Another update before Christmas! I can't promise there will be another before the holiday/end of the year; so if that's the case, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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There was an uncomfortable air that lingered in the manor after they found Peyton's room trashed. She remained in the bedroom near Lex's even after her original room was cleaned up. Mostly cleaned up. It was difficult to get the paint off the walls.
She didn't believe ghosts used paint.
But the idea that it wasn't a ghost still didn't make her feel safe, and she didn't understand how someone could have gotten in and out without being caught. How had they gotten the door to rattle or the light to shine without being inside? Why did they target her specifically?
There were so many issues to worry about, Peyton wasn't sure how to prioritize them. Everything seemed important; everything felt like it should take prominence. And everything felt like it needed to be handled and figured out before it would fit and make sense with everything else.
The mark on her head was another puzzle piece, but it meant nothing without context and she didn't think her mom would be willing to give that. Peyton couldn't trust her to tell the truth anyway.
But what did the mark even matter to her?
She was supposed to be getting home. She wanted to get home. Everyday it felt farther away and it scared her. Not that she couldn't remember, but with every week that separated her from her original life, it felt more like a hopeless endeavor to get back. It felt more like a memory.
Peyton needed to get back before her body was dead at her desk. Violent nausea rolled through her at the thought and she immediately pivoted. No. Comatose. Her comatose body.
Lex looked up when she entered his office at a clip walk; he closed his laptop and gave her his full attention. Peyton leaned over the edge of his desk and quickly drummed her fingers along the surface.
"So, I've collected a couple paychecks now," she said. "Do you think I can get that list of doctor's you worked with on my condition?"
Lex's expression was carefully composed, but it was too still. He licked his lips as he looked away and nodded.
"Right," he said.
He got up and Peyton followed as he walked over to what looked like a normal wall panel below the window behind his desk and pressed on the corner. She watched as he reached inside a hidden cubby, opened a safe, and pulled out her file. Surprisingly, he handed it to her without debate. His eyes, however, were tight. Guilt pooled in Peyton's belly.
"Thank you," she said, subdued. "I know- I appreciate this."
"Maybe they'll have better luck with you being aware now," he said sardonically. She moved to leave the room in order to look through the file without bothering him and he called after her. "Do you have a plan, for if they don't give you the answers you want?"
She pivoted on the ball of her foot and walked backwards a few steps so she could look at him.
"I guess I'll cross that bridge if I come to it."
[]
Some of the paperwork was familiar, even if she'd had a concussion while originally looking at it. But she didn't remember who any of the doctor's were from her first brief read. She spread out the paperwork on her desk in her office and scanned through the relevant information. Not all the doctors had the same specializations and not all had approached her condition the same way; and given she had limited funds she needed to decide who to contact first wisely. She skimmed down the list.
Dr. Morgan, a neurologist who focused on hallucinatory disorders and seizures. She hadn't found anything of note with Peyton. Or, she wouldn't have known what she was looking at even if she did. There was too much wrong to know how to begin narrowing it down, especially since Peyton couldn't help tell her what she was experiencing. But at least they ruled out seizures.
Dr. Rosenquist, a specialized somnologist who had apparently also seen her as a child. He'd tried to see if new tests would now show a correlation to a disruption in her REM cycle. Lex had added a little note near his name to express his personal dissatisfaction with the doctor's results and blasé attitude.
Dr. Kirkpatrick, another neurologist but he specialized in degenerative diseases. All he could conclude was that there didn't appear to be any continued degeneration. However there were parts of her limbic system that were active, or suddenly overactive, in strange cycles. But whatever was being processed didn't seem to make it to the surface of her consciousness.
Dr. Henson, not even a medical doctor. He was a clinical psychologist. Peyton's vision tunneled as she stared at his name.
Dr. Henson.
Her breathing quickened and her heart clenched painfully.
Dr. Henson.
Her emails. The theoretical physicist who was humoring her questions about parallel universes. Dr. Robert Henson was the last person she'd almost communicated with before she collapsed.
It had to be a coincidence.It had to be. Robert and Henson had to be common names. Her stomach still churned.
Peyton snatched up the paper with his name on it and made a frantic dash back to Lex's office. His head snapped up and he stood as she threw open the door and marched in.
"Peyton?"
"Where did you get this name?" She asked, the pitch of her voice climbed higher as she spoke.
Lex rounded his desk with a concerned look on his face as he met her halfway, his hands already lifted to try and pacify her.
"Hey, what's wrong? What are you talking about?"
"Dr. Robert Henson, where did you get his name?"
Peyton struggled to control her breathing as Lex held onto her shoulders and tried to maintain eye contact between them.
"Dr. Henson was a desperate shot in the dark to try and help you," he said. "You met with him a few times, but it didn't seem to have much impact and he wanted to use some questionable means of experimental treatment. What's the matter?"
Peyton bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head in denial.
"No," she said. "No, Dr. Henson was a doctor I contacted myself. Before I came back here. He was a theoretical physicist. We emailed."
"Maybe you should sit down; breathe," Lex advised. Peyton shook the document in front of him.
"I don't want to sit down. I want to know how you found a doctor with the exact same name as the one I did!"
Movement flickered in her peripheral vision, and before she even could fully look, Lex yanked her to the side as a vase flew passed the spot her head had been. It crashed into the opposite wall and shattered into a thousand pieces. Peyton pressed up against Lex instinctively as she looked for the danger, but to her horror they were the only ones in the room.
Lex held onto her as he also surveyed the direction the vase came from.
A billiard ball suddenly rose in the air on its own and launched itself at them. Lex pulled her down with him as he dropped to the floor to avoid the projectile. The billiard ball rattled the wall next to the fireplace as it impacted and made a hole in the drywall.
Peyton could hardly think as they scrambled around one of the couches for some sort of cover. Lex ripped his cell phone from his pocket and snapped for security to get on scene. The side door to the office banged open then slammed violently closed, and then the office grew still.
For a moment they didn't move, still huddled behind a couch that hardly offered protection. Peyton tried not to pant in terror as she remained frozen. It was still silent a few minutes later, and Lex uncurled from around her to look.
But what would he really see? There'd been nothing there the first time.
Peyton mimicked Lex's movements as he stood. There was debris on the floor from the shattered vase and broken drywall, but nothing else. Two security guards burst into the room, but whatever happened seemed to be over. Even so, they did a sweep of the space to ensure there wasn't anyone hiding somewhere; there wasn't.
"Are you alright," Lex asked. "You didn't get hit?"
She shook her head.
"I'm alright. What- what was that?"
"I wish I knew."
Her thoughts were a jumbled mess and she didn't even know what to focus on. Peyton bent down to pick up the medical paper she'd dropped in the chaos and looked to the side door.
"If that was a ghost," she considered absently, "it's interesting it slammed the lesser used door. The one farther away from where security would be coming in."
"What are you speculating?" Lex asked as he came up beside her. "We're being haunted by the Invisible Man?"
Peyton shook her head as if shaking off her stray thoughts and rubbed between her eyes.
"I don't know. I guess I was just thinking about what you said about Tina. Sorry. There's just been so much going on, I think I'm losing it."
Lex's eyes took on a particular shine at her words and he eyed the aforementioned door.
"No. I don't think you're losing it," he said.
[]
The manor didn't feel safe with whatever lurking within the walls. Peyton wasn't sure outside was any safer, but that's where she found herself. She stared at the paperwork with Dr. Henson's name on it and scowled. It didn't make sense and it filled her with a clawing dread. There was a side of her that was tempted to fall back on old habits and just ignore it. Forget about it. But she couldn't. Not now. She understood that it meant something, even if she wasn't sure what.
With a sigh she folded the page and put it in her jacket pocket. The air was fresh with a hint of floral sweetness. She inhaled a lungful of it and relished the scent. Roses. The manor grounds were well manicured with various attractive plants, but Peyton hadn't spent much time admiring any of it. Even at their wedding reception, it had been so busy that she didn't pay attention to the surrounding landscape. Which seemed to be a shame because it really was well cultivated.
Lex didn't want her wandering too far away as he reevaluated plans with their security team, but Peyton couldn't sit still as the thoughts and possibilities over the doctor continued to curdle. Maybe a walk would help. She wouldn't even leave the garden.
The manor fell behind her as she made her way along a neatly trimmed walkway. There were hedges along the property borders and a few defining different areas of the grounds. In flower beds were planted a few different perennials and some species she suspected weren't native, or readily available, to Kansas. But she noted that the flowers weren't too whimsical. They remained in the realm of "dignified". No wildflowers. Nothing planted together to be too colorful. There was actually more greenery than anything.
The section dominated by roses attracted her attention and she drifted toward it. It was mostly white roses, she noted. A few bushes of red. Peyton rounded a bend in the path and stopped.
Green roses?
She hadn't ever seen green roses before.
Peyton delicately brushed the side of her finger against the soft petals and marveled at the color. Perhaps green roses were something a gardener could cultivate, plants were generally green anyway, but this shade of green. There was something different about it. Almost like it glowed.
"Oh, pardon me, Mrs. Luthor."
Peyton looked up at a male voice and was met with the ground's keeper, Mr. Palmer. He had a trowel in his hand and a few feet behind him a wheelbarrow filled with fertilizer was parked next to some of the beds of flowers. Peyton stepped away from the rose bush and smiled.
"You're fine," she said. "I was just admiring the roses. Did you cultivate these?"
She pointed to the green petals and Mr. Palmer shook his head.
"Thank you, ma'am, but no. They were here when we moved in, I've just been tending to them."
"Their color is unusual."
Mr. Palmer politely nodded.
"I haven't been able to identify the variety," he admitted. "Neither can my son, and he's got books on plants for his studies in chemistry. But it is a beautiful bloom."
Peyton eyed one of the flowers and turned back to Mr. Palmer with an overly friendly smile.
"Do you think I could get a clipping?" She asked. "Just one?"
Mr. Palmer looked surprised but patted his pockets and pulled out a pair of pruning shears.
"Of course, Mrs. Luthor!"
It was still going to take some time to get used to being called that.
He cut one of the roses that hadn't yet fully opened; Peyton was careful to not to grab the stem where there were thorns. She spun it between her fingers and watched as the green petals glimmered in the light.
Whatever variety it was, it was astonishing. It'd look beautiful in a bud vase on her desk.
[]
Peyton placed the rose in a small vase and avoided looking at the paper with Dr. Henson's name on it. She ought to dig into it and further discuss it with Lex. Unpack what it might signify. After all, she couldn't believe the idea of it being a coincidence, even if she desperately wanted to. But there was still that horribly shaken side of her that wanted nothing more than to shove that paper with his name down in the bottom of a drawer somewhere and pretend she never found it. Perhaps it shouldn't have filled her with so much dread. But it did.
She could email the doctor.
A bitter laugh escaped her at the thought of reestablishing contact with him. Only it would be like starting over, wouldn't it? No, not even that. He wasn't the same kind of doctor here. What could he offer her now?
Still, he had the same name. That had to mean something important.
The door to her office opened wider and Peyton spun around sharply. It was only Lex; he leaned in and his gaze traveled over her like he was concerned she might have been injured in the time they were apart.
"Hey. I'm having security do routine sweeps until we find whoever is responsible for all this," he told her. "Until they do-" he paused as if realizing whatever he planned to say next wasn't ideal. "I think it'd be a good idea for us to check in with each other throughout the day. It's not a good sign that the activity has escalated to physical violence, and it seems to be specifically targeting you, for some reason."
Peyton leaned back with her hands on the edge of her desk and nodded. It did seem to be gunning for her. Lex's room, afterall, remained undisturbed and that vase had aimed for her head.
"Okay," she agreed. She wouldn't move out of the manor, wouldn't run from these attacks, but that didn't mean she couldn't be smart. "I'm assuming security didn't find anything incriminating."
The lack of leads looked to irritate Lex.
"No. Not yet."
His gaze drifted over her desktop where her own bit of evidence still sat out in the open. For some reason she held her breath as he fully entered the room and stood next to her in front of the desk. Once again he was thinking thoughts she couldn't begin to decipher. Peyton looked down to the page and could immediately pick out Dr. Henson's name.
"It's not a… memory. From here. Of my- her- life. I emailed him specifically to try and ask about parallel universes, though I never quite got around to getting any real answers from him."
Lex dragged his eyes to her and Peyton froze as he lifted one of her hands, turning it so her palm faced up. He found the thin, pale line along her thumb and ran his own over it.
"This isn't the first time there's been overlap, is it? The cut. Your necklace." His eyes flickered down to where the locket sat at the base of her throat. "You mentioned both those things as well."
Peyton swallowed at the reminder.
"I don't know what it all means." She chewed her bottom lip momentarily and subtly detangled their fingers. The contact wasn't good for her. Or him. Worse now after the kiss because she knew she liked it. "You mentioned his treatments were controversial," she said to distract from her movements. "What does that mean?"
Lex took a step back and shoved one hand in his pocket. For a moment he was somewhere else and he scowled.
"Dr. Henson wasn't as concerned about questions of consent and free will with you as I was," he said. "He wanted to try putting you at different levels of inebriation to see how that affected your mental state."
Peyton pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth and felt her hackles rise.
"He wanted to get me drunk?"
"He found your functioning peculiar and wanted to see how it reacted to different stimuli; wanted to see if you'd give different responses. Obviously I disagreed with his methods and ended the sessions."
It was always frightening to be reminded that in that alternate state, anything could have been done to her. She could have been made to do anything; like a puppet.
"I think Dr. Henson was amused by my questions," she told Lex. "I didn't get the chance to be blunt with him, but he humored my proposed scenarios a little."
"Do you know what he looked like," Lex asked. Peyton shook her head.
"I never met him in person. Just some friendly old man."
"Old?" Pressed Lex.
Peyton ran her hand through her hair and sighed in agitation.
"I mean, I assume he was old. I found him through," she squinted as she tried to recall, "I think it was online? Or maybe it was the library. He must have been published. That usually takes a while."
"Potentially," Lex half agreed as he looked over towards her office door where a mirror and a clock hung on the connecting wall.
"Thank you," Peyton said, Lex looked back at her in confusion. "For being an advocate for me when I- when all this was going on. I never liked being drunk. It always felt… bad."
Lex softened and moved closer again. He started to speak, stopped himself, then pressed his lips together in a smile and tried again.
"It wouldn't have been right," he said.
Peyton slumped against her desk again and exhaled loudly as she rolled her head on her neck and looked up at Lex.
"What situations we find ourselves in," she said. "We just need the cherry on top: your dad paying another visit to make it truly an unforgettable week."
Lex looked at her with something less than amusement.
"Please," he said, then winced. "Don't say that. Especially when it's entirely too possible."
She moved away from the desk then, away from the paper, away from her spiraling questions. There were more immediate concerns at the moment. Conveniently.
"I think I'm going to run into town for a little bit," she told him. "You don't think whatever it is will go after you, do you?"
Lex smiled slightly at her question.
"I think I'll be fine. Just-" He rolled his tongue in his mouth then reached out and grasped her hand again. "Be careful out there."
Peyton's stomach fluttered, and she attempted to smile to lighten the mood.
"I'm starting to think that's harder than it should be in Smallville."
[]
It would have been weird to wait outside the high school like a stalker, so Peyton sent a text to Clark to ask Chloe if she could meet at the Beanery to talk for a few minutes. She needed to get Chloe's number so she didn't have to jump through hoops again.
Peyton had a coffee waiting for Chloe when she showed up, since she was apparently a regular customer with a familiar order. When Chloe entered the cafe, she gave the cup across from Peyton a curious look and sat down with a,
"Thanks. So, what's this meetup about? I'm assuming it's not a voluntary interview."
Peyton smiled thinly.
"I don't think you'd be interested in another of those," she said. "I was actually hoping to ask you some questions, if you don't mind. About your meteorite theories."
Chloe acquired a slightly more defensive posture again as her brows rose in surprise.
"You actually buy into my theories?"
Peyton fiddled with her cup of coffee and decided to try and be as honest with the girl as she could be. Or felt safe with.
"I don't know," she admitted. "But some truly unusual things have happened recently and it makes me wonder. Some things seem to… defy logical explanation."
Chloe leaned in closer, her eyes bright as she sensed a potential story.
"Like what?" She prodded.
Peyton pursed her lips and looked off to the side.
"Was… Tina Greer ever on your Wall?"
Chloe's stare sharpened and her head tipped to the side in thought.
"Not exactly," she said. "I knew from gossip she had some illness as a kid and seemed to have miraculously overcome it, but there wasn't much talk otherwise. And she was quiet in school. This has to do with how she was able to nearly frame Lex, doesn't it?"
Well, she kind of walked into having to admit something, didn't she? Peyton shifted in her seat and swirled her coffee cup.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Lex said Tina seemed to be cured after the meteor shower and she could… do things. So I just- I didn't know if you might have an idea-"
To her credit, Chloe looked like her knee jerk reaction was to start questioning Peyton about what Tina had been able to do, but she curbed it to look beyond Peyton's line of questioning.
"Why now?" Chloe asked. She studied Peyton's face and her lips parted in curiosity. "Is there something new going on? Something like Tina?"
"Possibly. Off the record, there have been a few… incidents at the manor. But no one has been able to identify a culprit. Did Clark tell you about what happened when he was making a delivery a few days ago?"
Chloe shook her head and Peyton nodded in acknowledgement.
"Well, someone got into the manor, trashed my room, and left all without being seen. And we were only down the stairs."
"Your room?"
"Our room, obviously," Peyton lied. "But they mostly focused on my things."
With a perplexed huff, Chloe sat back and took a drink of coffee. Her eyes darted around as her thoughts ran.
"Seems like it'd be difficult for someone to get away with and not be seen, for sure. I'll look through my sources and see if I come across anything that even feels like it relates."
Her phone chimed and Chloe read the message with another huff of exasperation.
"But on that note, I have to run. Clark apparently needs someone to cover for him at the blood drive that he insisted on helping with."
"The one being held at the high school?" Peyton asked.
"Yeah, we all either have to donate blood or volunteer for health class."
They both stood and Peyton tossed her cup into a nearby trash can.
"Then I'll let you go. Thank you, Chloe; I appreciate you giving me some of your time."
At that, Chloe grinned widely.
"Hey, if it has to do with the strange and unexplainable, I always have time."
[]
There was a security guard posted near the front door when she got back. He nodded at her as she walked by, but otherwise didn't move and Peyton wondered how long he'd been there. Even if it was his job, it must suck to have to sit or stand in one spot of their house all day just waiting for something to happen, but hoping it didn't. Maybe she could drop off some snacks and water for him later.
A few more work memos needed to be completed before dinner and she'd been putting them off, in part due to the most recent events, but also because they were starting to become monotonous. Obviously she still had a ways to go in proving she'd truly grown to her parents, but she hoped they'd believe it sooner rather than later.
Peyton finished the last few pieces of correspondence quickly and once more dabbled in organizing the files and folders in the shared drive. And though it was outside of her current statement of work, she gravitated towards the accounting files. In her job before at the banking firm, she'd worked quite extensively with numbers and reports. Perhaps it would show some initiative to her father if she reached a little farther. Show him that she wasn't just content to do the bare minimum.
Her parent's marketing company was expansive and lucrative. They worked with many high end brands in various markets and it was rather impressive how successful they were. Peyton wasn't as aware of marketing mechanics, she realized now that she ought to have paid more attention to that with her tutors, but, again. She knew numbers.
She poked around in files and took advantage of the fact that they wouldn't track her opening them at this point in time, as long as she didn't make any changes. The accounting department looked like they had everything pretty well buttoned up. She could see some places they'd benefit from a web-based sharing system, but that would have to wait to develop more fully.
Peyton frowned as she noted a strange recurring transfer on multiple bi-annual reports. The amount wasn't too gratuitous, but it was significant enough to catch her attention, and it looked to be sent somewhere via an intermediary. But it wasn't clear where its end destination was. The documentation was fine if one just dug down a few layers, but after that it appeared to get muddled and vague. The best she could find in association with the regular transaction was the initial "L.L.,V." but there wasn't any description beyond that. Nothing to clarify what that referred to.
"Elle, elle, vee," Peyton murmured to herself. "What is that?"
Perhaps it was nothing more than poor record keeping, but given how well the rest of the accounting department was handled, Peyton had her doubts. A thrill of adrenaline ran through her.
It could be something more. Someone could be using the intermediary to skim the top off some miscellaneous spending. If that was what was happening, if Peyton uncovered it, that could boost her image in her parents eyes, and maybe they would trust her. Maybe they would finally realize that she was better now; that she could think for herself and be reliable. Maybe they'd love her more.
Peyton shook her head and tsked sharply as she reprimanded herself for the thought.
Ridiculous. She shouldn't even care.
She shut her laptop with a quiet click and decided she was just about done thinking for the day. It was about dinner time anyway. Peyton exited her office and peered over the stairs to see the security guard still at his station. It filled her with a mixture of relief and pity. She made her way down to the kitchen and picked up a bottle of water and a prepackaged snack that would offer a little protein, and then made her way back to the front doors.
"Hey," she said, and the security guard's head snapped toward her.
"Mrs. Luthor, is everything alright?"
Peyton huffed out a little laugh and nodded.
"Everything is fine," she reassured. "I just feel bad that you have to stand here for hours on my account. Um. I don't know if you're hungry or thirsty or anything."
She held up her offerings and the security guard looked surprised by the food.
"You don't have to do that, Mrs. Luthor." He said. "We do get breaks."
"Is yours soon?"
He made a face as if she'd caught him in something, and she smiled in gentle amusement.
"Well, I'll just leave these here in case you get hungry before your break, Mr.-"
"Hernandez, ma'am."
"Mr. Hernandez. Thanks for looking out for me!"
His expression softened as he looked at the snack, then he straightened back up as Peyton waved and walked away. It felt good to connect with the people who worked in their home again.
Lex came through his office doorway when she passed, his gaze was sharp like he had been looking for her, and his shoulders relaxed when he saw her. He reached for her, but then stopped himself and lowered his arm.
"Hey," he said. "How was your trip to town?"
Peyton forced her eyes away from his hands and considered his question.
"Fine. I met up with Chloe." Lex shifted to face her more and Peyton recognized he wanted her to elaborate. "You mentioned her Wall with Tina the other day and, with all that's been happening, I just wanted to see if maybe she knew something we didn't. I didn't tell her much. Just that someone was able to get in and out without being detected."
He considered that and tipped his head in agreement. The smell of dinner wafted down the hall and Peyton impulsively grabbed Lex's hand to pull her behind him as she started toward the dining room. She was only hungry. They could have this discussion on the go. That was all.
Lex's hand tightened around hers and he followed.
"Did she have any ideas?"
"Not immediately," Peyton admitted. "But she said she'd contact me if she came across anything."
Lex hummed in response and as they sat down, Peyton forced herself to let go of his hand. He watched as she drew her hand back and bit her lip, but didn't say anything.
It shouldn't be so much of a battle, keeping her distance. She'd almost fooled herself that she was, before the kiss. But now she was in an all out war with herself and still losing. His presence shouldn't feel so natural; so right.
And yet.
She needed the distance more than he did.
Lex was more sullen than usual. She wondered if it were due to her knowing Dr. Henson, the incident today, or the fact that they still didn't know who was responsible. Compounding all of those things wasn't exactly the making of a good day. She was exhausted herself. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Peyton spoke up again.
"I found something unusual in the Woods Inc. accounting files today."
"Accounting?" Lex's expression shifted from its stoic evenness into something more amused. He pinned her with his gaze and leaned slightly forwards conspiratorially. "Aren't you in administration?"
Peyton lifted her chin.
"I was practicing showing initiative," she defended. "And it may be good that I did. I think someone is embezzling funds from our company."
"What did your parents say?"
At that, Peyton's lips twisted slightly and she fidgeted.
"I haven't told them yet. I just found it before dinner. And I-"
How terrible would it sound to say she didn't exactly want to tell them until she solved the crime herself? She chewed her lip again and Lex's eyes shone.
"You want to be the hero," he said with laughter in his tone.
Peyton gaped in offense.
"It's not about being a hero," she argued. "I just want them to see that I can do it." He hummed again with a grin and she scowled. "It's not. If I can bring them hard proof and a possible culprit, then they'll see I'm… I'm me."
His expression softened so obviously that it nearly melted her insides. It turned them molten when he grasped her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. Peyton was too stunned to try and pull away.
"They know; whether or not they realize it," he said. "Like I told you before, you're too bright not to see."
Her wedding ring burned hot on her finger.
He really, really wasn't fair.