HumbugGirl
16th April 2003, 21:34
Title: Progression
Author: HumbugGirl
Email: humbuggirl@hotmail.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/peacefulempress/home.html or http://www.geocities.com/oddfiction
Pairing: Lex/Chloe, Lex/Lana
Rating: 15
Summary: Three lives in the future.
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: Smallville and none of the associated characters are mind.
Author’s Notes: 1) I have the rather scary impression this might be controversial whichever list I post it on but I’m going to go for it anyway.
Feedback: Naturally, I’d love some.
Standing before the huge windows in the living room that look out over the Metropolis skyline Lana attempted with levels of determination she had not been sure she had possessed to ignore the faint sounds she could hear coming from somewhere else in the apartment. It was difficult though because the noises were so very loud and distinct and her attempts were made all the more difficult by the fact that she knew exactly where the noises were coming from and exactly what the noises were. If she didn’t know then she thought that perhaps she would have dismissed them already and would have continued to go about her usual routine that followed her getting in from work.
Work might have been too strong a word of course because all she seemed to do day in, day out was sit on various committees for causes that all merged into one another after a while and which she didn’t really care about because they weren’t her causes at all; they were the causes that Lex had picked out for her to support simply because they were socially suitable ones to aid at the time. It often seemed that the more suitable they were the more boring they also were but such sentiments were irrelevant for the most part. Lex had once determined it to be ‘their civic duty’ but then Lex did not have to sit on the committees in the first place so he didn’t exactly understand.
But, she thought, I’m digressing and it was clear to Lana that her mind was trying to find away to escape the fact that somewhere else in the apartment someone was making a series of deep, chesty groans now. Somewhere else in the apartment someone was having sex and most probably they were having sex with her husband. She had secretly suspected for a while that Lex brought girls back with him sometimes when Lana was out playing the part of the Good Samaritan for the sake of the family and to corporation and the only reason that her suspicions had now been confirmed was because she actually started to feel physically sick this afternoon while listening to some vapid socialite babble on and on and on about her new Gucci sunglasses even though they were meant to be meeting about something or other… What was it? Runaway girls or something similar… That sounded vaguely familiar.
Absently she wondered whether the girl who was currently yelling out what sounds like an absolutely delicious orgasm at the top of her voice was some runaway girl but then no, that didn’t sounds right. Lex wouldn’t just pick someone up off the streets; not because he would be worried about the girl but because he’d be more concerned about what would happen if the press ever happened to find out. An affair with one of the socialites who had been annoying her all afternoon or some up and coming Hollywood starlet would be perfectly acceptable but not some poor, star struck no-one from the streets; that would get him into trouble. Lana couldn’t even begin to imagine the things that might be said though she was in no doubt that Lex would have a full grasp of the possibilities.
Still, she wouldn’t put anything past Lex. There was nothing the man was no capable off if he but decided to try it.
They had been married for nearly five years now and she had to admit that they hadn’t been a bad five years over all. They could have been a hell of a lot worse Lana pondered. He could have divorced her long ago, he could have lost all his money for which he made her sign a pre-nuptial agreement to make sure she never got her hands on and he could have turned out to have been a wife beater. But he hadn’t. They had two wonderful children; Lydia who was four and a bit and who was conceived dangerously close to the wrong side of the sheets and Liam who was two, had a bright red shock of hair and who was the love of Lana’s life. When discounting Lex of course. Neither of them, or their children, had ever been seriously ill. They had no accidents either which was a miracle considering the way that Lex still drove and the fact that sometimes the children were less than careful when they played and she had often to run and catch them and sometimes scold them a little to remind them to be more careful.
Thinking of her babies, shockingly beautiful little creatures who would be heartbreakers one day, made Lana’s heart flutter for a moment with panic and she had to remind herself that they were perfectly safe with Nell who often took them when Lana was between nannies, none of whom she has especially trusted. They weren’t like mothers; they didn’t know how much effort it took to look after her children. Some of them paid dangerously little attention to their charges and Lana for the life of her couldn’t figure out how the other ‘working’ mothers she knew could stand to leave their children alone with such women for any extended period of time.
Lana’s best friend in the city was a woman called Irina Blackwell who was surprisingly intelligent for one of the socialites that Lana had come to dislike so much over the years and reminded her a little of Chloe sometimes when the other woman was irritated which was only very rarely and normally when she had fallen out with her husband. Irina was a good five years older than Lana but the two of them had connected well and bonded because they both married young and they had both married into money although granted Lana’s ‘money’ was somewhat more than Irina’s and considerably more influential as well. Lex approved of the friendship though so the difference, although only slight in the grand scheme of things, didn’t really matter all that much. Like Lana, Irina also had a child soon after she married but unlike Lana she wasn’t so careful and her baby boy had fallen into the pool one day and drowned. Lana knew that Irina still had horrible nightmares about finding her child, his face blue and twisted in death.
In some respects it gave Lana a certain feeling of satisfaction to know that she was a better mother than all the irritating women around her now. It elicited a degree of pride in her that made her want to smile. Well, almost made her want to smile.
The sounds that were still coming from the bedroom even though she had been standing here by the window for a good hour now did more than a little to break down that sense of pride now. It seemed that Lex didn’t find quite as much satisfaction in her abilities as a wife as she had originally thought he had. He never made those kinds of sounds when he was fucking her. But then, they had been ‘making love’ so much less and less recently hadn’t they? And perhaps the reason for that was the woman who she could now hear talking in a loud but muffled voice in the bedroom.
That one woman could do what she suspected a legion of others had been unable to do was something stunning in itself and the implications that such thoughts brought to her mind as a result were far from comforting for the brunette woman who now nervously bit at her lip.
The thought caused Lana to bring her hands up to grip her arms and hug herself in some effort to get comfort. She wanted to move but her feet seemed glued to the pristine hardwood floors than ran throughout the apartment. There was a desire in her to run through the place screaming and hammering on the walls and doors until she could escape and then was an equal desire to march bravely through the corridors until she walked right into the bedroom and confronted them in the act and perhaps say something witty though her mind was a blank as to what she would say and the ‘brave’ part of the equation was unfortunately currently missing.
Raised voices were now coming from the direction of the bedroom though Lana was unable to hear exactly what was being said because the voices were still far too distorted by the walls between her and them. She didn’t need to be close though to know that they were angry and that some of the words flying back and forth were more than a little frustrated on both sides. It grated on her already fragile nerves and she found herself digging her nails into the soft flesh of her arms even without realising it, leaving small reddened half moons. In fact, she barely felt it as in the distance somewhere in the apartment a door slammed and there was the sound of heals clicking on the floor boards. It took her only seconds to realise that they were getting closer and even as the realisation came to her the brunette’s heart began to jump into her mouth, threatening to leap from her mouth altogether as she found herself too stunned to move and with nowhere to hide anyway.
The woman who appeared strode confidently into the room, deceptively tall in high stiletto heals while searching around in the small stylish bag she was carrying for something, her entire concentration on the hunt. She paused and as she did so, triumphantly pulled out a sleek modern mobile phone which she immediately flipped open and pressed at the buttons while turning gracefully on one foot towards the window.
She faltered the moment her eyes reached Lana and the phone very nearly slipped from her hand as her reddened lips parted slightly in a surprised gasp. Lana could do nothing but stare back at her; at the way in which the neat red dress she was wearing clung to the rich full curves of her body and how even in the dim natural light of the living room she could see inquisitive green eyes peering at her from beneath a soft mess of blonde hair. Even without a smudge of make-up on her face she was still ever so pretty, certainly pretty enough to make most men stop and stare. Lana found herself looking down at the long skirt and shirt she wore that, while fashionable, still left her feeling dowdy in comparison and then looked up at the other woman again somewhat shyly.
Her mouth dropped open as if to say something but closed again as they both spun to look to the door through which the blonde had appeared. A figure appeared; his entire body tense with the emotions flying through him. Lex came stalking out, his face a perfect mixture of passion and anger as he snapped loudly, “Chloe!”
Then he stopped and stared and suddenly things were far from fine anymore.
* * * *
The hotel was undeniably one of the more desirable locations to stay in town. It was a towering affair covered with glass and white stone that sparkled and shone in the sun, the outside contrasting strongly with the dark interior. In many ways it resembled a fairy tale castle in the forest of dull buildings that had sprung up in Metropolis over the past few years.
A simple piece of research, backed entirely by the fact that she was technically a Luthor, had lead her here but now that she was stood outside the tall building with its shimmering glass walls towering into the sky there was an odd feeling of nervousness settling into the pit of her stomach that made her feel more than a little nauseous. It was a feeling she tried to suppress, that she had to push away and bury before it took total control of her. This was not a time to let her shy and timid side out to play.
People looked at her as she entered the foyer; their eyes bright with curiously and speculation. As she had been taught Lana ignored them skilfully, placing on her features a somewhat arrogant expression of indifference that usually kept people at bay. Even when she heard her name mentioned she resisted the urge to turn and look at the person who had spoken and continued her deliberate if careless seeming walk over to the reception. The man stood behind the desk had to make a conscious effort not to gawp at her open mouthed.
He answered her question quickly, forgetting with little trouble that he was not meant to give out room numbers so easily but as she turned to go he added, “But Mrs Luthor, there she is now. Over there, do you see her? In the bar.”
Lana nodded and left him a typically generous tip before following his line of sight into the bar which was fully fitted out in what Lana liked to term ‘business chic’, a mixture of dark leathers, wood and the occasional burst of brilliance as light hit chrome. Lex had the same look to his offices in Metropolis.
The blonde woman she had come to see looked relaxed in a pair of blue jeans and a clinging black shirt and at the same time entirely out of place considering the sea of suits surrounding her. It didn’t seem to faze her in the least however. She was slumped in one of the low leather body hugging chairs, a pile of papers in disarray on the table before her but a book actually in her hands as she read with her usual zeal.
Chloe, she knew, had written three books since leaving high school and was rarely out of a best seller list somewhere around the world for long while still managing to put herself through college. She had also embarked on what had promised to be an exciting and lucrative career in journalism though from what Lana had gathered there had been problems recently connected to her chosen profession. Lana didn’t know enough about the business to make a judgement on whether those problems were serious or not.
She had read each of Chloe’s books out of curiosity as they had come out, wonderfully written exotic tales of the weird and the wonderful that appealed to a large audience. Lana had even managed to get her hands on a copy of the blonde woman’s last book before it had even been published and had devoured it mercilessly over the course of a matter of days.
A glass of something or other sat on the table before her and as Lana watched the woman leaned forwards and too a sip of it pausing as she noticed Lana but continuing the action anyway though her eyes did not leave the other woman’s face. When she finished Chloe said, “Are you going to sit down or do you want to keep drawing attention to yourself like you are now?”
The brunette felt herself bristle. “I was hoping that you might invite me to sit actually.”
Chloe turned wry eyes on her that spoke volumes and Lana quickly slipped into the spare chair. Something told her that Chloe was in no mood for delaying tactics today. The blonde, while she had looked relaxed from a distance, looked anything but now she was up close and Lana began to wonder whether this had not been one of her better ideas. A trapped Chloe Sullivan, one that felt as if she were beginning pushed into something was not a particularly pleasant Chloe Sullivan to deal with. That was something that Lana could remember from the years they had spent growing up together in Smallville.
A waiter appeared; Lana ordered iced tea after a moment’s thought and then he disappeared again and all the while the two women sat in silence, Chloe staring at Lana with a somewhat unforgiving gaze. At that moment Lana wondered whether she hadn’t made a colossal mistake by placing herself in a position where she might be exposed to some of Chloe’s finer journalistic skills.
Leaning back once again in her seat and once again taking on her relaxed pose Chloe said, “I was beginning to wonder how long it was going to take you to show up.”
“I wasn’t going to come at all,” Lana lied and then instantly regretted it as she saw the knowing look in Chloe’s eyes. A tiny smirk lighted on the reporter’s lips. Quickly Lana added, “I half thought that maybe you would come and find me.”
“Now why would I do that?”
Lana felt her eyes widen and she leaned forwards, not wanting anyone to hear what she was about to say. “Because you’ve clearly been having an affair with my husband!”
Chloe nodded and a very serious, completely out of character look came onto her features as she looked away from Lana and towards the huge plate glass windows that looked out on to the busy street and gardens beyond. Lana got the impression however that she was not admiring the charming view the hotel had no doubt paid to have created there. “Do you remember that time that the four of us, you, me, Clark and Pete all went out to the lake to swim when we were about sixteen or so?”
“What are you talking about?” the brunette asked finding herself growing confused at the sudden change of direction.
“It was the year after the tornado hit Smallville and you moved in. You told Clark to make up his mind once and for all who he really wanted even though I’d already decided to move on and, typically and expectedly he chose you. It really was a surprise to no one, not even you Lana because you were always so sure that he would come running to you but you still walked around with that slightly dazed and surprised expression on your face that everyone seemed to buy so they would feel all the happier for you. Well, everyone but me and a certain someone else bought it that is.”
“Where are you going with this?” Lana found herself asking irritably but the question only caused Chloe to tip her head silently to one side again and just look at her with a stern expression. It was enough to make Lana fall quiet.
“I was… so angry,” the blonde admitted though she showed none of the regret and bashfulness that Lana would have half expected with such a statement.
“So this is about revenge?”
“Hardly,” Chloe snorted. “Lana, I was over Clark until you started stirring everything up again. I had already moved on but you couldn’t see that. I had already found someone else but that little factor was something you chose to ignore.”
Lana frowned, she couldn’t help it. Despite the quiet discomfort and irritation that had been growing since Chloe started to speak she found herself searching back over the years to those days and trying to remember anything that might have give her a clue to what on earth Chloe was talking about. Nothing sprung to mind though and she was left waiting on an answer from the other woman.
A little smile had formed on Chloe’s lips and it left Lana worried. “We were never the best of friends Lana, as much as you might have liked to pretend that we were. There were always little things, Clark aside, that used to get in the way. But that’s beside the point. My point is that it was always about you. You never noticed that there were things going on in my life that didn’t concern you and maybe if you had then all this,” she said the last with an expressive little wave of her hands. “Would not be such a surprise to you.”
“Are you saying that you used to be involved with Lex?” Lana asked, barely able to keep the shear shock and almost heart wrenching pain that appeared in her chest out of her voice.
The smile turned into an all too familiar smirk and Chloe sipped at her drink before saying, “Oh look, you finally found some of those brain cells you’re reputed to have.”
Author: HumbugGirl
Email: humbuggirl@hotmail.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/peacefulempress/home.html or http://www.geocities.com/oddfiction
Pairing: Lex/Chloe, Lex/Lana
Rating: 15
Summary: Three lives in the future.
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: Smallville and none of the associated characters are mind.
Author’s Notes: 1) I have the rather scary impression this might be controversial whichever list I post it on but I’m going to go for it anyway.
Feedback: Naturally, I’d love some.
Standing before the huge windows in the living room that look out over the Metropolis skyline Lana attempted with levels of determination she had not been sure she had possessed to ignore the faint sounds she could hear coming from somewhere else in the apartment. It was difficult though because the noises were so very loud and distinct and her attempts were made all the more difficult by the fact that she knew exactly where the noises were coming from and exactly what the noises were. If she didn’t know then she thought that perhaps she would have dismissed them already and would have continued to go about her usual routine that followed her getting in from work.
Work might have been too strong a word of course because all she seemed to do day in, day out was sit on various committees for causes that all merged into one another after a while and which she didn’t really care about because they weren’t her causes at all; they were the causes that Lex had picked out for her to support simply because they were socially suitable ones to aid at the time. It often seemed that the more suitable they were the more boring they also were but such sentiments were irrelevant for the most part. Lex had once determined it to be ‘their civic duty’ but then Lex did not have to sit on the committees in the first place so he didn’t exactly understand.
But, she thought, I’m digressing and it was clear to Lana that her mind was trying to find away to escape the fact that somewhere else in the apartment someone was making a series of deep, chesty groans now. Somewhere else in the apartment someone was having sex and most probably they were having sex with her husband. She had secretly suspected for a while that Lex brought girls back with him sometimes when Lana was out playing the part of the Good Samaritan for the sake of the family and to corporation and the only reason that her suspicions had now been confirmed was because she actually started to feel physically sick this afternoon while listening to some vapid socialite babble on and on and on about her new Gucci sunglasses even though they were meant to be meeting about something or other… What was it? Runaway girls or something similar… That sounded vaguely familiar.
Absently she wondered whether the girl who was currently yelling out what sounds like an absolutely delicious orgasm at the top of her voice was some runaway girl but then no, that didn’t sounds right. Lex wouldn’t just pick someone up off the streets; not because he would be worried about the girl but because he’d be more concerned about what would happen if the press ever happened to find out. An affair with one of the socialites who had been annoying her all afternoon or some up and coming Hollywood starlet would be perfectly acceptable but not some poor, star struck no-one from the streets; that would get him into trouble. Lana couldn’t even begin to imagine the things that might be said though she was in no doubt that Lex would have a full grasp of the possibilities.
Still, she wouldn’t put anything past Lex. There was nothing the man was no capable off if he but decided to try it.
They had been married for nearly five years now and she had to admit that they hadn’t been a bad five years over all. They could have been a hell of a lot worse Lana pondered. He could have divorced her long ago, he could have lost all his money for which he made her sign a pre-nuptial agreement to make sure she never got her hands on and he could have turned out to have been a wife beater. But he hadn’t. They had two wonderful children; Lydia who was four and a bit and who was conceived dangerously close to the wrong side of the sheets and Liam who was two, had a bright red shock of hair and who was the love of Lana’s life. When discounting Lex of course. Neither of them, or their children, had ever been seriously ill. They had no accidents either which was a miracle considering the way that Lex still drove and the fact that sometimes the children were less than careful when they played and she had often to run and catch them and sometimes scold them a little to remind them to be more careful.
Thinking of her babies, shockingly beautiful little creatures who would be heartbreakers one day, made Lana’s heart flutter for a moment with panic and she had to remind herself that they were perfectly safe with Nell who often took them when Lana was between nannies, none of whom she has especially trusted. They weren’t like mothers; they didn’t know how much effort it took to look after her children. Some of them paid dangerously little attention to their charges and Lana for the life of her couldn’t figure out how the other ‘working’ mothers she knew could stand to leave their children alone with such women for any extended period of time.
Lana’s best friend in the city was a woman called Irina Blackwell who was surprisingly intelligent for one of the socialites that Lana had come to dislike so much over the years and reminded her a little of Chloe sometimes when the other woman was irritated which was only very rarely and normally when she had fallen out with her husband. Irina was a good five years older than Lana but the two of them had connected well and bonded because they both married young and they had both married into money although granted Lana’s ‘money’ was somewhat more than Irina’s and considerably more influential as well. Lex approved of the friendship though so the difference, although only slight in the grand scheme of things, didn’t really matter all that much. Like Lana, Irina also had a child soon after she married but unlike Lana she wasn’t so careful and her baby boy had fallen into the pool one day and drowned. Lana knew that Irina still had horrible nightmares about finding her child, his face blue and twisted in death.
In some respects it gave Lana a certain feeling of satisfaction to know that she was a better mother than all the irritating women around her now. It elicited a degree of pride in her that made her want to smile. Well, almost made her want to smile.
The sounds that were still coming from the bedroom even though she had been standing here by the window for a good hour now did more than a little to break down that sense of pride now. It seemed that Lex didn’t find quite as much satisfaction in her abilities as a wife as she had originally thought he had. He never made those kinds of sounds when he was fucking her. But then, they had been ‘making love’ so much less and less recently hadn’t they? And perhaps the reason for that was the woman who she could now hear talking in a loud but muffled voice in the bedroom.
That one woman could do what she suspected a legion of others had been unable to do was something stunning in itself and the implications that such thoughts brought to her mind as a result were far from comforting for the brunette woman who now nervously bit at her lip.
The thought caused Lana to bring her hands up to grip her arms and hug herself in some effort to get comfort. She wanted to move but her feet seemed glued to the pristine hardwood floors than ran throughout the apartment. There was a desire in her to run through the place screaming and hammering on the walls and doors until she could escape and then was an equal desire to march bravely through the corridors until she walked right into the bedroom and confronted them in the act and perhaps say something witty though her mind was a blank as to what she would say and the ‘brave’ part of the equation was unfortunately currently missing.
Raised voices were now coming from the direction of the bedroom though Lana was unable to hear exactly what was being said because the voices were still far too distorted by the walls between her and them. She didn’t need to be close though to know that they were angry and that some of the words flying back and forth were more than a little frustrated on both sides. It grated on her already fragile nerves and she found herself digging her nails into the soft flesh of her arms even without realising it, leaving small reddened half moons. In fact, she barely felt it as in the distance somewhere in the apartment a door slammed and there was the sound of heals clicking on the floor boards. It took her only seconds to realise that they were getting closer and even as the realisation came to her the brunette’s heart began to jump into her mouth, threatening to leap from her mouth altogether as she found herself too stunned to move and with nowhere to hide anyway.
The woman who appeared strode confidently into the room, deceptively tall in high stiletto heals while searching around in the small stylish bag she was carrying for something, her entire concentration on the hunt. She paused and as she did so, triumphantly pulled out a sleek modern mobile phone which she immediately flipped open and pressed at the buttons while turning gracefully on one foot towards the window.
She faltered the moment her eyes reached Lana and the phone very nearly slipped from her hand as her reddened lips parted slightly in a surprised gasp. Lana could do nothing but stare back at her; at the way in which the neat red dress she was wearing clung to the rich full curves of her body and how even in the dim natural light of the living room she could see inquisitive green eyes peering at her from beneath a soft mess of blonde hair. Even without a smudge of make-up on her face she was still ever so pretty, certainly pretty enough to make most men stop and stare. Lana found herself looking down at the long skirt and shirt she wore that, while fashionable, still left her feeling dowdy in comparison and then looked up at the other woman again somewhat shyly.
Her mouth dropped open as if to say something but closed again as they both spun to look to the door through which the blonde had appeared. A figure appeared; his entire body tense with the emotions flying through him. Lex came stalking out, his face a perfect mixture of passion and anger as he snapped loudly, “Chloe!”
Then he stopped and stared and suddenly things were far from fine anymore.
* * * *
The hotel was undeniably one of the more desirable locations to stay in town. It was a towering affair covered with glass and white stone that sparkled and shone in the sun, the outside contrasting strongly with the dark interior. In many ways it resembled a fairy tale castle in the forest of dull buildings that had sprung up in Metropolis over the past few years.
A simple piece of research, backed entirely by the fact that she was technically a Luthor, had lead her here but now that she was stood outside the tall building with its shimmering glass walls towering into the sky there was an odd feeling of nervousness settling into the pit of her stomach that made her feel more than a little nauseous. It was a feeling she tried to suppress, that she had to push away and bury before it took total control of her. This was not a time to let her shy and timid side out to play.
People looked at her as she entered the foyer; their eyes bright with curiously and speculation. As she had been taught Lana ignored them skilfully, placing on her features a somewhat arrogant expression of indifference that usually kept people at bay. Even when she heard her name mentioned she resisted the urge to turn and look at the person who had spoken and continued her deliberate if careless seeming walk over to the reception. The man stood behind the desk had to make a conscious effort not to gawp at her open mouthed.
He answered her question quickly, forgetting with little trouble that he was not meant to give out room numbers so easily but as she turned to go he added, “But Mrs Luthor, there she is now. Over there, do you see her? In the bar.”
Lana nodded and left him a typically generous tip before following his line of sight into the bar which was fully fitted out in what Lana liked to term ‘business chic’, a mixture of dark leathers, wood and the occasional burst of brilliance as light hit chrome. Lex had the same look to his offices in Metropolis.
The blonde woman she had come to see looked relaxed in a pair of blue jeans and a clinging black shirt and at the same time entirely out of place considering the sea of suits surrounding her. It didn’t seem to faze her in the least however. She was slumped in one of the low leather body hugging chairs, a pile of papers in disarray on the table before her but a book actually in her hands as she read with her usual zeal.
Chloe, she knew, had written three books since leaving high school and was rarely out of a best seller list somewhere around the world for long while still managing to put herself through college. She had also embarked on what had promised to be an exciting and lucrative career in journalism though from what Lana had gathered there had been problems recently connected to her chosen profession. Lana didn’t know enough about the business to make a judgement on whether those problems were serious or not.
She had read each of Chloe’s books out of curiosity as they had come out, wonderfully written exotic tales of the weird and the wonderful that appealed to a large audience. Lana had even managed to get her hands on a copy of the blonde woman’s last book before it had even been published and had devoured it mercilessly over the course of a matter of days.
A glass of something or other sat on the table before her and as Lana watched the woman leaned forwards and too a sip of it pausing as she noticed Lana but continuing the action anyway though her eyes did not leave the other woman’s face. When she finished Chloe said, “Are you going to sit down or do you want to keep drawing attention to yourself like you are now?”
The brunette felt herself bristle. “I was hoping that you might invite me to sit actually.”
Chloe turned wry eyes on her that spoke volumes and Lana quickly slipped into the spare chair. Something told her that Chloe was in no mood for delaying tactics today. The blonde, while she had looked relaxed from a distance, looked anything but now she was up close and Lana began to wonder whether this had not been one of her better ideas. A trapped Chloe Sullivan, one that felt as if she were beginning pushed into something was not a particularly pleasant Chloe Sullivan to deal with. That was something that Lana could remember from the years they had spent growing up together in Smallville.
A waiter appeared; Lana ordered iced tea after a moment’s thought and then he disappeared again and all the while the two women sat in silence, Chloe staring at Lana with a somewhat unforgiving gaze. At that moment Lana wondered whether she hadn’t made a colossal mistake by placing herself in a position where she might be exposed to some of Chloe’s finer journalistic skills.
Leaning back once again in her seat and once again taking on her relaxed pose Chloe said, “I was beginning to wonder how long it was going to take you to show up.”
“I wasn’t going to come at all,” Lana lied and then instantly regretted it as she saw the knowing look in Chloe’s eyes. A tiny smirk lighted on the reporter’s lips. Quickly Lana added, “I half thought that maybe you would come and find me.”
“Now why would I do that?”
Lana felt her eyes widen and she leaned forwards, not wanting anyone to hear what she was about to say. “Because you’ve clearly been having an affair with my husband!”
Chloe nodded and a very serious, completely out of character look came onto her features as she looked away from Lana and towards the huge plate glass windows that looked out on to the busy street and gardens beyond. Lana got the impression however that she was not admiring the charming view the hotel had no doubt paid to have created there. “Do you remember that time that the four of us, you, me, Clark and Pete all went out to the lake to swim when we were about sixteen or so?”
“What are you talking about?” the brunette asked finding herself growing confused at the sudden change of direction.
“It was the year after the tornado hit Smallville and you moved in. You told Clark to make up his mind once and for all who he really wanted even though I’d already decided to move on and, typically and expectedly he chose you. It really was a surprise to no one, not even you Lana because you were always so sure that he would come running to you but you still walked around with that slightly dazed and surprised expression on your face that everyone seemed to buy so they would feel all the happier for you. Well, everyone but me and a certain someone else bought it that is.”
“Where are you going with this?” Lana found herself asking irritably but the question only caused Chloe to tip her head silently to one side again and just look at her with a stern expression. It was enough to make Lana fall quiet.
“I was… so angry,” the blonde admitted though she showed none of the regret and bashfulness that Lana would have half expected with such a statement.
“So this is about revenge?”
“Hardly,” Chloe snorted. “Lana, I was over Clark until you started stirring everything up again. I had already moved on but you couldn’t see that. I had already found someone else but that little factor was something you chose to ignore.”
Lana frowned, she couldn’t help it. Despite the quiet discomfort and irritation that had been growing since Chloe started to speak she found herself searching back over the years to those days and trying to remember anything that might have give her a clue to what on earth Chloe was talking about. Nothing sprung to mind though and she was left waiting on an answer from the other woman.
A little smile had formed on Chloe’s lips and it left Lana worried. “We were never the best of friends Lana, as much as you might have liked to pretend that we were. There were always little things, Clark aside, that used to get in the way. But that’s beside the point. My point is that it was always about you. You never noticed that there were things going on in my life that didn’t concern you and maybe if you had then all this,” she said the last with an expressive little wave of her hands. “Would not be such a surprise to you.”
“Are you saying that you used to be involved with Lex?” Lana asked, barely able to keep the shear shock and almost heart wrenching pain that appeared in her chest out of her voice.
The smile turned into an all too familiar smirk and Chloe sipped at her drink before saying, “Oh look, you finally found some of those brain cells you’re reputed to have.”