The Trek – Chapter 14

Clark retrieved his laptop from the house and quickly headed out of the city. He knew that Lionel could control Chloe from having her watched. He was a different story; Lionel knew his vunerability but couldn't control his disappearances. Clark carefully thought about his next move as he gathered materials and disappeared into a blur from the loft.

Not much time had passed from the time he had left the safe confines of the Kent farm to the strange confines of a coffeehouse in Kansas City. Briefly, he had carefully thought about going to see his mother but thought better. If he knew Lionel and the family's past history, he would have already got to her and had her tracked. His security was better for the most part than any government security.

He sat down and looked over the files that were encrypted. He needed Chloe to make any sense of the material in front of him. He hooked up the headphones and listened in on dozens of conversations of Lex's as the waitress for his table continued to refill his coffee for what it seemed hours.

"You need anything?" She politely asked. Clark nodded and went back to reading the files as the woman looked over his shoulder. "You know sugar, maybe if you stepped back from the screen." The woman pointed over her shoulder at the slight change in the picture background. "Looks like two different layers to me."

Clark looked back up at the pretty blond waitress who reminded him of Chloe. He dragged on the picture and watched the layers divide on the program to reveal the different parts of what appeared to be the perfect person…and weapon.

Parts of multiple meteor freaks as Chloe put it were layered as one person. Clark zoomed into the picture and could only make out Geron. He sat back and typed in the name into the search engine and pulled up the website to what was supposedly a very viable cloning company buried in the United States. Sitting back in the chair, he nodded at the screen. The company was completely valid and on the up and up. He continued to read, becoming ever more edgy about the circumstances of cloning.

Luthorcorp seemed honest for the most part, or so people on the outside thought most of the time. "Time to pay Geron a visit." Clark closed the file, shut the computer off, dropped a twenty on the table for the nice waitress' tip, and disappeared as soon as he was out of the door.

Clark arrived a few minutes later at the Geron facilities in California. Before leaving for the facility, he thought about Chloe and her tactics. Take it straight, he thought as he looked at himself in the mirror. He wore a pair of slacks and a light blue shirt. He felt oddly dressed up but that was what the picture Chloe took for a fake ID once before looked like. "Hope this works."

Back at the plant, he walked purposely up to the desk and showed the woman behind the counter his ID. "Very well. And the nature of the interview."

"I'm looking into advancements on the nuclear transfer as related to human cloning." The receptionist tilted her head cautiously at Clark. One too many of the human cloning protesters had tried to make it upstairs in recent weeks.

"I'm afraid…"

Did the spell actually work for him as much as other men. Chloe and Lana always said the women looked at him like animals. Chloe had even made him use it once before to get into a club. How bad could it be? "Look," he lowered his voice to almost a whisper as he leaned in, "I'm not an environmentalist on a mission. I'm just trying to get a leg up in the reporting world, and human cloning is always a hot button topic. I just want to present the facts the way they should be reported. Let the world know your side of the story." Clark ran his fingers down the top of the woman's hand as she continued to lean into the side of the desk and let her eyes wander across his broad chest.

Taking a deep sigh, she smiled back at him. "I'll see what I can do…umm?"

"Clark Kent."

He turned around and eyed the rest of the main lobby finding nothing in particular. The company was groundbreaking in their research. He couldn't believe that such a place was in bed with Luthorcorp on the inside. "Mr. Kent, they said you could go up. Floor 6."

"Thank you," Clark nodded and started around to the elevators as a hand touched his. "Yes?"

"It's Denise. Look I don't normally do this, but how about dinner?" Clark's face turned from determination to whimsy. He briefly thought about how he and Lana had danced for so long and never got anywhere. How alone the farm felt without anyone, and now even Chloe was out of the picture. "I know," she broke his concentration, "it was stupid. You probably have a nice girlfriend or wi…"

He squeezed the soft hand and smiled at the flirty brunette. "We'll talk about when and where when I get back." She giggled as she went back to her seat. Clark traveled up the elevator and silently laughed to himself. Play it straight my ass, you just pulled a Lex. As the elevator opened, a man introduced himself to Clark.

The meeting went on for another hour. The man explained he was not at liberty to show pictures or give a tour of the facility. The simplistic explanation of nuclear transfer still seemed hard to comprehend. "Sir, not that the United States government would even remotely allow such a thing to take place, but what are the chances to create something similar to Dolly in a human. To go further, could you conceivably mix portions of DNA like a cocktail and create a fertilized egg in another human?"

The man leaned back in his chair and stared at the young reporter. "It's been conceived in vision and theory at best. Honestly, changing the DNA in a nucleus is incredibly difficult and has not yet been perfected. That type of manipulation would cause parents to pick exactly what they want in their child, including eye color, hair color, IQ…sperm banks would be overrun with people looking for the perfect combination."

"How about military application or," Clark had to be careful with his questioning, "the application of extremely different human traits." The executive looked at him strangely as if not interested in answering the question.

"We are solely interested in the uses of cloning or any other genetic work in the ability to eradicate disease. We are in fact close to a possible stem cell cure for AIDS. We don't deal with the military."

Clark bit his lip and thought of a quick exit at the next question, "How about other corporations that you work with? Are you aware of any issues there? There has been discussion that Luthorcorp…"

"Son, we cut ties with that company 4 years ago." The man leaned back in his chair and punched a few keys on the computer in front of him. Grabbing the paper off the printer, he came around the corner of the desk and handed the papers to Clark. "You did NOT get this information from me," he leaned in, "but we cut ties with them over a botched prototype human clone done under the table. Their pocketbooks were huge and the whole situation just went away, including two of our most highly touted geneticists. Families and all. This is the last address of the one man I knew." He lowered his voice again. "Taking on Lionel Luthor is a death sentence."

Clark got up and shoved the piece of paper in his pocket and shook the man's hand. "I'm well aware of that." He returned the whisper, "Watch yourself."

"Who are you anyway? You're not a reporter."

"Let's just say the Luthors and I go back further than I wished. Thanks." Clark shut the door and sighed, wadding his hand around the information in his pocket. He walked through the reception area and smiled at Denise. "How about 7? I'm not from here – you pick something we can walk to."

He smiled as he headed out the rotating doors as he heard a shot go off in the building. Looking up through the windows, he watched as the man he just talked to shot himself. Pulling the information out of his pocket, he noticed it was a hand written note about Luthorcorp's experiments sent from an airport fax machine. "Lab A – Riverton, AL. All on rivers, dams. Need the power. Quit now. G."

Clark examined his options, knowing the bad impression it would give if he didn't at least go on the date he had made. Looking at his watch, he wondered how long Alabama would take.

**********

"Ok, remove your hands. They are getting all clammy on my face." Chloe stepped carefully as Lex continued to shuffle her feet along side his as he put her into position. Her feet were cold; the only clue she had was the parts of her face not covered were cold. He had convinced her to at least sleep the entire plane flight and keep the windows closed. She knew they were on a private jet. "How did you pay for all of this?" she asked with her face still covered.

"We're incredibly poor now. No, I actually," Lex stopped and ran his hands up and down Chloe's covered arms, "dipped into the baby's fund."

Chloe's head whipped around and looked at him sadly, "You didn't have to do that." She turned around and felt the cooler air nip at her face. "Oh my God."

Lex leaned in and wrapped his jacket covered arms around her, nuzzling into her neck. "But the look on your face says I did needed to do this." Lex pulled her closer and turned her to face him as he ran his gloved his hands along her bright red cheeks, "I love you."

Chloe looked up in his eyes as he drew her up into a kiss. She stood on her toes to keep her lips from coming unlocked from the warmth as he pulled her closer to him with the wind blowing around them. "This is so beautiful," she whispered as she pulled out of the kiss and leaned into his chest. "Thank you."

"So, what do you think? Surprised?" Lex let her loose as he took her hand in his and walked along the Neva River with her.

Chloe wrapped the wool wrap around her neck once more and looked out on the wooden boats and other small crafts drift under the bridge they were on. "Stunned. Where are we?"

"St. Petersburg. You said we should go back." He wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her forehead as she leaned into his chest and smiled strangely. She tried to act just merely surprised about her trip across the ocean. She was in shock and completely out of touch with Clark. He couldn't possibly handle things with Lionel on his own.

"Honey," Chloe snapped out of the daze when she realized that she suddenly had become cold again. Lex had stopped and leaned against the railing of the bridge and watched her continue to walk in a daze. She stopped and looked back at him. "Where are you going? Are you ok?"

Chloe was shaking. She couldn't tell if she was cold or nervous. They had been perfect, a perfect fictional story for a month, until this particular moment. She wondered what was going at home and suddenly felt self conscious about all the people around her. She was alone in a foreign country with him, alone. She couldn't warn Clark in case something went wrong. She walked over to Lex cautiously and stood next to him. "It's beautiful, but I'm really surprised at the temperature." She looked at her watch and mentally computed the time, "and the light."

Lex wrapped his arm around her and kissed her now near frozen cheek. "Don't worry – I'll keep you warm and the hotel's curtains block out the white nights." Chloe glanced over at Lex. "You had said you were disappointed the last time since you wanted to see it. I told you that it was just like daylight in the middle of the night." He laughed as he slid in behind her on the bridge and wrapped his arms in hers.

The two walked back to the small hotel room that consisted literally of a bed and the bathroom. "Sorry about the accommodations. Things seem more expensive when you can't just throw money at it without thinking." Lex walked into the bathroom and undid his shirt as Chloe stood in front of the window, still shielding her eyes from the odd natural occurrence. She still watched the people walking down the street below them and then at people in the hotel windows across the way from theirs. Things felt out of place.

"Shit!" Chloe jumped out of her skin as Lex kissed the side of her neck and ran his hands along the sides of her arms and down her back, stopping at her midsection. Chloe closed her eyes at his lips trailing down her neck as she felt her bra pop loose.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Lex whispered into her ear as he continued sprinkling her skin with kisses. "You know, you should get ready. Our reservations aren't going to wait." Chloe turned in his arms. He rarely let her go now; it was almost worrisome the way he constantly traced his hands along her body. Small flashbacks of his touching her the same way on the video reminded her that she was in love with a figment of her imagination. He wasn't real – he was what she had always wanted in any man, just lucky enough to get some time with him. Pulling from his soft grip, she smiled and kissed him gently on the lip and moaned slightly.

"I'll be out in a flash." Chloe disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door and looking at the back of the door. She buried her head in her hands. She couldn't lose her Lex, not to Lionel, not to death. She continued the paranoia of thinking everyone was watching them and missed the door open.

Lex gazed silently as his wife seemed to internally struggle with something in her own little silence. Thinking he would say something to comfort her, he noticed her deep in thought and thought better of it. He pulled the door to and sat on the edge of the bed half dressed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

A sudden sharp pain hit him above the right eyebrow as he squeezed his head with his hands. Closing his eyes, he couldn't understand the strange visions of Chloe yelling at him in a cave. He started to breath heavier in response to the pain before reaching for his bag and swallowing three Excedrin down dry. He lay down on the bed and sighed still with his eyes closed. What were he and Chloe ever doing in a cave, and they were yelling at each other.

Chloe stood up and cleaned her face of the smudged makeup before reapplying more. She honestly had no idea what he had planned. Walking out into the room, she looked in the reflection of the mirror and ran back into the bathroom, wetting a washcloth and cursing his father. "Hey, headache bad?"

"How'd you guess." Lex mumbled as he grabbed his head and squeezed his eyes together. "Thank you." Chloe placed the washcloth on his head and squeezed his hand. Chloe sat staring at his topless form writhing in pain for more than five minutes until his eyes loosened their squint and barely opened. "Lights."

She turned the lights down, closed the curtains, and returned to the bed, laying her head against his shoulder and traced her fingers over his chest. "We could stay in tonight if you are feeling bad. I'll just order something in for the evening." She picked up the room service menu and flipped through seeing nothing that remotely looked like food.

Lex propped another pillow under his head and took the menu from her and picked up the phone. Chloe watched as she propped herself on her hand. He spoke fluent Russian still. Something things never changed so it seemed. "It'll be here in about an hour." He lay back again and concentrated on the placement of the washcloth on his head. The headaches were getting worse. "I want to go back to the doctor when we return."

Chloe's ears perked up at the statement. A doctor controlled by Lionel Luthor and his personal pharmaceutical counter. "Honey, it's probably just a migraine. You have had a lot of activity today."

Lex turned and stared at Chloe, "No, they get worse everytime. And things are happening that I can't explain." He turned and faced Chloe. "Like last night I had a dream about you and I in a morgue but woke up before I could tell why we were there." Lex grabbed her hand and shook as he squinted and continued, "and just now I saw us in a cave having an argument. What's going on?"

Chloe pursed her lips together in worry. She smiled as well as she could realizing his memories were coming back to him one by one. She couldn't explain it. "I think the meds are playing tricks on your mind. The doctor told me to make sure you stop taking them and maybe this will all stop."

The two laid facing each other in silence, carefully touching each other as if the other would break or cry foul. Lex continued to move the one section of her hair out of her face repeatedly where he could gaze at her. He closed his eyes repeatedly, each time trying to push away the awkward thoughts of the two of them that continued to have shown up over the last couple of days. His migraines and stupid visions would not ruin their entire trip.

"Room service!" Chloe jumped off the bed and opened the door.

"Thanks," she signed the slip and pushed the small tray into the room. "I have," she pulled a lid off the designer plates not knowing what she would find, "hamburgers. Bless you honey." She pulled the plates off and sat up next to Lex on the bed.

"I figured you didn't want the rest of the stuff on the menu after the last trip." Lex flipped on the TV and found the movie channel that was in English. "Roman Holiday."

Chloe scooted up next to Lex as they sat and slowly ate in the comfort of the cozy hotel room. The TV was even small, but she didn't care. She felt safer in his arm than walking around the streets. Lionel had to have found his way out of his confines hours ago and tracked them to St. Petersburg. They had to be watched. Glancing up in his eyes, she worried about the visions. She prayed the meds weren't the issue.

Lex moved about the room quietly, cleaning up the dishes from dinner as carefully as possible while still grabbing at his head every so often. He watched as Chloe flipped her body over to face the window and looked at the clock. It was 4 AM, and she wasn't bothered by the time change. Pushing the dishes out into the hallway, he leaned against the wall and stared at her. He loved her, but his dreams scared him. They were always angry. Things between them were too good finally to worry her about his problems; he simply ignored the thoughts thinking the meds were just messing with his head. He flipped the light completely off and headed to bed.

"Damn," he grabbed at his foot and landed in the bed less than gracefully.

"Are you ok?" Chloe whispered before she saw Lex grabbing his foot in the shadows. She rubbed her sleepy face as she giggled.

"Shut up," Lex tried to answer with a straight face as he climbed into the bed next to her. "It hurt."

"I'm sorry, it's just," Chloe stopped as she felt his hand move up inside her nightshirt. Her thoughts were replaced with moans as Lex took her breast in his hand. "Trying to displace your pain?" she whispered in the dark at the shadow leaning over her.

"Something like that," he whispered as he slipped his hand out and undid her shirt's buttons, kissing a trail from her lips to belly before disappearing under the covers. Chloe's eyes rolled into the back of her head at his touch and moaned as he buried his face into her depths. "Headache better?" she rasped.

She only heard a muffled giggle from under the covers.

***********

"I want increased stakeout on the Kent farm, the Senator's office, her home, Chloe Sullivan's Talon apartment, and the Daily Planet. That boy will be found. Use the means given to take him out." Lionel slammed the phone down in his office and watched the repairmen push the door back into place. He removed the latest ice pack from the back of his head and examined it. The bleeding was finally stopped.

He looked over the images of the cloning facility from the morning's email and wondered how long the facility could not be compromised. No one had seen Clark in his usual haunts and that worried Lionel.

"And what of the rest of surveillance?"

"Not part of the surveillance sir, but a former associate from Geron committed suicide in his office yesterday. Witnesses state that a young man dressed in a suit had just interviewed him about the limits of cloning." Lionel looked at the article from the newspaper and glared at the man's name. An old team member that he had been introduced to by Lex in the early stages of 33.1. He had been on the ground floor of the experimentation but quietly had been released after pleading for his family. And foolishly Lex had somehow still had feelings for those then. The same feelings that he exhibited now.

"And of the house?"

"Sir, the men have finished the bugs in the Luthor household and searched the entire home. There was no hard drive found. Sir, we did find this though in a stack of books. He arranged it through a courier. Our men missed the exchange." Lionel leaned back in the seat and slammed his fist down on the desk. Clark had heard the entire conversation and had the information. To boot, he had gotten to his son and sent them away.

"GET OUT!" He yelled at the man and looked back over the surveillance tapes from the Luthorcorp tower and the house across the street from Lex's. One young boy leaving the premises. Stupid surveillance team. Not even blur had been picked up either. "Fuck!"

**********

"Ok, I got us reservations for somewhere else tonight. They are going to have to squeeze us in around ten." Lex called through the door of the bathroom as Chloe continued to pull things out of her bag and shook her head.

"What kind of place?"

"Something nice," he said as he appeared from the bathroom in a suit. She hadn't seen him in something like that since he had paid her a visit at the Planet months before. She shivered as he brushed past her and started pulling out ties.

"Lex, there's nothing like that in my bag," she stated as he held up two ties for her obvious approval. One was violet and the other a dark blue with small pin stripes of green. She silently told herself nothing remotely like the old Lex. "The blue one. Now what about me?"

Lex walked over, draping the tie around his neck, "Just go get ready. Wear your hair up if possible." He tucked some behind her ear and kissed her. She felt her back into the wall with his hand against the back of her head as the kiss deepened. She could only feel his tongue swirl against her and could taste the mint on his breath. Moaning into his mouth, she grabbed the ends of the tie and pulled him down into her deeper, feeling his growing pleasure against her.

"Baby," he whispered into her ear, "we can't miss reservations two nights in a row." Chloe let go of the now crumpled tie and pouted before turning the corner and then jumped.

"That probably left a print," she laughed at the slap on her ass. She closed the door of the bathroom and heard the TV come on. She stared into the mirror as the door shut completely and saw the reflection. The dress was floor length, velvet, and forest green. Hanging off the hanger was a velvet bag with a box in it. She pulled the small note out of the bag and read it, "Hope you like it. Love, Lex."

Chloe popped open the box and slid her fingers over the emeralds from both the necklace and earrings. They matched the dress precisely. She wondered which he had matched first. She put the earrings on before continuing to get dressed.

Standing in front of the mirror, she watched her chest heave up and down as she tried to calm herself. No one had ever treated her so well and scared her so terribly. "Are we going?" she heard from the other room.

"Coming," she smiled at herself before putting the last of the hair picks that were in the little bag with the jewelry. I'm not a Lex girl, he doesn't have girls, he has me, he's always had me she tried to convince herself.

Lex turned and momentarily lost his footing. Chloe raced across the floor thinking he was having another episode. "Are you ok?" She spoke swiftly and nervously. Lex grabbed her around the waist and laughed.

"I'm fine," he whispered. "You're stunning." Chloe hitched her breath as he ran his fingers over the small emerald hanging between her collarbones. "Shall we?" He held his arm out as he slipped the keycard into his pocket. Chloe straightened his tie and nodded.

Dinner was a phenomenon that she had never experienced. The restaurant was two rooms with only seven tables total. The music was live piano and violin. The meal was superb and she had no idea how to convert the amount the meal would cost. "How much is all of this," she asked as Lex slid another piece of cake off the plate.

He slipped the piece in his mouth and turned the ticket over. Chloe watched his expression as his eyebrows squeezed together. Turning the ticket back over, he took a drink of the wine he had ordered. "About $75. It looks a lot scarier in rubles." He smiled and held out his hand. "Dance?"

"Lex, there's no dance floor here."

"So what. I want to dance with my wife." Chloe looked at his hand and slipped hers in as the man at the piano started playing again, something slower. She leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes, breathing in his scent. She continued to try to pry out the idea he was anyone but her husband. However fake this was, she would do it all over again to be with him.

"I love you just like this," she whispered as he looked down into her eyes. Stopping in the middle of the floor, he took and dipped her back before kissing her where the emerald fell.

Lifting her back up, he gazed at her, running his finger over her bare shoulder, "I love," he paused and squinted. "I love," he slurred as he fell to the ground.