Thirty Eight

The familiar cold gust of wind brought a smirk to Lex's face as he continued to look down on the citizens of Metropolis from his ivory tower, "Here to harass me some more Clark or do you prefer to go by Kal-El or how about my favorite…" he turns around to face the red and blue boy scout, "Superman."

"I'm not here to play games Lex"

"Clearly if you're dressed in that ridiculous thing." Lex states gesturing to the super-suit the kryptonian was wearing, "You should really consider losing the cape. It's an accident waiting to happen" he downs the rest of his drink and places the glass on his desk and walking to stand in front of the hero.

"Why did you pay for my father's medical bills?"

There was silence between them until Lex finally decided to reply, "Jonathan and I had our differences at first but he grew to embrace me like I was part of the family and I thought I could repay that with an act of kindness."

"You haven't shown any kindness to me"

Lex laughed, "How self centered of you to think this has anything to do with you." He grabs his glass and walks over towards the bar to refill it, "I may want you dead but that doesn't make me a bad person" he takes a sip of the burning liquid and turns around to face the kryptonian once again, "Now I'm sure you didn't fly all the way here just to confront me about paying a few medical bills" he stands closer almost to the point of invading Clark's personal space and took another drink, "Why are you really here? To see if there's some sign of the old Lex so you can somehow redeem me."

"I'd like to think so"

"How noble" Lex responds with a distain and finishes off the rest of his drink before walking back towards his desk when a thought occurs to him, "You know, I used to think it was our families who made us who we are. Then I hoped it was our friends." He casts a sideways glance over his shoulder towards Clark, "But if you look at history, the great men and women of the world have always been defined by their enemies."

"I'm not your enemy"

"Once again you show why you're the hero of this story and I am the villain."

"It doesn't have to be that way"

Lex hid the sudden change in his emotion well at that comment and turned around to face Clark, "I'm afraid it was always suppose to be this way old friend. We have a destiny together, Clark...only on different sides."

"Then I'll always stand in your way"

"Wouldn't have it any other way." He downs the rest of his drink and starts to walk back towards the window.

Clark stood there for a few seconds before blurring away leaving Lex to his dark office where he stared out into the night while rubbing the ring that adorned his finger with the Luthor crest engraved in the center and pushed it aside to reveal the green kryptonite stone hidden underneath.

The next day Clark had relayed everything that had happened to Lois while they rode the elevator to the bullpen, "That smug" she stopped before the curse could pass her lips when the doors opened and instead opted to whisper it real fast causing Clark to let out a chuckle.

When they got off the elevator Lois was quick to slip the engagement ring off her finger and slip it into her pocket much to Clark's confusion, "You do know that entire bullpen already knows about our break time in the supply closet" he states in a low tone while he walked her towards her office.

She shuts her office door they minute they step inside, "Cat Grant has a big mouth. I swear if Perry wasn't keen on keeping her around I would punch that smug look off her face" she walks towards her desk to remove her coat and places her purse down on her desk when she realized that she didn't reply to Clark's inquiry, "I just want this little secret to be ours before the crazies start hounding me about what dress am I going to wear or what flavor cake we'll be having"

He walks behind her and places his hands on her shoulder giving them a much needed massage, "I could always just fly us to Fiji and we can get married on the beach there." He places a kiss on her neck, "No wedding planning *kiss* no crazies *kiss* just you and me." He spins her chair around and presses their head together, "Think about it"

"If I didn't know any better, I would think you wanted to have a shotgun wedding"

He smiles and leans closer, "If I wanted a shotgun marriage we'd be halfway to Las Vegas right now." He gives her a quick kiss before stepping away, "We are going to have to tell my parents eventually though"

"And the General of course" she adds and immediately sees a reaction he had never seen in Clark before, "We are going to tell him, right?"

He gulped and gave her a small nod although inside he was dreading having to face the infamous General Lane and tell him the good news especially after hearing so many stories about what had happened to Lois's previous boyfriends.

"I'm sure daddy will like you" Lois's reassurances put him a little at ease but the feeling in the pit of his stomach was still there, "He like everyone" she lied and tried to suppress a smirk when she noticed that half smile he gave her before walking out of her office, "This should be one for the record books"

She sits back down in her chair and spins it around to face her computer when she noticed her engagement ring sparkling inside of her purse and she smiles softly, "Mrs. Clark Kent" she says with a smile but then stops, "Lane. Kent-Lane." She shakes her head, "I'll figure it out eventually. Plenty of time for that" she clicks on her computer only to be greeted by an unread email.

TBC

Yes I know that I used a few lines from the Finale in the scene between Lex and Clark but it was just so perfect for that confrontation and the whole scene worked really well with them inserted into it.

I wanted to apologize once again if this comes across jumbled, I've been doing a lot of juggling and rewriting with the last couple chapters because some scenes didn't fit well in certain chapters and I moved them around a little bit while adding a few new things to.

Anyway…

Clark and Lois haven't officially told anyone about their impending nuptials and as you can see Clark's already nervous about telling the general (he's a scary guy).

I'm working on an ending for this story and hopefully it works out well but for now let's just enjoy the remaining journey.

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