Going Down – Chapter 15

Chloe paced in the stark white hallway in her velvet green dress covered by Lex's coat. She couldn't control her breathing and continued wringing her hands together in nervous anticipation. The doctors had hauled him from the restaurant soon after his collapse. He had resisted waking up in the helicopter on the ride over. She had tried nervously to fill out the admittance papers with the assistance of one of the English speaking nurses on duty.

She sat on the couch outside the ICU unit he had been rushed into. She put her head in her hands and couldn't stop crying. "Mrs. Luthor?" She glanced up at the doctor that sat beside her. "I spoke to the doctor that you gave me the name of that had the history of his medications." The doctor stopped and looked over the chart in his hand. "He has a mass, a tumor from the mix of the meds."

Chloe's chin quivered as she covered her mouth and choked the tears back. "And?"

"We can operate, remove the tumor, and hope that there is no reoccurrence if the medications are avoided."

She turned to the doctor, still wringing her hands together. "But?" Chloe could feel the but coming. The operation couldn't be that simple. A number of things could be playing behind the scenes, including Lionel sitting in the doctor's office writing a check to the doctor to let him die on the table.

"Complications always are a risk. Since the tumor is brain related there is chance of memory loss, unconsciousness, coma, death." Chloe grabbed at her hair and buried her head in her arms. "Can I get you something before we discuss the operation. I have to have your permission to operate."

Chloe got up and walked down the hall toward the ICU doors. "I want to see him, and I need to make a phone call to the United States." The doctor nodded as he put his arm around her and pressed the button on the ICU doors. The room opened up to eight smaller rooms with a myriad of beeps coming from all around her. "If there are other family members, how can I guarantee that they won't change the orders over mine."

The doctor didn't quite understand the reasoning for her worry. "Ma'am, his power of attorney states your name implicitly."

"What?" Chloe stared at the doctor as he handed her Lex's billfold.

"I'm sorry but we were looking for medical information cards and found this. Signed three days ago in Metropolis." Chloe laid the paper down on the nurse's counter and read it. He knew it was his father and the drugs and never mentioned it, she thought as she read the Power of Attorney that he had filled out. She silently hoped that European doctors weren't as dirty as the black market in Russia.

"Can I see him?" The doctor waited as she finally folded the papers up and walked her into the small room covered in tubes and hoses. She glanced over the readings and couldn't make heads or tails of it.

He would have had to collapse in Russia. She sat in the chair next to the bed and slipped her hand into his. The doctor slid the clear glass door closed and retreated back to the nurse's station. "Lex? God, don't do this to me – you can't let your father win this one. We have beaten him before; you didn't deserve to be treated like this. God, I hated you for what you did to my family, but I need you now." Chloe pressed her lips together and lowered her head on the edge of the bed.

"Sorry," barely came from the bed. Chloe lifted her tear stained eyes, mascara running down her face. "You look like a sad clown." She grabbed his hand and tried to laugh.

"You scared me," she whispered. "You have a brain tumor – it's the reason for the headaches. They want to operate, but if…"

"Do it." He combed his hand through her hair and wiped the black off her cheeks. "I love you Chloe, just like this." She couldn't resist the tears that overwhelmed her eyes as they ran down into his palm.

"Don't you forget me Lex Luthor." He smiled and hitched a breath.

Squeezing her hand, he mouthed, "How could I," before turning away from her and listening to her constant sobs as she squeezed his hand harder and cried on the bed sheets.

"Lex?" She watched his chest rise and fall as he fell back to sleep.

She walked out of the ICU room and leaned against the counter. The doctor put together a small packet and pointed out the different places that she signed her name, Mrs. Chloe Luthor. "The operation will take approximately six hours. The nurse will show you to the waiting room where you can make the necessary phone calls. The International charges are incurred on the hospital bill. Just enter ICU 3." Chloe nodded as the doctor went back into the room with Lex.

She sat down next to the phone and dialed. She knew she couldn't keep everything from Lionel. Clark's phone had to be tapped in someway. "Hello?" Clark looked strangely at the number.

"Clark, he collapsed. He's in surgery."

"Where are you?"

"Helsinki."

"What?"

"Long story. I'm at the University Hospital. Clark, I don't…"

"Don't finish that sentence." Clark clicked the phone closed and got his bearings. The discussion of the plant in Alabama could wait until he got to Helsinki. Looking around the small farm road in the country, he disappeared into a blur.

********

Lionel Luthor opened his email and glared at the pictures and transcripts. "Lex collapsed in a restaurant in St Petersburg and was flown to the Helsinki hospital. His wife is with him. The ICU unit was inaccessible sir. He is in surgery as we speak. There was a call made to Clark Kent. The discussion was short; he is from what I understood one his way there now. Do you want me to follow?"

Lionel picked up the phone," Get the jet ready. Helsinki." Lionel sat back and punched a few buttons on the computer in front of him and stared at the clone on the screen. The image of Lex was frighteningly on spot. He picked up the phone again.

"Yes sir?"

"Have the clone field tested in the mansion while I am gone. You know the protocol." Lionel looked over the files on the progression of the clone. The specialist that he had worked with disappeared in the last day from the facility that he was working at. Disconcerted, he had to move ahead with the experiment if this was truly the end of his son's life. There couldn't be a few moments without his son in the presence of the public. The replacement had to be completely ready for the task at hand in the event of Lex's death.

He stopped and looked at the picture of his son from the restaurant in St Petersburg. They were nice together. But she was the last one in the picture. Clark had a destiny, none of which included his family and friends. Chloe and Lex were the last. It would have been so much easier to just kill Lana so long ago. He got up and tucked the files under his arm and headed to the heliport.

*********

Chloe felt a warm hand on her face and squinted, "Lex?"

"Wrong end of the spectrum." She sat up and buried her head into Clark's chest. "What happened?" He ran his fingers through her hair and closed his eyes, hearing her sobs into his shirt. He felt almost upset with her; she hadn't been this upset when Lana had passed away.

"He has a brain tumor. That rat of his father drugged him until he developed a brain tumor." Chloe wiped her nose and grabbed her hair in frustration. "He could die."

"Chloe, two months ago we were hoping he would. You can't possibly want to save him." Clark grabbed her by the arms and shook her slightly. "Listen to me Chloe. I love you and I don't want to see you fall into this trance like Lana did. The real Lex is still in there."

"You don't know him like I do – he's different."

"Right now, but what happens after the surgery." Clark stopped as Chloe turned around and stared at him. He hit the point she had tried to avoid thinking of for a month now. He couldn't return to himself. Chloe shook her head and backed away from Clark as he started to rattle off instances that Lex had gone in and out of delirium and always returned to himself.

"I don't want to hear it!" Clark grabbed her around the waist as she covered her ears and shook violently. "Let me go! He's going to be fine! He's going to be fine!" She slumped to the floor in the middle of the waiting room and collapsed. "He's going to be fine," she whispered.

"Ok, he's going to be fine," Clark conceded. He closed his eyes and held Chloe in his arms as a surgeon came down the hallway. Sweating through his scrubs, he stopped and knelt next to Chloe.

"Mrs. Luthor, your husband is out of surgery. It was a success. He will be in recovery for about the next few hours or so. I will send someone to get you when you can see him." Clark thanked the doctor as he walked away.

"He's going to be fine," Chloe repeated to herself as she started shaking in his arms. Closing her eyes, she contemplated the very real possibility of what could happen.

*********

"I'm looking for Lex Luthor's room," the man swiftly spoke to the front desk clerk and then reworded it in Finnish before getting a positive response. With the direction pointed out to him, he headed swiftly down to the waiting room and noticed the small blond asleep in Clark Kent's lap.

"Incoming," Clark leaned in and whispered as Chloe woke to see Lionel staring at her from across the room. "What are you doing here?"

"He's my son; I have to take care of him." Chloe sat up and edged off the sofa and looked around at the sparse number of people in the room before walking up next to Lionel.

"Take care of him? What nurse are you bribing to kill him?" she whispered viciously.

"Ms. Sullivan." Lionel sneered at her as he started toward the ICU doors.

"It's Mrs. Luthor, and you aren't on the visitor list." Lionel turned and slipped his hands into his pockets before walking back up to her. She watched his hands fidget and Clark wince as he walked closer to the two of them. "What are you doing?" Chloe whispered.

Lionel leaned into and shook his head. What a waste of a beautiful brainy young woman. He watched as Clark backed up and sat on the couch, grabbing his stomach in pain. Chloe eyed Lionel's pocket and tried to tug on the hand that was in it. "You will not win, Miss Sullivan. Clark has to fulfill his destiny, and none of us are part of it. Only one person is the key." He turned and started back out the hospital doors, leaving Chloe to race to Clark's side.

"What the hell is he doing Clark?" Clark shook his head as his breathing came back to normal. "He said something about none of us. Clark, he's part of this. He's creating the clone Lex the way he thinks it should be to continue your destiny beyond all of our lives, including his."

"He wouldn't kill himself."

"No, but Jor-el can." Chloe and Clark sat in the hospital and stared at each other. "What can you do Clark? Can't you go talk to him at the fortress or destroy it or something? We're talking about more than Lex now – he's leaving you with no one."

Clark looked at Chloe and nodded his head, "Call me when Lex wakes up. I'm going after Jor-el. Maybe if I can get to him, Lionel will just go back to being the normal bastard he is instead of this." Clark kissed her on the top of the head and started out of the hospital doors just as the nurse came around the corner.

"Mrs. Luthor, he can be seen now. He's still a little groggy, but awake." Chloe nodded and picked up her things and followed the nurse back into the small room. His head was bandaged all the way around. His face was gray and tired looking. His breathing and vitals were slower than normal. She immediately was concerned that the white blood cell count could affect his recovery this time around.

She sat in the chair next to him and sighed in the quiet. She watched the machine tick over and over as his heartbeat was steady. She reached out under the bed rail and brushed his hand with her fingers and saw the heart monitor tick up a notch. His fingers slightly curled around hers as his eyes opened.

"Hey," she whispered. She smiled as she ran her other hand up and down the top of his hand.

Lex squinted, trying to focus on the person in the chair next to him. His thoughts were so confused. His head pounded, feeling like a sledgehammer had been taken to it. He moaned at the intense pain from his head. He had woken from the strangest dream that he had married... "Chloe? What are you doing here?" he questioned in a raspy voice. His eyes focused on her bloodshot eyes and her quiet sighs as she ran her fingers along his hand and arm.

"Where else would I be?" She released the hand on top of his and leaned closer in the chair. "How are you?"

"In pain." He closed his eyes and tried to focus. He remembered the accident; the water that he had swallowed as he tried to sink to the bottom to avoid the ambush. She didn't make it he thought to himself. He squeezed his eyes together, trying to hold back the tears. The only wife he had to the present he would have wanted to keep. Lana was, and the thought was cut off. He glanced over at his hand in Chloe Sullivan's hand and remembered. It wasn't a dream after all. "I didn't forget you," he whispered.

"You worried me so much." Chloe smiled at him and kissed his cheek carefully. Lex closed his eyes feeling her lips against him. She gave her life up to play pretend with him, no doubt orchestrated by his father. Memories came back too fast for him to comprehend all of them. He closed his eyes and saw her strapped to the table when he had experimented on her. The same woman now held his hand, made love to him last night. He moaned at the confusion of the memories. He opened his eyes and saw the key to his future. "Lex?"

"Still groggy. What happened?"

"You collapsed and they removed a brain tumor. Your drugs were causing the growth and the memory confusion. You weren't making sense the last few days talking about us in caves and such." Chloe moved the chair closer to the bed and laid her hand on his chest.

Lex closed his eyes and took in her scent. She smelled like a mix of jasmine and his cologne. He faintly could picture last night with her and smiled to himself. This was perfect. This had to be the best hallucination that his father, mother, or his own damn body had ever given him. He had never given her a second glance except as a threat.

Lana had always been the target – easy access to Clark and whatever his secret was. It was his one-upmanship effort to get back at Clark. Now Clark's closest ally, his ironically worst enemy, was his own wife. And she sincerely loved him; he could tell from her face. He glanced down at his hand at the wedding ring and then at the rock on her finger and the emerald necklace. "Doctors confused drugs? Not buying it."

Chloe listened to the tone of his voice and thought carefully at her words, something didn't sit right with her. "Your father sees you as a threat – he wants us out of the picture, permanently. Lex, I know this is going to suck, but I want you to refuse drugs in your treatment. I'll slip you some Excedrin but I don't trust the doctors."

"Ok, could that happen now?" Chloe let go of his hand and dug into the small purse that she had with her. Lex noticed in his stare that she was dressed like perfection. Chloe Sullivan, what an odd story that all was, he thought, seeing now his parallel memories of their meeting that were completely different than their reality. "Where are we?"

"Helsinki, they couldn't handle the situation in St Petersburg." She pulled the bottle out and shook two tablets into his hand.

"Sorry about the evening." He smiled as she sat back down next to him. "I know this was not what you wanted." Chloe dropped her purse and let the side of the bed down and pulled the chair closer to the bed. Leaning on the bed, she gathered his hand in hers and ran her other hand over his chest. "Chloe?"

She popped her head up from his bedside and gazed at him. She was nothing like he had ever imagined when her fiery inquisitions usually led to his door. Even years later, she and he seemed to be right between his father's sights again. "Why is my father after us this time?"

Chloe hesitated and stopped. Lex knew nothing about any of the projects that were going on behind his back; there was nothing in their past that he had cooked up about their fighting his father before. Biting her lip, she tried to cover. "He's afraid you'll get better and go after the company again." Lex raised an eyebrow and stared at her. She was lying. Chloe could never lie well. His father was interested in something more.

"I want to see him."

Chloe let go of his hand, "But Lex…" She teared up thinking of the two in a room together alone.

"Chloe, it's time to end this, all of it." Chloe stopped in her tracks as she felt her mouth drop. The sound was not her Lex. His voice was cold and unemotional. His eyes suddenly changed to a stale cold gray from the bright blue before. "Chloe, please." The please was not a plead, but accompanied by his smirk. She pushed the phone in his direction and halfway smiled.

"I'll be back," she nodded before walking out the door and down the hall. She picked up the receiver in the waiting room and dialed. "Clark?" He could hear her sobs, her fear in her voice.

"Chloe?" The phone clicked and Chloe lowered the receiver and sunk into the corner in the empty waiting room. "Chloe, what's going on?" She looked up as she tried to focus on his already being there. She shook her head to calm herself.

"He remembers. He remembers it all. I can tell. We have to get out of here." Clark nodded and handed Chloe a kleenex. She wiped the tears away and straightened out her head, mentally trying to prepare herself for leaving him behind. "Let's go."