---- Chapter 5: Purpose

Chloe walked into the house, smiling as she headed down into the basement and put her purse down, taking the gun and one hitter out. She walked over to her room and into the closet, putting them into a box up on a shelf. She let the lid drop back down on it and after changing into some jeans and a t-shirt, headed back upstairs to help with dinner preparations.

When she got up into the kitchen Lois was sitting with Jacob at the breakfast bar and Clark was walking outside with a plate of meats Chloe couldn't make out. She looked at Lois. "What's for dinner?"

Lois made a face but didn't look up when she spoke. "Steak."

Chloe rolled her eyes and walked over to the fridge, opening it up and pulling out a bottle of water. She opened it up and took a drink, wiping some off her lip with the back of a finger as she walked over to her cousin. "It's been two weeks, Lois. You can't still be mad at me for telling you that you aren't right about my stuff and then leaving."

"Give me some credit, Chloe. I'm not mad that you don't think I'm right because goodness knows we've had our disagreements in the past where we both thought we were right. I am mad that you won't even try, though. You're withdrawn from the world, only leaving the house when you go to work."

Chloe sighed and took another drink. She had yet to tell Lois about Blake, mostly because she wasn't sure what to tell her. 'Hey, I light up with my boss a couple times a week to relieve stress from my shitty life and started using him for sex, too!' That would probably be too blunt, really. Funny, in all likelihood, but she didn't even know where this sex with Blake thing was going and Lois was definitely never finding out about the weed.

If telling Lois about the sex could fix this undue anger and help things get back to normal, though... hell, it's not like telling Lois could make things any more confusing. Sleeping with her boss after having taken up getting stoned with him was a murky making set of events.

Putting down her bottle of water, she smiled at Lois and picked up Jacob, smiling at him as she walked over to the front door and pulled his jacket off of a hook. She got him into it and walked to the backdoor, opening it and walking out to Clark, who was standing next to the grill. He looked at her inquisitively as she placed his son in his arms.

"Lois and I need to talk, and while I love your little boy, he doesn't need to be hearing any of what I'm going to say even without understanding it."

"Um... ok?"

Turning around, Chloe didn't give him a chance to respond further before walking back into the house and over to Lois. She sat down on the chair next to her and pulled her bottle of water over, taking a quick sip before getting started.

"I have never gone out with coworkers for drinks."

Lois looked over at her, eyebrow raised. "Where the hell have you been two nights a week, then?"

"I've been with Blake."

"Why?"

Taking another sip of water, she swallowed and breathed deeply. "When it started, I just needed a couple nights a week where I could be in a stress free environment and relax. We sat together and enjoyed having no stress for a few hours." That was a good way of saying what she'd been doing without actually saying what she'd been doing. "A couple weeks ago, after I left the bar, I called him and went to the office, one thing led to another and... well, you wanted me to get back in the game, right?"

Lois worked her jaw a couple times before closing her mouth and looking away. She looked over again a minute later, still looking perplexed. "Your boss? Isn't he six or seven years younger than you are?"

"Not that it should matter, but it turns out he's turning thirty a week from tomorrow."

"No way."

"Yup. Had no idea until he told me he was that old. Negligible age difference, really."

Lois turned her head away again and Chloe finished off her bottle of water. She got up and walked over to the fridge, refilling it from the water dispenser and putting it in the fridge door to keep it cold until the steaks were ready. She walked back over slowly and leaned against the bar, watching Lois as she attempted to put everything together in her head. When she finally looked up, she was smiling slightly.

"Thank you for telling me."

"Of course I'm telling you, Lois. We're still us, and I still like talking to you. I just waited until now because I needed something that was just mine, something just I knew about in this mess I've made of my life. You know all my secrets," she said, knowing that was a lie, "and I live in your house, so I just needed something that was my own for a little while. And before you say anything, I know that I'm sleeping with my boss, which probably won't end well, but it's happening and that talk can wait."

Lois smiled at her. "I understand." She got up and walked around the breakfast bar, pulling Chloe into a hug. "I love you, cuz."

"Love you too, Lo."

Chloe put the finishing touches on a memo she'd typed up and printed out half a dozen of them. Grabbing them, she walked back to the HR department and handed them to the guy at the main desk. "Pass 'em out to everybody, will ya?"

"Sure thing, Chloe."

She walked back to her desk and sat down, going through a few papers before her phone buzzed on her ear, the light on the desk indicating it was Blake. She pushed the button on the earpiece. "What can I do for you, Blake?"

"Chloe, will you come in here please?"

Chloe held a smile back and put her earpiece down on the desk, setting the message to play while she was in his office. It had been nearly a month since his birthday and they were still having sex. They'd yet to leave the office before ripping each other's clothes off, or even eat dinner together at a restaurant, but it was nice just having the contact. It was a retreat from a chilly world that grew more and more chilly by the day. They were really good at it, too.

Walking into the office, Chloe closed the door behind her. She sauntered up to the desk, swaying her hips a little more than necessary, but her smile melted off when she saw Blake with his head in his hands, leaning on the desk. "Is something wrong?"

He looked up and smiled softly a second before his face fell. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually."

Chloe pulled up a chair in front of his desk, sitting down and folding her hands in her lap. "Alright, whatever's going on, we'll see what can be done about it." Jesus, that sounded way more coupley than she'd intended, but no turning back now.

"There's nothing to be done, really." He looked at her a second, and his face feel even further before he spoke. "I've sold the company."

Chloe gaped a second before smiling. "That's great news! What are you so glum about?"

"Well it's just..."

"...who he sold it to, Chloe."

Chloe's heart froze and her eyes went wide. Blake mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' at her before standing up and walking behind her. She stared at the wall before turning, finding Blake standing next to Lex. He just watched her, hands in his pockets. His sick smile was so self satisfied that she thought she might throw up. She looked at Blake.

"You sold it to him?"

"I'm so sorry, Chloe, but he offered me twice what I thought I could get in another two years, when things are really up and going. I'd have been an idiot to turn him down."

"You're a monumental idiot to accept his offer! It's Lex Luthor! You told me that my article opened your eyes to who he really is!"

"Mr. Stanton is a shrewd businessman, Chloe. He knows a good deal when it looks him in the face, and sometimes we get into business with people we don't like. I refuse to do such a thing, though, which is why I had one little requirement for my purchase of this very promising company." He looked over at Blake, who gulped and looked at her. "Mr. Stanton?"

Blake took a step forward and squared his shoulders a bit before speaking. "Chloe, I'm sorry, but you're fired." Chloe felt a tear trickle down her cheek as she stared at Blake. She'd never known that she could be so angry that she cried. "You, uh, you need to leave the building now."

Chloe stared at him a second longer before transferring her gaze to Lex, who was still wearing his self satisfied smile.

"F-ck you, Lex." She looked back to Blake. "And an even more emphatic f-ck you to you, Blake. You deserve whatever you get from this."

After another second she pushed her way between them and grabbed her purse from her desk, walking out of the office.

The cab ride home was silent and after paying the driver, she walked into the house and down into the basement, grabbing her gun and putting it in the box where she kept it. She was about to put her hitter in there with it and her pipe when she stopped herself and looked at it. Nobody was home, and she needed it.

Fucking Blake Stanton. He knew what Lex was and he STILL sold his company to him! What the hell was he thinking? Did he just want to screw her one way then screw her another? Had he even thought about it for a second when Lex had told him that she had to be fired for the sale to go through?

Standing in the backyard, Chloe lit her hitter and inhaled deeply. It was the first really cold day of the year, with light snow floating down from a gray sky, which was perfect for the shit that was going on. Pulling her coat a little tighter, she lit it again and inhaled as much as she could, holding it for a moment before she got caught in a fit of coughing. That lasted a minute and she took one more hit before walking back inside, feeling the anger just a bit less.

The rest of the morning and the afternoon passed quickly, with Chloe taking up drinking when her high finally wore off. She never turned on the television or radio, not caring to have anything interrupt her silence. She drank slowly, not to get drunk so much as just take the edge of the day off.

Fucking Lex Luthor. The bastard had started everything by getting her fired from the Planet, and now apparently had decided to f-ck her over once more, not even letting her keep an assistant's job. It was never enough for him to just make somebody miserable. No, he had to go in for the kill and really try to show that he could do anything he wanted. It would never stop unless somebody finally stopped him.

Chloe heard the front door open and the happy squeals of a now one year old Jacob. She sat up a little but didn't bother to hide her bottle of scotch that sat on the coffee table. It wasn't worth the effort.

"Chloe? You never beat us home."

She looked over at Lois, who was ruffling some snow out of her hair. Chloe saw Clark and Jacob make their way upstairs out of the corner of her eye as Lois nodded towards the liquor. "What's with the drink?"

"Special occasion: The guy I've been sleeping with sold his company to Lex. The only condition of the sale was that I get fired. As such, I am once again without work."

"What?" Lois walked over and sat down next to her, gaping. "Are you kidding me?"

"Couldn't make this up if I tried. I was always much better with truth than fiction."

"Are you... well, that would be a stupid question. How are you doing?"

Chloe took a sip of her drink, eyes wide as she nodded slowly. "I've felt worse. This is right up there with everything else that's happened, though, because I got screwed by a guy I thought wouldn't do that to me. Another nice one bites the dust, I guess. Damn shame you, Lucy and Lana got the only good ones left in the state of Kansas."

"Oh hon," Lois said as she pulled Chloe into a sideways hug. "I'm so sorry."

Chloe rested her head on Lois, sighing as she wiped away a tear with her thumb. "Better I know now rather than sometime in the future when he found a girl he liked better than me. At least this time I only lose out to money. Apparently twice the amount of what a company is worth down the line is how much it takes to not care about me."

Yawning, Chloe got out of bed and pulled on her robe. She ran a hand through her hair and grumbled as being fired three days previously popped into her head. God, she wanted to hurt Lex. If she could get her hands on him right now, wringing his neck would be just about the most satisfying thing she'd ever experienced. If only she could do it and not land in jail.

Putting her hands in the pockets to keep them warm, she walked out of her room and to the stairs, heading up to the main part of the house. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cup out of the dishwasher before heading to the coffee machine and pouring herself some. She heard a noise and looked over at the dining room table, where she found Lois spooning some food into Jacob's mouth. Lois smiled at her after wiping some food off of him.

"Morning, Chlo."

"Hey. I thought you guys would have taken off to the office by now."

Lois shook her head as Jacob took another bite of whatever she was giving him. "Clark already headed to the office. I'm covering a news conference this afternoon and told Perry that I was going to take the morning off to spend with Jacob and you before leaving yesterday."

"Oh." Chloe took a sip of her coffee and shrugged. "Are you taking Jacob with you?"

"Actually, I thought I'd leave him here with you."

"Ok then. Did you have anything specific in mind for this morning? I hadn't planned on anything more than sitting around in the basement all day."

"Nope. Sitting around and talking with my cousin sounds like a good morning to me."

Chloe nodded and smiled before drinking some more of her coffee. While it apparently wasn't going to be as quiet a morning as she had hoped for, talking with Lois might not be so bad. Might be nice to talk instead of hold everything in. She walked over and sat down, smiling at Jacob as he looked at her for a second before getting back to the food.

"So, tell me, how have you been feeling?"

Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again quickly. She was going to say fine, but that would have been a lie. This time, she was going to tell the truth. "You know how you describe your love for Jacob? The total, complete love I probably don't comprehend very well?"

Lois nodded and smiled at Jacob. "I vaguely recall that, don't I little guy?"

Chloe took another sip of coffee. "Well, think of that, but replace the love for Jacob with anger at life, and Lex in particular."

Lois looked over at her. "What?"

"Since I got fired on Monday, I haven't felt anything but angry. I wake up and I feel angry. I sit and watch TV and I'm angry. If I could get everything that has happened out of my head, I might feel better, but I'm stuck with my knowledge. The only reason you haven't really seen me blow a fuse or something is because I keep it in check while I'm with you guys. I have some pillows downstairs that have taken a beating, though."

After being quiet for a moment, Chloe spoke again as she frowned. "I have been overwhelmingly angry for days and it's starting to scare me a little because I'm getting used to it, and it's starting to be normal instead of strange."

"You're getting used to being angry all the time? How?"

Chloe pointed at Jacob. "How did you get used to loving Jacob?"

Lois spread her hands out and shrugged. "I got used to it because that's just the way things were after he was born. It just... was."

"That's exactly how I feel about being angry. It's just the way things are now. I know it's only been three days but it's been so mind consuming that I would drown in it if I didn't do something to adapt to it."

Lois didn't say anything after that so Chloe sat back in her chair and sipped at her coffee for a couple minutes, letting Lois think whatever she needed to think. She watched as her cousin just sat and stared off into space, frowning.

"Dada!"

Chloe looked over at Jacob, who was obviously wanting to get back to breakfast and expressing that through his favorite word. Reaching over, she pulled his food from in front of Lois and spun his high chair so that he was facing her. She got a tiny spoonful of the peas Jacob was eating, not quite sure how he could enjoy them so much, and gave him a bite. After a couple more she decided that she should probably pull Lois out of her stupor.

"If you are trying to think things through, I'm sorry to interrupt but we're starting to get worried. As much as he likes me, I think Jacob still likes you a little better." Lois blinked and looked up, looking over at her and Jacob after a second. "Hey, there ya are cuz. Have a good think?"

"Uh, yeah. How long did I space out?"

"A few minutes. Jacob was still hungry, though, so I took up the mantle of spoon user. What happened?"

Lois stood up and paced a little before answering. "I was trying to imagine how you feel. I was trying to figure out what it would be like to have the same strength of feeling that I have about Jacob, except have it be anger. I couldn't do it, though. I couldn't imagine being that angry."

Chloe smiled at her sadly. "Good. I wouldn't want anybody I care about to have to feel like this. I want you and everybody else happy and not able to even imagine what I feel like."

"I want to understand how you feel, Chloe."

Chloe spooned another bite into Jacob's mouth, not looking at Lois. "I don't want you to understand how I feel. I don't want anyone to have to understand how I feel."

Carrying a sleeping Jacob up to his room, Chloe smiled for a second as she put him down in his crib. Looking down on him, she felt peaceful for a moment before sighing and grabbing the baby monitor. Walking back downstairs, she planted herself on the living room couch and put her feet up on the coffee table as she grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. She flipped to a local financial channel and tossed the remote aside.

The anchors were talking about something to do with inflation until the cut to a podium that said LexCorp on it, and Chloe grabbed the remote again, turning up the volume.

"...the news that LexCorp has bought the small company Stanton Technologies. The potential it has upside is big, but I can't understand this purchase right now. Even with all the upside, the reported amount that he offered for the company is extremely high. Mr. Luthor has always been a good businessman, as seen by his success, but this one just doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Alright, off that we see that the LexCorp spokesperson is stepping up to the podium, so we go there live."

"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tracy Thompson, head of public relations for LexCorp. This conference is to officially announce the acquisition of Stanton Technologies into the holdings of LexCorp. I have a short statement that Mr. Luthor would like me to read before we get to questions."

"'Stanton Technologies is a promising young company that I've had my eye on for some time now. With proper guidance and financing I feel strongly that its innovations will only add positively to the LexCorp family and bring about change in the world.'"

Some time now. Ha! Lex had probably could have cared less that the company existed until Blake had hired her as his assistant, the rat f-cking bastard. The spokesperson put the paper down and pulled off her glasses, indicating the question part of the session. She pointed at a reporter that was off camera and Chloe turned up the volume a little so she could hear it.

"Lois Lane, Daily Planet." What? This was the news conference she was going to? Chloe turned up the volume a little more to make sure she could hear Lois. "I'm curious as to why this deal happened. The company is a good year away from being worth half this much money according to numerous business insiders. What prompted Lex to pay at least twice, if not more than that, what he could have with no competing offers in the mix?"

The lady at the podium shuffled papers a second before answering. "Mr. Luthor feels strongly that this could be a great company in the near future, and wanted no doubt left in Mr. Stanton's mind that he meant that. He wanted to act swiftly and decisively to bring the company into the LexCorp family." She pointed at somebody else and Chloe turned the volume down.

God damn Lex Luthor. The man had so much money that he could afford to throw away that much just to screw her over! She knew as well as anybody in Stanton Tech that it was nowhere near worth what had been offered, and because of that Blake's pupils had turned into little dollar signs and he'd sold the damn thing to a guy less trustworthy that the devil.

Getting up off the couch, Chloe walked over and grabbed her phone, scrolling through names until she got what she wanted. She listened to it ring a couple times before it was answered. "Hey, it's me. I need your help with something."

"Where are you headed, Chloe?"

Taking her hand off the door, she gritted her teeth a second before smiling and turning around. "I was just going to go downtown and walk around for awhile, clear my head."

Lois walked over, looking confused. "You could always just walk around the neighborhood instead of going all the way into the city to walk around after dark. I assume you're probably safer around here."

All she wanted to do was go to a shooting range and blow off a little steam. Was it so much to ask that she be allowed to do that in peace? Well, maybe it was, considering that neither Lois nor Clark knew that she even owned a gun, let alone had started going to a shooting range a few days after she was fired, firing it and imagining she was shooting Lex right between the eyes. Probably not healthy, but it really made her feel better.

"Y-yeah, I could do that, but..." What excuse? There had to be an excuse! "...um..." She needed to think of something! What could she use? Thanksgiving was coming up but it was still four days away... yes! "There's a pre-Thanksgiving Christmas sale and I wanted to go buy you a present."

"Wouldn't the place be closing right as you got there?"

Son of a bitch, it wasn't happening tonight. "You know what, you're probably right. I guess I will just take that walk around the neighborhood."

"Are you ok? You're being kinda weird."

"I'm fine. Just gonna go walk."

Chloe walked outside and headed away from the house, deeper into the neighborhood. When she was a couple streets away she pulled out her hitter and got it loaded before lighting it and inhaling as deeply as she could. A moment later she took another hit, exhaling not long after. It wasn't how she'd wanted to spend her night, but since she wasn't getting a release from shooting smoking would have to do.

"This is stupid. I don't care what he's put you through, doing this alone is a bad idea."

"I don't want to hear it. I called you for help, not a lecture on why what I'm doing isn't what I should be doing. With or without your help I'm going in there to get the evidence I need to take him down."

"Fine, but why are you doing it alone? You've got a veritable cornucopia of people to help you, and a hell of a lot of them have special abilities or powers that could help your efforts. Let somebody, anybody, help. Hell, A.C. would be better than nothing and he wouldn't even be able to SMELL water!"

Chloe turned away from him and looked out the window of the clock tower at the skyline of Metropolis. The buildings really gleamed during the day. Grinding her teeth together, she turned around and faced Ollie again. He'd insisted on a face to face meeting before he helped her. She knew that he was going to try to talk her into taking some backup, but if she took anyone she wouldn't be able to do what she needed to do to get rid of her anger.

"No. Lex screwed me out of the Daily Planet and then actually bought a company just so he could fire me! This is my story and I'm going to get it without help!"

"Are you sure it wasn't just a coincidence? It seems an awful lot of money to spend for Lex to fire you."

"It's Lex f-cking Luthor. Would you really put it past him?"

Ollie stared at her a moment before he sagged a little and sat down. "Fine, you'll have what you need in a couple days. If anything happens to you... be careful, alright? You matter to everybody, more than you know."

"I'll be fine, Ollie. I'm just going to get some information to prove myself to the world."

She hated lying to him, and anybody else she thought of as a friend, but she was going to do what she had to. This situation needed closure and there was only one way she could think of to get any.

Chloe opened up an envelope and turned it over, dropping a small pass key, a couple contact lenses and a latex glove onto her bed. After getting the contacts in, she stuffed the latex glove and the pass key into her pocket.

Now that she had what she needed she wasn't wasting any time. Walking into her closet, she grabbed the box that held her gun and clips. She was really glad that she had taken the time to get a gun from a guy that wasn't technically a legal salesman. Her gun was registered to a woman that had died around the time she'd gone in to get one so tracing it back to her was unlikely, especially once she was rid of it. Fingerprints were easy enough to wipe away.

All the anger in her had finally gone nuclear, leaving her with one mindset. The only way to fix this was to make sure that Lex Luthor couldn't do to anybody else what he'd done to her. Others may have doubted that he bought the company, spending hundreds of millions just to screw her life up further, but she knew it was true. They just couldn't admit she was right.

Grabbing an old messenger bag she'd bought in college, she dropped the clips and unloaded gun in. Getting the bag situated, she headed upstairs quietly. She grabbed Lois's keys and slipped out the front door, jogging over to her car. Getting it started, she backed out of the driveway and headed towards the city.

Tonight, Lex Luthor died and Chloe had her revenge.