Hey, guys!

I can't believe Christmas is under a week away, lol. Can y'all? Where did 2021 go?

I hope y'all enjoy chapter 22!

Chapter Twenty Two.

As soon as they got the Christmas tree into the stand and into the perfect spot, Clark fell asleep. Though Lex couldn't really blame him for that.

Clark had been through a lot. And not just in the past few weeks…

Lex walked over and ran his fingers through Clark's hair as he thought about what he knew about the child's past.

Things were getting better for Clark. Lex could tell that he was healing physically from the lab. Clark's scars were starting to fade, but the one down his forearm was still the same as it had been when Lex had first met him.

If he had to guess though, things were worse mentally for Clark than they had been in awhile. Clark had never wanted to be that far away from Lex, but this was different. Just mentioning leaving the room for whatever reason caused him to panic now. When Lex had tried to shower, he had been followed.

And it wasn't that Lex had a problem with Clark wanting to stick close. In fact, Clark was safest when he stayed close to Lex, but it wasn't always going to be possible.

Lex had work that he would have to get back to, and it wasn't like Clark could sit in on the meetings, that would be wildly unprofessional. Of course, Martha said that she would still babysit him, but he wasn't even sure if Clark would let her…

Lex shook his head. All of this was giving him a headache…

He stood up. He needed to check the attic for Christmas decorations. He wasn't sure if his father had kept any of them after his mother died, but he needed to make sure before he promised Clark that they would decorate it that day.

When he got to the attic, he began to look through the boxes. Some of them were filled with things he would have never expected to see in a Luthor household, like baby clothes and a wedding dress. He instantly knew that there were left over from his mother, the last bits of her that remained outside of memories, but that hardly made it less shocking. In fact, he had assumed that his father would have gotten rid of all of these the day after she died…

He opened another box and his heart stopped as the images came back.

A mobile slowly spinning in circles as the mechanics inside hummed a soft melody. The melody had been an earworm, one that both Lex and his parents would find stuck in their heads more often than not.

After that night, they would never hear it again.

Lex picked up the mobile. He wasn't even sure why his parents had kept it. It was nothing but a bad memory, just looking at it made his stomach twist and his eyes water.

He put it back in the box. What happened to Julian was in the past. He had come up here for a reason and he needed to keep looking. He had the whole future to look to.

Before he could get far though, another thought popped into his head. Maybe the reason he was trying to make such a perfect Christmas for Clark was because Julian didn't have one. Maybe the only reason he wanted Clark to have anything good was because he still felt guilty for what had happened with Julian.

Lex clinched his hands into fists. No. That couldn't be it. He loved Clark so much. If he had learned nothing else during his time away from Clark, it was that he loved him more than anything else in the world. It had nothing to do with guilt. And it never would. Lex loved Clark because Clark was his son.

"Daddy?"

Lex turned around, but Clark flinched and stepped back.

"Clark?" Lex asked as he walked towards his son. "What's the matter, bubba?"

Lex knelt down beside his son and gently reached out and cupped his cheek. For some reason, Clark's eyes were filled with tears and blood shot.

Clark leaned into the touch for a second before throwing himself into Lex's chest and sobbing. "You were gone!"

Lex picked him up, then pulled the child close to him. He pressed his face into Clark's hair. "I'm right here, baby boy," he said. "I'm not gonna leave you. I was just trying to find ornaments for the tree."

Clark hiccupped and pressed his face into Lex's suit jacket. "Thought… He got you again…"

Instinctively, Lex tightened his hold on his child. The image of Alistair's twisted smile right before he opened the box with the meteor rock flashed into his head. That mad man had no right to ever put his hands on Lex's precious boy. He had paid with his life, but some days, Lex still didn't think it was enough.

"He will never hurt you again, Clark," Lex told him. "Ever. I promise."

"He still does!" Clark sobbed.

Lex frowned for a minute, but began to stroke Clark's hair when he realized what Clark meant. Nightmares, flashbacks… Clark really needed some sort of therapist, but it just wasn't possible. Not if they were going to keep the truth a secret.

"Hey," Lex said. Maybe a change in the conversation would help. He doubted it, but it was worth a shot. "Why don't you see if you can help me find the decorations for the tree? We can't leave it plain, now can we?"

Clark sniffled, then rubbed at his eyes and shook his head. "No…"

Lex pressed a kiss to Clark's forehead. "That's what I thought," he said. "Let's see what we can find."

Lex looked around at all of the red glass ornaments that they had found.

If he was being honest, he didn't really think that they would find any. He hadn't really celebrated Christmas since his mother died, and he had always thought that his father would have thrown out all of the ornaments that they would never use again. Apparently he hadn't though.

"Careful, bubba," Lex warned as Clark picked one up. "They'll break if you aren't gentle."

Clark looked up at Lex, then smiled. "Not broken!" He said.

Lex smiled back. "Okay, go put it on the tree."

Lex watched as Clark walked over to the tree and hesitantly placed the ornament on the tree. He took a step back to inspect it, then looked over at Lex.

Lex grinned. "Looks great, bud!" He encouraged. "Why don't you grab another one for the tree?"

It went on like that for a while, until Lex realized that there were a lot of ornaments on the first three and a half feet of the tree, but not on the other 4 and a half feet above it.

Lex walked over and grabbed a few and placed them towards the top. "Hey, bubba?" He began. "Wanna help me with the top?"

Clark grabbed a couple of ornaments and walked over to Lex.

Lex picked him up and raised him to the correct spot for the ornaments so that Clark could put them where he wanted.

After the glass ornaments were out of his hands, Lex threw Clark into the air.

Clark screeched and giggled with glee as Lex caught him and spun him around. It was like music to Lex's ears. His son's sounds of happiness were all he ever really needed in life.

Lex put Clark on the ground again and ruffled his hair. "Go grab more ornaments."

It happened in slow motion.

Clark grabbed an ornament in each hand and began walking back over to Lex, but part of the way there, he tripped over his own feet.

He landed on the ornaments.

"Clark!"

Clark looked down at the shattered balls around him, then up at Lex before starting to sob.

Lex's heart beat wildly in his chest as he made his way over to Clark.

"Are you hurt, bubba?" Lex asked as he reached out to Clark.

Clark flinched violently and sucked in a sharp breath that came out in another sob. "S-sorry… Sorry, D-daddy."

"Shhh…" Lex soothed. "Let me see your hands."

Clark shook his head. "No…"

Lex frowned. It had been an accident, but Clark was acting like he was going to get hit…

Suddenly, Lex remembered when he had dropped ornaments as a child. If his mother had been around, he would have been forced to clean it up, but if it had been his father… If Lex thought hard enough, he could still feel the wooden switch against his palms.

Sure, there had never been a Christmas tree or ornaments in the lab, but he was sure that Clark had been put through all sorts of trouble if he had broken something…

"I'm not gonna hurt you, baby boy," Lex said. "I just wanna make sure the glass didn't get into your hands cause that would hurt a lot."

Clark sniffled, then opened up his hands. He kept his gaze on the ground though.

Lex breathed a sigh of relief. Even though the ornaments had shattered, there was no blood or glass shards in his son's skin.

"Sorry…" Clark whispered, then the tears started again.

Before Lex could think of the consequences it would bring, he scooped Clark into his arms.

Clark tensed for a moment, then grabbed onto Lex's suit jacket and sobbed into his shoulder.

Lex started to rock him as he stroked his hair. His heart broke for his baby. It had been an accident, but Lex knew the guilt well. "Shhh…" He soothed. "I'm not mad, bubba."

Clark sniffled and kept his face buried in Lex's jacket.

"I'm so glad that you didn't get hurt and we can replace the ornaments if you want, but we don't have to. We have more that look just like them." Lex told him.

Lex wrapped his arms around Clark a little tighter and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Clark's head. "And I'm never ever gonna hurt you for breaking an ornament," he said. "I promise, bubba."

Clark looked up at him and wiped his bloodshot eyes. "Really?" He asked.

Lex nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Now… We need to find the star and put it on the tree. Wanna help me?"

Clark wiped at his eyes and runny nose, but managed a grin. "Can I?" He asked excitedly, then looked down at the glass on the floor.

"Don't worry about that, bubba," Lex said as he ruffled Clark's hair and pulled him close. "Daddy will make it all better."

So! Chapter Twenty Two! Definitely one of those ones where the characters write it themselves and you just go "Thanks, guys!" lol. Please follow, fave, and review! I would love to know what you thought!

Thanks for reading! Love y'all!