Chapter 35 - Summer

Lex had allowed Clark to accompany him when he'd visited Pamela on her death bed. He allowed himself no such comfort when he went to visit his father in the hospital.

His visits were always short and uneventful; there was just no point in talking to someone who was in a coma, so Lex didn't. He didn't try to apologize. He didn't ask questions. He just stood by his father's bedside for long enough to keep the doctors from becoming suspicious, feeling the full weight of his guilt and the impossibility of the request Pamela had made of him, then he flew back to Smallville to get back to work.

Ironically, the fact that she'd requested something so impossible made it easier for him to follow through on her other requests. He strengthened his new corporation as much as he could, and he called a well-reviewed therapist—no big names that his father might have connections with, just someone who worked out of a private practice halfway between Metropolis and Smallville. His therapist had heard the Luthor name but hadn't followed them in the news much, and she was willing to meet with him twice a week and keep things confidential. She didn't talk down to him, she didn't admire him for his money, and she wasn't afraid of his issues.

He still hated every second he spent in her little office, laying his heart bare and answering her questions about Julian, and his mother, and his father's abuse. But he couldn't deny it was helping. The summer began with a sharp increase in nightmares and night terrors, and they were almost completely gone by the end of the summer. He was still nowhere near ready to forgive himself for what had happened during the tornado, but he found himself able to be patient through the healing process.

In the meantime, he had plenty of work to pour himself into. Getting LexCorp off the ground was a bureaucratic nightmare, for one thing, and rebuilding his employees' and customers' trust was an uphill battle. But by the end of the summer, the plant was thriving better under LexCorp than it ever had under LuthorCorp. His father's coma had bought the Luthor family a bit of sympathy from the general public, and Lex had a slightly better reputation than his father did, especially because of the Talon—which also took up a fair amount of his time, but he found that he really enjoyed working with Lana.

Aside from that, Lex spent more time with Clark than he had been able to during the school year. Clark told his parents that he was getting more hours at his internship, and he spent long afternoons sitting in the study reading from Lex's library while Lex worked on his computer. They talked about books and movies, about their families and about girls, and about Clark's abilities and the meteor rock mutations.

Progress was slow on the research. Despite the fact that Lex was able to pour more funds into his scientists' work, the experimental process could only work so fast. Lex was thankful he'd been able to convince Pamela to try some alternate cancer treatments in the meantime. They wouldn't save her long-term, but they would extend her life and increase her health and energy. It was a joy to be able to give that to her—a joy to have someone to give it to.

Aside from all of that, being able to spend time with Pamela was a privilege he had never thought he would have again in his life. It had been years since he'd experienced regular parental affection. The fact that she smiled and hugged him every time she saw him, that she actually wanted to sit and listen to his problems and give him advice—in a way that was different from either Clark or his therapist, and that she ended every visit by telling him that she loved him . . . it was far more than he had bargained for. It was what he had desperately needed, without ever even knowing how much he had needed it.

He didn't deserve to be happy. But between Clark, Pamela, and LexCorp, it was the best summer he'd had in his life.

Clark couldn't shake the feeling that things weren't quite the same after the tornado as they were before.

He didn't get to see many of his other friends much over the summer. He would have thought he would get to spend more time with Lana, now that Whitney had left to join the military, but she was busy working at the Talon and obsessed with making video letters for Whitney. Pete practiced football a lot, which Clark's dad forbade him from joining. When Pete was over at the Kent house, he constantly wanted to bad-mouth the Luthors, and Clark just didn't want to hear it. Meanwhile, Chloe was spending the summer interning for The Daily Planet. He wrote to her a couple of times, but she never wrote back.

So Clark took on more hours at his "internship" and spent three full days every week at the mansion. And for the first few weeks of the summer, it was more than a little awkward. It took Clark a long time to make himself comfortable with what Lex had told him about his father. Clark knew he himself had done basically the same thing that Lex did: when he'd fought Greg Arkin, he'd thrown him against a piece of machinery that had fallen on him, and Clark hadn't gone back to save him. The same thing had happened with Sean Kelvin—Clark had thrown him into a lake, which had frozen over, probably killing Sean, and Clark had never checked on him or tried to help. At the time, it just hadn't occurred to him. He'd been fighting them to defend someone, and they'd died in the fight.

What happened between Lex and his father wasn't exactly the same thing. But after the incident with those guys who could walk through walls, the day Clark had accidentally killed one of them with his bare hands . . . Clark didn't have the right to be angry with Lex. Not really.

Besides, Clark and Lex kept each other safe. Lex was going to therapy now. He hated it, but Clark encouraged him to keep going. And every once in awhile, Lex gave Clark another lesson in safe fighting, and he wore the lead pendant Clark had given him—with the meteor rock inside—at all times, though he usually kept it under his shirt. One time, Clark caught a glimpse of it and realized he'd painted it silver. He was a little confused until Lex told him that the lead had been irritating his skin, and he had had it covered in steel. That wasn't all he'd done, though. He'd also had the LexCorp logo carved into it. It put Clark's shop work to shame, but he was also honored Lex was taking it so seriously. And Lex was really encouraging, too—always telling Clark that he had a great destiny, and it was Lex's job to help him.

Meanwhile, things were much more normal with Clark's parents. Somehow, that was worse than when they were upset with him or grounding him. Clark lied and went behind their backs every day, and they had no idea. A couple of weeks after LexCorp got up and running, Clark's dad even stopped making snide remarks about the Luthors. Clark doubted this had anything to do with Lex having earned any respect. Clark's dad was just convinced he'd made his point to Clark, so he didn't feel the need to belabor the point.

The peace was too much. As a result, Clark caught himself talking back and picking meaningless arguments with his folks at least once a week. He knew it wasn't helpful, but it was difficult to stop himself. Even when the school year started and he wasn't spending so many hours cooped up at home, the habit continued.

Maybe that was why, when class rings went on sale, Clark decided he wanted one so badly. Deep down, he knew it was a useless, overpriced piece of garbage. But Clark had made a lot of extra money over the summer, and his parents really didn't want him to waste the money.

And his dad brought it up one too many times.