Part 9 Bring Me to Life

iHow can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb /i

Sunlight streamed through the windows and hit his eyelids. Lex opened his eyes and squinted against the bright light. He glanced at the clock beside his bed and blinked. It was seven thirty in the morning. He closed his eyes and rubbed them with the heel of his palm, then checked the clock again. It was seven thirty one in the morning. He had slept til this late. Usually, he would be wide awake at no later than four in the morning, body aching after the nonexistent sleep produced by his tossing and turning above the covers the entire night.

His head was clear, and he was amazed at the difference one night without any alcohol did to his thought process. It was as if part of his brain, that part that was clouded by everyone taken away from him, just fell away.

For the first time he felt like Chloe Sullivan's ghost was no longer haunting him, as if she visited him during his deep sleep and kissed all his sins away.

Lex looked up as the door to his room opened and he saw Lois trying to come in an unobtrusively as she could, her dark hair falling wetly against her cheeks. She had just had a shower. As she stepped closer towards his bedside table and laid down a glass of water and a pill, Lex noted idly that she used the same brand of shampoo that Chloe did. The scent assailed his nostrils and he waited for the deep grounding pain that accompanied any memory of Chloe. He looked at Lois in wonder when the ache did not come.

"Good morning," he greeted.

Chloe almost jumped out of her skin when his voice reached her. She had tried not to make any noise so that she would not wake him up. It had not even occurred to her that he was probably already awake. She had hoped that the pain medicine he had taken the night before would still have him knocked out this morning, so that she could avoid this—After years in his bed, Chloe feared the uncomfortable morning after.

'Please let him think it was a dream.'


iWithout a soul
My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home /i

"Morning," she greeted back. She bit her lip at the sight of the small puddle she had created on the table, after the shock of hearing his voice made her hand shake. "I brought you your pain pill." Chloe handed the red tablet over to Lex. "Take it now. It says you have to drink that fifteen minutes before meals for maximum effect."

"Thanks," he answered gruffly, although it amused him that his bitter enemy had turned into his caregiver.

"Breakfast is almost done. Just step right out when you're ready." On her way out of the room, her phone rang and she took it from her jean pocket, flipped it open, and frowned. "Yeah, Clark?" she muttered quietly.

The sound of the name brought Lex's attention to Chloe. It was the man that his fiancé had left him for. Instead of the rush of fury he expected, Lex felt a tinge of regret. She slipped out of the room. He knew that she did not want him to be uncomfortable hearing her conversation with a man she knew he despised.

Lex sat up on the bed and took the pill, then he sat up and saw that he was only wearing his pajama bottoms. His lips curved. No one else but Lois Lane was with him the night before. How unsettled she must have been, having had to change his clothes. Lex threw on a shirt and walked out towards the dining room cum kitchen area. He heard the call from her end.

"No Clark. I've already sent Perry a message. I'm gonna come in after lunch, alright?" There was a pause. "No problem. Alright."

"You don't have to miss work, Lois. I'm perfectly capable of handling myself."

She jumped again and saw Lex standing by the dining room table. She put the phone away. Lex tried to pull one of the chairs out from under the table, but the leg was caught on the base of the table. Lex lifted the table a bit to free his chair and winced, then fell heavily onto the chair. She shook her head. "That doesn't look like you can handle yourself without ripping your wound open."

"The wound is still pretty fresh. There's nothing to bust open."

She turned her back to him and returned to the pan as she finished cooking. "I'm staying because it's the least I could do. After all, you saved my life."

"About that," Lex said. "You're going to have to narrate how heroic I was. It's like the entire night's been wiped from my head. I've bits and pieces here and there," he told her. "I want to know what happened, Lois, because whatever it was…" He searched for his words. "Maybe it's the blood loss but I feel like this huge burden's been taken off my shoulders."

iWake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become /i

At those words, Chloe blinked away the tears that threatened to fall. "That's weird," she said lightly. "All that happened was I was stupid enough not to know I was being followed early enough, and out of nowhere you came in and saved me." She turned around with and glanced at him. "And got yourself shot in the process."

She turned back to the stove. Chloe remembered those words clearly, and the accompanying sensations still sent a shiver down her spine. She closed her eyes briefly.

i"If you remember anything about tonight, remember this. I loved you."/i

Lex sat back on the chair and watched her prepare the found. There was something familiar about the way she labored over their breakfast. Lex searched his brain for what it was. A slight breeze came in from the window and blew at her hair, drying it. Lois frowned at the disturbing hair and instead of shoving the lock away, she blew on it. The lock temporarily floated, then flopped back on her face. She blew on it again, and the same thing happened. Chloe used to have the same problem, especially because she used to keep her hair too short to tie back. Chloe always retorted when he commented on it. She always always went back to the fact that he would never have the same problem.

"Just tuck your hair behind your ear, Lois. I don't want to have nasty brunette hair in my pancakes."

She turned to him, with her eyebrows arched, then told him off. "Mind your own bald head, Luthor."

Lex froze, staring at her with a question that remained unspoken in his eyes.

Chloe walked over to Lex with two plates in her hands. She was confused at Lex's reaction, then realized why. She covered it by placing a plate on the table. When Lex inspected the pancakes, he opened his mouth to protest. Before a word left his mouth, Chloe had placed another plate right in front of Lex, this one devoid of the blueberry bits that had made Lex cringe earlier. She smiled down at him, "We wouldn't want you itchy and bloated all day." She pulled the blueberry pancakes closer to her. Chloe found the thought hilarious and chuckled. "This is mine. I love this."

iNow that I know what I'm without
You can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life /i

"She told you a lot about me," he told her matter-of-factly, "if even my allergies are funny to you." He took a bite and smiled.

"You're chipper," she commented, relieved that he seemed to have pushed any suspicions out of his mind.

"It was a good night. It's the first time I've felt this light." He looked up at her. "I'm not going to ruin it with any negative energy."

"Yeah, getting shot and losing a lot of blood will do that to you." Chloe glanced at the cabinet on the side of the room. "Speaking of which, since I could only get half of the day off from the Daily Planet, I have a few books that I'm sure you'd enjoy. I have a few of the newer and much less expensive releases of the titles that Chloe mentioned you kept coming back to." She pointed to the location. "I've placed them over here."

Lex glanced over and saw what in fact were his favorites. He turned back askance at Chloe and said in wonder, "I never knew that you and your cousin spoke so much that she'd have told you all this. Was there anything she didn't tell you about her life?"

iFrozen inside without your touch
Without your love, darling
Only you are the life among the dead/i

She was silent for a moment. Then she shook her head. "She's told me a lot but I wouldn't know what she's hidden. In the same vein, I've told her about a lot of things going on with me but I'd hardly say that she knew everything."

Her eyes were so gorgeous, and Lex shivered at the cold finger running down his spine at the knowledge that right now, he was staring into his dead fiance's eyes. She turned away. Lex shuddered at the unsettled feeling pooling in his gut. He had established this loathing for Lois Lane that would protect him from this—a shameful longing seated deep in his belly as Chloe's killer, bearing her eyes and revealing habits he had only seen in Chloe, armed with knowledge that Chloe had learned in their every day lives, took over the place that was left cold with Chloe's departure.

iI've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything/i

It was time to turn away from her as well. He was not going to fall into this trap. He would not let stray habits and those green eyes captivate him into the false belief that Chloe was right here with him. Instead of running, Lex gruffly said, "Eat your breakfast, Lois. I'll take you to the Daily Planet later if you really need to come in."

"Lex, there's really no need. Besides, you're injured. You can't drive."

"That's why I have a chauffeur on call."

"Then why do you have to come along?" she asked.

Lex took a bite of the pancake and then narrowed his eyes. "Suit yourself." Chloe started on her blueberry pancakes and Lex watched as she pushed her hair behind her ears.

iBring me to life
Ive been living a lie.. Theres nothing inside
Bring me to life/i