Part Seven
Chloe slammed the door of the apartment so hard that she thought that the wall might be in danger of falling. She had been in a bad mood all day, well ever since breakfast. She had thought that she had been so clever getting Lex to agree to an interview and had eagerly watched his face for signs that he was displeased but he had just smiled easily at her and said, "Nicely done, Miss Sullivan".
Then as he turned to leave, he had slipped something into Clark's hand and recommended him to ask her when the last time she had eaten a full meal was. Chloe could have killed him. In fact, as he sauntered out of the office she had tried to go after him and at the very least give him a swift kick up the bum but Clark had barred her way.
"What's going on?" He asked, looking down perplexedly at the 50 dollar note in his hand.
"I am trying to go and do some serious damage to Lex Luthor Armani clad add, if you will just get out of my way", Chloe announced trying to get around Clark, not noticing that she remained unflustered by his proximity.
"Chloe", he sounded exasperated as he held her in place and looked straight in her eyes. She didn't feel rooted as she had earlier, good for her she must be over whatever weakness had seized her in the last 12 hours.
"Lex wanted my cooperation on something, my price was an interview. You don't have to worry, I will be perfectly safe", Chloe was still trying to get around her best friend.
Clark did not look convinced. "I am not sure that Lex can be trusted".
"Well you don't have to be sure Clark, I do. To be honest I am getting a bit sick and tired of people putting their noses where they don't belong"
They exchanged a meaningful glance; they both knew how ironic it was that she was saying this.
"Okay, okay I know that in the past I have not known exactly where the boundaries lay", she held up her hands, "but I am getting better about that and others should try too. I am a big girl Clark".
"I'm sorry Chloe, I know that you can take care of yourself, I just don't want you to get hurt and I'm not sure that Lex won't put you in danger", Clark explained. Chloe had been so brave last year, but he knew that she had been scared. Who wouldn't have been? He also knew that he had played a part in getting her into that situation and had sworn to himself that he would not let her be hurt by the Luthors again.
Chloe was furious with Lex, really she was. She could have strangled him, but hearing someone else doubt his motives made her come to his defence. In fact, it required the majority of her self-control to take a deep breath and softly say: "I really think that he is trying to do the right thing" instead of jumping down Clark's throat.
Clark seemed to consider this for a moment. He couldn't trust Lex, but he did not think that he was all bad and that morning he had seen a glimpse of his old friend. He really did seem to care about Chloe and he usually had his facts straight. He sighed and asked, "Chloe, when was the last time that you ate a full meal?"
Chloe growled at the memory. Trust Clark to take Lex's side over hers. Why was it that men always felt that they had the right to ask questions like that? What was worse, he hadn't even let her explain that she had been so busy the day before since breakfast that she hadn't had time to eat. No, he had just heard "over 24 hours" and had gone into 'Clark mode'. It wasn't as if she normally went so long without food, she was normally really good. Well, okay she was normally good. She tried to make sure that she was home for dinner with her Dad as much as possible but honestly other than that she usually just grabbed the occasional muffin or biscuit. Still that did not mean that Clark Kent and Lex Luthor of all people had the right to quiz her on her eating habits. It was a point that she had made repeatedly as Clark dragged her out of the school and down the road to a café for breakfast.
Last year she would probably have been thrilled that Clark wanted to spend some one on one time with her but now she was just annoyed by his impertinence. She could decide when it was or was not time to eat, although breakfast did sound and smell particularly good so as they had waited in the queue she resigned herself to the idea and then loaded her plate high. The thought of so many pancakes had almost made her sanguine, until Clark had tried to pay for her.
Naturally she had paid for herself and snarled at Clark that the reason why she had not eaten was because she had been too busy, not because she could not afford it. Just because her Dad was out of work, and had been for a while, that did not mean that they needed charity or that he could not afford to feed his daughter, he would have starved himself first before letting that happen.
Clark had of course apologised and explained that he was just using Lex's money as it had been intended.
Chloe snapped back that maybe he shouldn't be so ready to accept things from Lex, especially as he apparently didn't trust him. There had been an uncomfortable silence thereafter. Chloe was seething; Clark had ruined pancake time for her. She had half a mind not to eat them just to spite the interfering boys, but they smelled really good and had Nutella on top so she took a large forkful and decided to think of different methods of revenge.
Even now that she was back in the apartment she was in a bad mood. The rest of the day had been a sea of pointless activity. She had already done all of her school work so in class she tried to piece together what was left of her clues about the club but kept coming to the conclusion that she had got all she could out of the evidence she had. There was nothing to be done until she saw Lex at 4, and Chloe hated being idle.
In the end she had gone to the nurse, who, noticing that she was pale had let her go home early – but only after giving her an interminably long speech on safe sex, teenage pregnancy, and bulimia. At least this way Chloe could go home and take a nap before her meeting with Lex, she was getting almost dizzy with tiredness now. When have coffee stopped working? She was on her seventh of the day at it was barely 11:30.
Trying to look on the bright side, she would get to see her Dad and wouldn't have to rush. She had known that she would have to pop in at home for a few minutes before heading over to Lex's, whatever happened. Gabe would have worried otherwise and he wouldn't be satisfied with a phone call to say that she had got back safe and sound. Now she would be able to assure him of her safety and get a couple of hours shut eye.
"You're home", her Dad bounded over to her and wrapped her in a large hug that pulled her off her feet.
"Um yeah, hi Dad", Chloe smiled a little perplexedly as she returned his hug. She had not seen him this happy in almost 6 months. Over his shoulder she could see that there were boxes stacked three high and what few possessions he had brought with them and left in the living room were missing. That could only mean one thing.
"We're moving", Gabe announced proudly, still not letting her go.
Chloe gaped at her father in shock. "We are? Where? Does this mean that you found a job?"
She knew how much her father hated being out of work and was beyond relieved that he was employed and happy again. Well, she assumed that this meant that he had found a job, he still hadn't actually confirmed that part yet. As happy as she was, a small, very disloyal part of her prayed that he would not say that they were leaving Smallville, but if that was what it took for her father to work, then that was what they would have to do. Maybe it would be a good thing for her to be far away from Lex Luthor.
"We are moving back to our old house and yes I found a job working at LuthorCorp", her father beamed.
Lex. He was behind this, how had she not seen this immediately? He had wanted her to move and now he had got his way.
"Are you sure about this?"
Gabe Sullivan was sitting at on the sofa reading through the newspaper once again, desperate for a help wanted ad of some sort. At this point he would take anything – anything that would get him through the next few weeks, anything to support Chloe.
When he heard a ring at the door bell, he got up with a groan. If this was a Jehover's Witness he was going to be very annoyed, he had already turned them away five times this week already. How many times did he have to explain that they were Episcopalian?
"We don't want to convert", he announced as he opened the door, not looking through the spy hole first because they didn't have one.
"How do you feel about a job offer?" Lex asked.
Gabe stood there looking stunned; Lex was the last person he had excepted to find on his doorstep.
Lex has done his homework on the man in front of him, whose expression was turning slowly from surprise to dislike, and the Sullivan family's situation.
As he had suspected, the letters had been sent to the wrong address, but there was more to it than that. One of the men in his company was a known mole who Lex had been keeping around in the hopes that he would be able to turn him and use him against Lionel. Lex had been sure that the man had only ever handled fake information but somehow he had managed to make several key pieces of information, which would have revealed to Lex what a terrible situation the Sullivans were in, disappear.
When he had found that out, the kid gloves have come off. The man had disappeared, one of his fingers would be sent to Lionel the following morning, and would stay that way until Lex had extracted every single morsel of information man had in him.
Still, none of that would change what Chloe and her father had suffered or the fact that if Lex had just spoken to either of them, he would have known and could have resolved the problem months ago.
Under intense 'cajoling' the mole had also admitted that on Lionel's orders he had called up all of the companies who had been black balling Mr Sullivan and told them that Lex's request that they consider hiring Sullivan had been purely for show as he was being watched by the FBI in the wake of his father's arrest. He had been believed; after all it was something that Lex would have done, had it suited him.
Lex had been so certain that everything had been taken care of that even when he had seen the evidence that it couldn't be so – e.g. the fact that Gabe wasn't actually working – he had convinced himself that everything was fine and that Gabe was just taking a well-deserved break. God, it was ridiculous how blind guilt could make one. Well that was over now, he was here to make things right.
During his first year managing the Smallville plant, Lex had he had built up a considerable liking for Gabe but had never thought to give his file more than a cursory glance. That had been a mistake. Gabe Sullivan was a large man, much larger than Lex, a fact made evident by the way that he was standing in the doorway. Over the years he had obviously let himself go but in the file there had been a picture of him when he was young, he was about Clark's build there, with curly hair and a warm friendly smile.
He had been the captain of the football team and had won a full ride to the college of his choice, Met U. He had been only a year away from graduating when his girlfriend at the time had fallen pregnant. Being the stand-up man he was, he had of course married her and worked whilst trying to finish school. He hadn't managed it. His grades had slipped because he was working so much and he lost his chance to play professional football but he had had no time to sit and bemoan his fate; he had a wife and child to support.
Gabe had got a job at LuthorCorp factory where he had distinguished himself, quickly rising to the rank of supervisor but then becoming stuck. There was no doubt that he could do the next job up, in fact unofficially he did. But in order to enter the next pay grade he needed a college degree. He was so few credits short of graduating that he had thought to go back at some point, in fact by the time that little Chloe had turned three he had got a mortgage on a nice little house in a good area and was ready to do so. Then one day, or rather night, his wife had up and left.
Lex had felt a lump in his throat as he had read that part of the files; they included the child psychologist's transcripts of her conversations with Chloe. The little girl had been so confused, and who could blame her, she had come downstairs one morning to find her mother gone and her father trying to use the waffle iron. The report said that she seemed to have developed quite a phobia of people leaving her and was becoming slightly obsessive about taking notes on people. She needed to know everything about them; she said that if she knew everything then she would know if they were going to leave her. The psychologist suggested that they gave her some time and the possibility of getting her involved in the mini school paper when she moved into the next year, as that would at least provide a good outlet for her note taking.
It was sickening. Lex had lost his own mother, she had been taken away from him but this was entirely different, Chloe's mother was alive and well and living only 30 miles away and she couldn't be bothered to go and visit her little girl. That was in some ways worse than having ones mother die, to know that she was alive and well and just didn't care.
He couldn't imagine how Gabe had got through that time, but he had. The divorce had been terrible, the mother – using the word in the broadest possible sense of the word - had clearly stated that she didn't want the child, but upon finding out that she would have to pay child support she had hit the roof and tried to get Chloe back. It was only when Gabe had agreed to pay the woman more than twice what she would have got in child support that she had backed off. That did not mean that he had wanted to keep his ex-wife from Chloe's life, not by any means. He had written her hundreds of letters asking if she would visit her daughter, if she would at least send her a letter as Chloe was getting worried but none of them had ever been retuned.
There would be a reckoning with the former Mrs Sullivan.
As Lex looked up at the man before him, he could not help but admire him. Lex would have had the woman killed … he still might if, after all this time, she came near Chloe and upset her.
"May I come in?" He asked.
Gabe appeared to be wrestling with himself for a minute before nodding curtly and moving to let him in.
Lex forced himself not to look around the apartment. "I apologise for not having called first but there have been so many misunderstanding that I thought that it would be better if we did this face to face, man to man".
"If you think that you are up to it", Gabe mumbled, unable to help himself.
"Fair enough", Lex didn't take offense. He couldn't really after what he and his father had put the man through. "Look, I know that you don't trust me and quite frankly I cannot think of any reason why you should, except for the fact that you have nothing that I want", 'other than your daughter', he added mentally.
"Not even the sofa bed?" Gabe asked, with a straight face.
Lex smiled. "I never meant for Chloe to become involved with my father, I was too wrapped up in my own problems to notice that he had got his claws into her. By the time that I did, she could not be easily extricated."
"She told me that she came to you with the offer and that you gave her several options to get out of it", Gabe said slowly.
"Yes, but that does not change the fact that she should never have been put in that situation in the first place", Lex started.
"You won't hear any arguments from me".
"And neither should you", Lex continued. "My father played with both of your lives in a way that was inexcusable. I gave Chloe my word that I would protect you both, and I did physically but once it was over I thought that it would be better to distance myself from both of you. I left the provisions which I had made for both of you in the hands of others and became so overconfident from my victory with my father that I never bothered to check that they had been carried out. It was my error".
"What provisions? Your office calls every week with a patronizing offer of work at half my original pay. In fact, it is normally around this time …"
"You will never get another call like that", Lex hastened to assure him. "I only just found the man who had been going against my orders, he won't be making anymore phone calls from where he is", he added darkly.
Before Gabe had the chance to say anything, Lex barrelled on. "I had the company rent your new house from you whilst you were in hiding for more than the mortgage so that you wouldn't lose money and I know that they are continuing to do so, the blacklist against you should have been raised months ago, our job offer to you was supposed to be a six figure one and Chloe received a full scholarship months ago. She just didn't get the letter".
He didn't mention the makeover he had given the other apartment or the security detail stalking Chloe.
Gabe just stared at Lex dumbly. He wasn't sure how this had happened, but he found that he did not doubt him.
"Here is my new offer", Lex handed him a wad of papers. "It is the most legally binding one that my lawyers could come up with. I have brought your old house and everything in it in your name, it is yours. Your new job will be yours for life, you cannot be fired, or at least until you turn 55 which is when you retire with 100,000 a year. There are also some very good benefits and the possibility of more training if you want it".
The larger man took the papers in a trembling hand and read them over. It was more than he could ever have hoped for, it would mean that they would be secure for life and that he could provide for Chloe in the way that she deserved. But he couldn't accept it and told Lex as much.
"It's not charity", Lex insisted. "You deserve this job, you were the one who helped me work out how to keep everyone's job and how to turn that factory around. I should have promoted you years ago", seeing that Gabe was still about to refuse he added, "besides, I acquired over 50 million dollars the day that my father went to jail, not to mention full control over LuthorCorp. By rights, 10% should go to Chloe anyway although I know that she would never accept it. This is a tiny percentage of that, which you fully deserve".
"I don't know", Gabe sank down on the settee.
"Look at it another way", Lex said, sitting down next to him, "this contract gives you power over how things are run. You will be able to stop other people getting trampled on. All of those ideas you had before, you can now implement".
"How do I know that you won't break the contract later if I do something that you don't like?" Gabe asked, already thinking of several initiatives that would probably drive Lex crazy.
Lex shrugged, "It's an iron clad contract. Although I probably could still break it somehow, it would take ages and cost far too much. Besides, I am a Luthor, it would be easier for me to just have you killed".
Gabe laughed and shook Lex's hand.
Chloe needed to sit down, this was a lot to take in all at once. She wanted to scream at her father, refuse to go, refuse to be lured into another Luthor plan but her father explained the situation to her, held her hand and asked her to trust him.
She sighed, "It looks like we are moving".