughtful scowl.

Lex took in her expression and knew seeing Clark and Lucas in lude positions was not the only thing plaguing her. 'God she's beautiful. Wait where the hell did that come from?' He shook the thought from his head. "What's wrong Chloe."

She looked over at him. "Maybe you're right." She said cryptically.

"As much as I like being right it'd be nice to know what about." Lex said with a smile as he looked over at Chloe.

She looked down and fiddled with the lip of the bottle in her hands. "Clark once told me that you said some people are meant to go through life alone. I told him it was crap and you were wallowing because your ex-wife tried to kill you. Maybe I'm the one who's full of it. I've never been good at relationships. I always thought it was because of Meteor Freaks, or Clark's love for well everyone but me, or I was too busy working on the Torch. Now maybe I wonder if I'm meant to wander the earth as the best friend or roommate or personal Google but undeniably terminally alone." She sank back into the couch and decided that the blue glass of the water bottle was interesting. She was not going to cry, not in a fucking castle and certainly not in front of Lex Luthor. Her logic was, Lex doesn't cry neither does Chloe.

Lex reached over and took the bottle form her hands and placed it on the table next to his drink.

Chloe looked up at him. "I wasn't done fidgeting with that." She said pouting.

"Too bad." Lex said seriously. "Dammit Chloe. I know this Clark, Lucas thing has been hard on you and I am sorry about that. It was not fair that you got put in the middle of that because I know it hurts when someone you love, or think you love, doesn't love you back. And yes you were right I was full of crap and wallowing deep in it. But you know what, right now, so are you."

Chloe stood up to leave. "I don't have to take this I'm going home." She started toward the door but Lex grabbed her arm, preventing her retreat and with the other arm carefully reached around and turned her toward him. When he saw her face he cringed inwardly when he saw the mascara stained tears rolling down her cheeks. "Oh Chloe I'm sorry." He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. "Chloe you are smart, and funny and tenacious and loving and beautiful. Any man would be lucky to have you and all others are fools." He gently kissed the top of her head and continued to hold her.

"Thank you." Her voice was a bit muffled because she was basically talking into Lex's chest, and wow Lex was built he hid it well under that lean frame and the Armani suits. For the first time in a long time standing in Lex Luthor's arms Chloe felt secure and she did not want to lose that feeling.

Lex loved the feel of Chloe in his arms, she was small and fragile yet strong enough to call him on his shit and not care, and her hair smelled like peaches. She was nothing like any other woman he had ever dated and she was everything they could never hope to be because she was Chloe Sullivan and they were not. This felt right but it was so wrong, just 5 months ago Chloe was jailbait and now he was envisioning never leaving this position unless the next one utilized the couch. Lex loosened his grip on her a bit and stepped back to see her face. "Chloe…" He was about to tell her this couldn't happen but was cut off when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth. Instead of backing off or pushing her away Lex stood there and kissed her back.

Unbeknownst to them 2 sets of eyes had witnessed the entire scene from the safety of the shadows at the back exit to the office. Clark rested his chin on top of Lucas' head and wrapped his arms around his ever expanding waist.

"Finally." Lucas whispered exasperated as he motioned to the two in the office.

"You owe me twenty dollars."

"Technically…"

Clark cut him off. "Technically my ass Luthor. We made a bet, you lost."

Lucas rolled his eyes as he turned to face Clark. "Fine. But I think I can think of more creative ways than money to pay you back." Lucas waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Clark.

"I dunno, that's a tough one." Clark said contemplatively.

Lucas leaned in and started nibbling on Clark's adam's apple. "Are you sure about that?" Then went back to teasing Clark with his mouth.

Clark closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensations Lucas' mouth were causing his body. "K, you win. No money, just sex." With the last remaining bit of higher brain function Clark picked Lucas up and sped them both back to Lucas' bedroom to resume their earlier activities.