Part 11 In the Air Tonight

[iI can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lordI've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh lord[/i

Chloe applied the lipstick over her lips and took a deep breath. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and realized for the first time that she no longer frowned and took a second look to verify that she was looking at herself. Her fingers fluttered towards where the skin was fully healed at her hairline. There were no more traces of the procedure. Should she wake up one day with no memory of her surgery, she could live her whole life without anyone knowing.

She stepped back from the mirror and took another breath again. It was five minutes to pick up time, and she was nervous.

[iCan you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord[/i

The knock on the door was brief. She walked over and opened the door to reveal Lex Luthor standing outside. Chloe was taken back to the first time that Lex stood outside her door like that, long ago before reality took away her innocence, before Lex, before Eric, before… life happened.

Lex smiled at the sight of her. "Thank you for doing this," he whispered into her ear as he bent to kiss her cheek.[iWell, if you told me you were drowningI would not lend a handI've seen your face before my friendBut I don't know if you know who I am[/i

"What's the occasion?" she clarified again as she fell into step beside him on their way to the dining room.

He led her towards their table. When she looked up, she saw sadness flit quickly in his eyes. Chloe started, suddenly filled with shame. Her lips grew numb, and she clutched tightly at her napkin.

Had she lost her heart after everything?[iWell, I was there and I saw what you didI saw it with my own two eyes[/i

On this day, once upon a time, they celebrated the happiest event in their lives and greeted Eric into the world.

"I can't even begin to explain it," he murmured, taking the seat across from her.

Chloe slowly turned her eyes to meet his, then averted them. Once upon a time at a setting much like this, she stood while he knelt sobbing into her thighs and begging her not to leave him.

[iSo you can wipe off the grin, I know where you've been[/i

And she had run to the man he hated, lay in his bed and let him fuck her.

[iIt's all been a pack of lies[/i

"Lex," she began, her voice hoarse, "I don't think I can do this. I don't feel well."

To her surprise, he reached out and covered her hand in his. "Lois, please. I need not to be alone tonight."

She shook her head. "It's too much on me."

"If I'm alone tonight, I'm going to sink to the same depths I used to sink into," he admitted, albeit reluctantly. "Tonight I need your help." She was lost in his pleading gaze. "Maybe tonight I'm not a childless father or a wifeless husband. Maybe tonight I'm not a successful man who lost the most important deal of his life."

"But I'm still me," she protested, "and you despise me. You can't really want to choose me to spend tonight with."

His lips curved. "It's a choice between you and contemplating my black soul over scotch and a loaded gun, just like all the other years."

"At least I'm better than the prospect of shooting yourself in the head," she teased lightly.

"Maybe if tonight you're not Chloe's cousin—"

"Then who am I tonight?" she asked.

"Maybe tonight you can just be a friend."[iAnd I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lordI've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh lordI can feel it in the air tonight, oh lord[/i

"I'd like that."

And she wondered, what if—What if she let herself be taken by the warm sincerity in his eyes that told her as that he would not say? What if she forgot too, the way he seemed so intent to do? It seemed so easy. Slowly, her eyes drifted closed, and she felt his hand over hers tighten briefly then release.

[iWell I remember, I remember, don't worryHow could I ever forget, it's the first timeThe last time we ever met[/i

"Lois," he called softly.

For that moment, it almost seemed like he really said her name. Chloe opened her eyes to see Lex looking at her so intently. So many moments like those not so long ago.

"It's not the end of the world if we forget," he told her. "Maybe tomorrow we can go back."

To hating each other.

To cursing a woman he thought was dead.

To accepting that even now, despite what she had done, he was, and always will be obsessed.

"Alright," she said.

Lex nodded and poured her a glass of wine. "How are you enjoying your new job?"

"Perry is wonderful," she began. Then she remembered that Lex had met his editor-in-chief before, and saw the doubtful arch of his eyebrow. "He is," she repeated, chuckling. "He's temperamental, completely neurotic and downright obnoxious. I adore the old guy."

"No wonder," he returned.

"I'm gonna be like him someday," she joked.

"He sounds like a dream," he drawled.

"He sent me on one of those fluff piece assignments to cover the world's biggest ricecake," she related. "He made it sound like there was a huge drug bust in Chinatown last week. And then I was on a five-hour ride through wheat and rice paddies." Lois recalled the moment of sinking clarity when she realized what Perry had signed her up for. "The moment I got off the car and saw the festive decorations and the gigantic oven, I knew." Her eyes narrowed in recollection.

"I bet you gave him an earful."

"I got into the car for the five-hour drive back." Then she smirked. "I knew he was at home having lunch with his wife, trying to win her back after his eleven hundredth screw up."

"This sounds evil."

"He never turns off his machine in case there's a breaking story."

Lex laughed. "You did not."

She nodded. "I did. I know how to leave fake love messages and sound like I mean it." She sipped her champagne. "I doubt he'd do it again."

"He probably still would just to get right back at you. I remember Chloe once said…" and his voice trailed off.

She looked up at him, and saw the look of surprise in his face, as if he regretted having slipped. "It's okay, you know. You can talk about her."

"No." He shook his head sharply. "I can't."

[iBut I know the reason why you keep your silence upNo you don't fool meThe hurt doesn't show, but the pain still growsIt's no stranger to you or me[/i

"Lex," she began. But it was so easy to see that she had already lost him tonight.

Chloe placed down her glass and tossed her napkin back on the table. He seemed so young, so devastated. She stood up, and he looked up at her in question. She walked over to where he sat and closed her hand over his, then pulled him up.

"I thought tonight would be different," she said softly up at him.

Lex looked down at her, and she could swear that she saw him look at her like the way he used to, with something a lot like love. "I needed it to be."[iAnd I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lordBut I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh lordI can feel it in the air tonight, oh lord[/i"I'm never going to escape her, Lois."

She reached up her hand and cupped his face. She leaned up and pulled down his face for a brief kiss.

"I'm never going to want to," he continued, looking down at her puzzled.

"You don't have to," she whispered, her breath brushing against his moist lips. Chloe pulled him down again for another kiss, this time longer, deeper. Her hands slipped down to his belt and deftly undid it. "Let me do this." She helped him get off his pants.

He took her hand and pulled. "Let's go to the bedroom."

"No," she protested sharply. "Not the bedroom." She reached up and unhooked the clasp at the back of her dress, and allowed it to fall to the dining room floor. Chloe stood in front of him in her panties and a simple gold necklace.

Lex bent down and kissed the crook of her neck. His hand made its way to her breast and cupped, massaging it until her nipple was peaked. He backed her towards the window. They were soon engulfed by the thick curtains until they were almost invisible if not for their frantic motions.

As she arched her back to give him access to her aching breast, she worked her panties off. And then she was holding him in her hand. She felt him so strained and tensed. Chloe lifted one leg up and hooked it on his hips. She positioned him at her entrance.

"Lois." He hesitated, and looked up into her eyes. And it was sick, because he was looking into Chloe, and sinking into someone else. She nodded, and it looked to his dazed mind that she was someone else, and that this would really be okay. He intertwined his fingers with hers and held on. He drove home. She gasped and he squeezed his eyes tightly, his hips moving in a frantic rhythm, searching and pounding and reaching.

"Lex, more." She wanted to wrap her arms around him, rest her hands on his shoulders and rub the tension that she felt. Instead, his hands were tight as they clutched hers and pressed them against the moist glass. It was painful, and the most glorious experience she had ever had. He was inside her over and over and over, hitting the places she had never dreamed he would ever be again. The edges of her vision blacked and she released so violently she shuddered and screamed quietly, melting against the window, against his body, liquefied.

As she sagged against him, Lex released her hand and felt it come around his back, clutching at him, her nails sliding against the sweat. With his free hand he reached for her other thigh and placed her leg around his waist. With the new depth, he felt her grow tighter and even slicker. He rested his forehead against the cool window and pounded faster and heavier.

As elusive as it was, his climax shattered him when he finally found it. He pumped himself inside her continuously until he had nothing more. He was so sated that he melted onto his knees, taking her along with him. Breathing heavily, he lay down on the hardwood floor with Lois lying boneless against him.

He looked down at the dark head resting against his chest. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry for doing that," he rasped.

Chloe heard the words and swallowed, then her eyes drifted closed and a tear slid down the edge of her eye and dropped onto his skin.

[iI've been waiting for this moment for all my life[/i