Showdowns – Chapter 16

Lionel strolled into the hospital room and sat in the chair next to the bed. He watched as his son quietly slept. He had examined the charts on the outside of the room and was pleased with his progress. He had called and put a stop on the testing of the clone in the event Lex could return to his roots for only the reason of balancing himself with Clark. If Lex mentioned the woman, he would end it. Jor-el saw fit for it to be that way.

"Dad, what are you planning?"

"Son," Lionel rose from the chair and leaned over the bed to look over his son with determination. "You need your rest. Such things can be discussed later."

"No, now." He noticed a line going into his arm that wasn't there before. Tugging at it, he could feel the skin rip as the needle tore from inside his arm.

"Lex!" Lionel grabbed the line and the now dry washcloth for him, "You can get an awful infection from doing that. What has gotten into you?"

"What's in the bag dad? More meds to develop another tumor. Maybe this time you can make the cocktail more potent where I'll die faster." Lionel tied off the end of the plastic tubing and shut off the beeping machine.

"Is this what you are complaining about? Chloe has an active imagination trying to pit you and me against each other again. She really must revel in our disagreements – makes for good headlines." Lex wrapped the small towel around his forearm and laid back in the bed, gritting his teeth causing his headache to return. "And you really should take your meds."

"Not a chance. Not with you anywhere near the hospital." Lex couldn't put it all together. Where was Chloe? She stepped out hours ago from what he could tell and left his father there. He had requested his presence but needed her support. She knew what was going on and obviously not as angry at him as last time they had crossed paths. "Stay away from Chloe. You made a deal with Helen, you threatened Lana, and then force Chloe to pretend she loves me. At least the last one worked out."

Lionel leaned against the door of the hospital room and nodded his head. "For awhile son. Then you asked to see me and she knew. Just like before, you always make one slip. She's gone. Lana's gone. Your projects, gone. Your clones gone. Luthorcorp, the money, the mansion…gone." Lionel walked over to his son and tapped on his wedding ring. "Your life…gone."

Lex swallowed and leaned back in the bed, feeling his head throb harder than it had since the operation. "What's left? What do you want?" He wanted to beat the old man into the ground, drag his bloodied body through a street and have people kick it. He had no power, no help, and again no love.

"What do I want? Now, there's the question." Lionel sat down in the seat next to his son, leaning on the bed as his stitches started to bleed through the gauze. "Simple. I want my son back – the ego driven, maniacal man that can rule the world without others."

Lex turned and stared at his father. "Or?"

"I would hate for it to come to that son. I will check in on you from time to time – listen to the doctors and take your pills." Lionel pushed the door to the room closed before Lex could get in a word. "Welcome back son!" he called as the door closed.

Lex stared at the ceiling as a nurse came in and looked him over. "Your vitals are abnormally high."

"Tell me something I don't know," he commented as he turned his head to the side to reveal the ripped sutures.

"We'll get someone in right away to get your head and arm fixed up and the linens changed." Lex nodded as he looked around the empty hospital room.

**********

Another week passed without contact from anyone on the outside. His father had visited once again and nearly threatened him with an inch of his life. For Lex's part, he at least had the remote to the laptop's voice recorder in his pocket. He remembered the conversation's end and pressed save as soon as the man was around the corner.

"You will come back; I'll announce your return to Luthorcorp as a diversion after your unfortunate and timely divorce from Miss Sullivan. Of course, the marriage was just a diversion from Lana's death. Then, you will pick up the business as if you were never gone and continue to pursue your other outside interests." Lex wanted to deck him after using her maiden name.

"And if I don't?" He couldn't look at him; he stared out the window of his small hospital room and rolled his eyes.

"There is a perfectly capable replacement for you living comfortably in the penthouse."

"You used my research against me?" Lex knew what replacement he had been talking about. He had practically regenerated the entire town of Smallville, at least the ones he would miss, in case of another meteor shower.

"If you remember son, you stole the original research from me long ago – during my unfortunate and unneeded incarceration."

Lex swallowed at the statement. Just hand me a gun God, he thought, I'll send you a replacement for the devil post haste. "So, I come back to work, I pretend none of this has happened, and everything goes back to normal. And Chloe?" Lionel shook his head and smirked.

"Miss Sullivan will be found and brought back. She will be a reporter for the Daily Planet that you eventually take care of. Remember, not so long ago you threatened her." Lex hung on the words that he had used during the last official run-in with the blond. He watched his father leave the hospital and threw the file of plans his father had across the room.

He leaned back in the hospital chair and stared outside at the strange skyline. He hadn't left the hospital except for brief moments of fresh air. He watched around him with a careful eye, knowing his father's plans were more than what he merely put on paper. Lex wasn't slow; he had a brain injury. He clicked a few more keys on the laptop he asked for and a picture file opened up of Lana.

A twisted, uncomfortable look appeared on his face as he stared at the awkward engagement photos. She had complained that there were no 'non-paparazzi' photos of them. Come to think of it, she had complained and moped a lot. She had been forced into a marriage with him. Smooth dad. Smooth me – damn hormones, put the woman in the hospital enough to keep her doused once a month. In hindsight, he should have just let her go – she had never been any use other than to make the other man jealous.

But Chloe's pregnancy was completely unreal. His father's ideas of treatment were twisted at best. Strawberry blond would have been a pretty color on a little girl. Shaking his head, he let the thought go and continued numerous passwords to get into accounts that he knew he had already tried.

************

"Hey you! How's it going on the outside?" Chloe skipped into the small living room in her now private bungalow. She watched Clark unload the groceries from his latest trip into civilization.

"Careful. Get your fingers out of that." Clark pulled the chocolate cake from her and put the lid back on. "I tried to get you better access than dial up, but that would require a credit card and ..."

"It's fine Clark." Chloe had settled into her new place well considering she had gone from the Talon apartment to the Luthor house and now a hole in the mountains. It was refreshing though. She appreciated the help if nothing else. Clark continued on his search but Lionel had crosshairs on everyone it seemed, including himself. Men would watch him just move about the house in Smallville as if he couldn't see them. They couldn't catch him leaving, so all was best that could be expected.

"Lionel has got everything locked pretty tight."

"I know; I can't get to anything anymore with the dial up and it's all too encrypted for me to do anything with from here." She stopped and shoved a cookie in her mouth. Clark at least kept his word and kept her safe. She appreciated it. "How's Lex?"

Clark stopped putting groceries away and turned. "Chloe, I don't think…"

"Just tell me." She asked every trip, hoping to hear he had reverted back.

"Still in the hospital. An article came out yesterday that said Lex was planning on filing for divorce citing irreconcilable reasons. Personally, I think it Lionel feeding the fire to lure you out." Chloe nodded and grabbed the bag of cookies. She sat down in the rocker on the porch and stared at the birds in the trees. Clark watched her leave and could hear the barely audible sighs. He walked out and put his hand on hers, kneeling before her. "You miss him?

"I miss who I had, whoever he was. I just want Lionel or Jor-el or whatever out of our lives where things can go back to normal."

Clark closed his eyes and nodded, "Chloe, back to normal is not the Lex that you know." She looked down at him and twisted up her lips disappointingly. Clark the realist, who would have ever thought. She walked back in the house and disappeared behind the bedroom door. His visits had shrunk to this.

That night, Chloe covered her face with the pillow to contain the agonizing sobs that came after her picturing him in her bed with her yet again. His image was too lifelike; her fingers circling her wet folds alone in the dark caused her to cry his name. That monster couldn't return. He had too much to live for besides his damn projects; he had her. He said he would never forget them just like this.

*************

Lex had deciphered all the information he could from a laptop computer. Hundreds of his employees in various projects had disappeared under assumed names he guessed. His projects shut down, even the warehouse facades changed to other corporations. Still, no word from his father, thank God, or Chloe. He repeatedly tried her cell phone until one day the number simply had been disconnected.

He had left it with her in a terrible place. His last realistic contact had been him threatening her with something worse than prison. He remembered her face, how she stood up to him and his future plan to just push her out of the Planet by purchasing it. It was an easy enough solution. She had been in everything, including the middle of him and Lana's personal life. Lana, he smirked. What a magnanimous waste he thought to himself. Chloe had the secrets, still did, had no boyfriend except for the little punk kid, and a heart that she gave to anyone, he was proof of that.

He would be returning home tomorrow and finding what he had left behind. He remembered the pictures of the wedding completely doctored from the originals. He had seen those in his wallet. Chloe looked better in the wedding dress than Lana did, and at least smiled in the picture. He found it hard to resist smiling, but couldn't forget the thorn in his side during his plans.

Clark, the last piece of the puzzle. The first piece to tackle. "Smallville, Kansas. Clark Kent," Lex spoke into the phone. He waited and heard the phone ring. He closed his eyes, trying to picture what to say.

"Hello?"

"Clark."

Clark stopped washing dishes and leaned against the counter. "Lex, what do you want?" Lex listened to the silence on both ends of the line before answering.

"I want the truth, and preferably in person from you in say about 30 minutes." Clark stopped breathing at the statement. "Clark, I've had a lot of time to research, not having Luthorcorp as a diversion. I found some things on an internal server of dad's that's very interesting, including a frame by frame shot broken down in milliseconds that has you saving one Bart Allen from my lab. That would be quite remarkable considering his speed at the time." Lex heard the phone drop.

Lex looked at the phone and listened to the sonic boom through the receiver. Wow. He hung the phone up and closed his eyes. Even after a month, exertion was complicated. He opened his eyes looking at the door to his private room slamming. "Ok, so now what?"

Lex looked over and his eyes grew at the sight of Clark actually standing in his room exactly 34 minutes later. "My father has it in his mind apparently that we are to be sworn enemies. I'm to rule the world and you're going to save it from me. And all our favorite martians, I don't know where you are all from," he smirked, "were a ploy to train you to destroy the Earth." Lex threw his legs over the side of the bed and got up, walking over to Clark.

Laying a hand on Clark's shoulder and looking up at him, he laughed. "You? Mr. Farmboy who ripped my Porsche in half but should have just left me there is supposed to destroy the world?" He looked at the horror on Clark's face. "Calm down. If you had really wanted to kill me and destroy the evil in the world, " Lex added sarcastically, "You could have easily just ripped me limb from limb. No one but my father or…Chloe would have known." Lex eased up next to Clark as Clark held the same gaze he had when Lex had been with Lana. "Lana didn't even know until the day of the wedding. Yeah, I know, it's a little overkill to put cameras in the wine cellar, but there are some priceless bottles down there. Well, were down there."

"Lex," Clark was speechless. "Where did you get the idea that your father wanted us to be enemies and that any of this is true." Clark figured it was pointless now to argue that he wasn't who he was. Now, he needed to play along and hope that Lex wanted his father to give up Jor-el's ghost as much as Clark did.

"Remember all those damn symbols on that stupid cave? Daddy dearest made a dictionary, and my wife showed me a few things about password cracking. Interesting reading." Lex held out the CD he had made of his findings as Clark reached to take it. "No, it's not free. Tell me where is Chloe is."

"No way. She's safe from you and your father. And I know now I have to protect myself from you and him." Clark started out the door without taking the information from Lex.

"Stop." Clark paused and shut the door. "Here's a key. It's everything he or I have on you. I don't know what or how you are connected to him, but as soon as I'm released tomorrow it's all ending. Now, are you in this with me or are you willing to be a casualty." Clark turned and stared at Lex holding the key in his hand.

"What do you know?"

"There's a set of snipers waiting to take you out as soon as you look as if you are cheating 'your destiny' as my father puts it. He has the men loaded down with meteor rock bullets aimed at you. The rock from my now defunct labs." Lex shoved the address of the key lock into Clark's hand and grabbed him by the shoulders. "He still wants me and Chloe too. Something about your damn destiny. Something about a crystal – Clark, I don't get it."

Clark stopped and stepped out of Lex's grip. "A crystal? Lex, what if I said," he paused, "killing your father would be the only way out of this. You have to trust me – I am not…"

"I know. And next time our family members come to visit, remind me not to get involved. To lifelong enemies," Lex extended his hand to Clark and smirked, knowing that it would always be true. Clark started out the door and heard Lex ask, "Chloe?" He shut the door and quietly disappeared into the street leaving Lex standing in the empty hospital room.

*********

Clark stood in the middle of the fortress and watched as the lights flashed as he argued with no one. He looked at the panel laid out in front of him and watched as he thought about Lionel. One crystal grew brighter in light than the others as Clark slid it from the container on the panel. Closing his eyes, he placed the one crystal in his jacket pocket and left for Metropolis.

Lex sat in the strange brick and marble home that Lionel had created for he and Chloe's life together. He had left everything as is. That was what he had left. His father hadn't lied to him. He sent someone to check on the mansion; it had been moved back to its original location. His plants and companies were under Lionel's name with one way to get them back.

Sitting on the couch, he stared at the wedding album cover and thought about what he would say. He had been so stupid before. He tried to compare the two marriages to no avail. There was no comparison. He moved into the baby's room and sat in the middle of the floor.

"We interrupt this program for breaking news. We are receiving word that Lionel Luthor, CEO of Luthorcorp has suffered a life threatening stab wound at his penthouse in Metropolis." Lex listened to the story and sighed uneasily as he hoped the plan worked.

"Witnesses stated they saw three men leave the scene of the crime. At present, three men that fit the descriptions are being held for questioning." Lex heard a whisp of air race through the house and looked up at the doorway.

"Will he live?"

"I missed the main artery; it'll be touch and go. It's hard to explain how it works, I…" Clark walked over to where Lex was sitting on the floor and looked at his 'enemy' in awe. He wasn't the man he thought would come out of the situation he did.

Lex looked the opposite way, picking up the bear without an eye and shook his head. "I love her." He looked in Clark's direction. "And I'm sorry about Lana."

Clark said nothing but silently dropped the card next to Lex's leg. "Don't tell her you know about me." He paused before walking out the door. "Lex, she not…don't hurt her." Lex felt a soft breeze blow through the room and heard a door close. He looked at the card with only an address on it. He shook nervously with it in hand.