HumbugGirl
19th April 2003, 00:50
completed
Title: Another Smallville Freak
Author: HumbugGirl
Email: humbuggirl@hotmail.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/peacefulempress/home.html or
http://www.geocities.com/oddfiction
Pairing: Lex/Chloe, hints Clark/Lana
Rating: 15 – language, sexual situations
Spoilers: None really.
Summary: An accident at the Luthor Corp plant leads to interesting consequences.
Disclaimer: Okay so I haven’t had the chance to come up with a proper disclaimer yet so you’ll have to put up with the basic ‘none of the characters belong to me, this is a non-profit piece of work just written for fun with praise directed at the creators of Smallville’ kinda thing.
Author’s Notes: 1) This was intended as a break from the usual relationshipper fanfiction I’ve been working on. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way but at least there is a plot beyond an angst or smut. 2) This will be a ChLex piece but it takes some getting there. Have patience.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
1.
Each vat stood nearly ten feet high, had a diameter of eight feet and was made of perfectly smooth stainless steel that shined in the dull lights. For each of the huge containers there was a set of steps attached to the side that enabled the lab technicians to climb up to check pressure gauges and temperature readings when the large lids were fastened on top. Tonight however they were not sealed letting the acid smell of chemicals fill the room along with the stench of waste that would turn anyone’s stomach.
Lyle Garner stared at the rows of containers and felt a heavy weight descend upon his shoulders. This was the part of his job he was really beginning to hate.
As a graduate straight out of Metropolis University he had still been naïve to believe that the world was his oyster. Tired with city life Lyle had opted to move away from the appropriately named city of his childhood years to Smallville, a place that had seemed nice enough especially when the large pay packet that came with working at the Luthor Corp plant there was taken into consideration. It hadn’t taken him long to realise that small town life wasn’t the idealised existence he had envisioned. Tonight was the perfect example. It was ten minutes after eight and most plant employees had gone home to their families and white picket fences and Lyle was still at work. He supposed that was the price for being the only unmarried single guy on his little team, whenever extra work had to be done they always managed to find some excuse to get out of it and leave him to take up the slack just because they had families and he didn’t. Well the way this was going he was never going to have a family to use an excuse if he didn’t have some free time soon. As it was he was exhausted by the time he got home on a night and the last thought on his mind was going out to enjoy himself.
With a reluctant sigh Lyle buttoned his lab coat to stop it flailing around him and mounted the steps heading up to the top of the vat. If the computer read outs were anything to go by then there was something blocking one of the gas escape tubes and if he didn’t figure out what it was and how to clear it then they were going to be in serious trouble come morning. Having reached the top he leaned over to tap the pressure gauge hoping that whatever it was would sort itself out. Maybe it was just a glitch in the system. When the reading did not alter Lyle groaned. He knew they should have powered down before now. But no, production was down five percent and they needed the new prototype formula to be ready within twenty four hours so trials could begin and hence some bright spark had decided that they should leave the vats to work overnight and it was because of that that Lyle found himself in this position now.
Leaning over the edge Lyle peered down, a frown appearing on his face as he noticed something unusual had begun to happen. What the hell was that?
The foam that covered the swirling, bubbling mass of liquid below seemed at first glance to have taken on a strange glistening quality. It appeared to sparkle and gave off a strange hissing sound as Lyle leaned further towards it with the curiosity that the man was feeling shining clearly on his face. This was like nothing that he had ever seen before. As he looked closer Lyle squinted his eyes and tried to see what it was that was causing the uncharacteristic sparkle. There was a green sheen over the surface of the foam and using one gloved hand he ran his finger through it, having to lean even further to do so. Suddenly a large bubble of gas broke to the surface and Lyle jumped, losing his grip on the side of the vat as the gas enveloped him and a dizzy sensation filled his head. He didn’t realise he was falling forwards until he hit the surface of the liquid.
2.
“Chloe.”
The voice had been an annoyingly persistent sound in her ear now for some time and just wouldn’t go away no matter how much she wanted it to. Burying her head deeper in her pillow the small blonde girl tried to pretend that the voice had not just called her again and sounded like it too was beginning to get irritated. Maybe if she tried hard enough it would just disappear altogether.
“Chloe Sullivan I know you’re awake so stop pretending that you’re still asleep.” Cracking one eye the girl found herself staring up at the face of her father, illuminated only by the faint light that managed to reach through her thick bedroom curtains and into the room beyond. “Come on missy, it’s time to get ready for school.”
Letting out a groan the teenager refused the urge that predictably struck her to close her eyes and go back to sleep. With considerable effort she pushed herself into a sitting position and ran her hands back over her hair to stop it from waving around her eyes. It had gotten slightly longer over the summer and was now at a length was just long enough to be irritable. She really would have to do something about it soon. She had meant to before school started but had somehow never quite got around to it. Summer had seemed like it would last forever this year and now it had finally drawn to a close Chloe wished that she could live it all over again. She wasn’t sure she would do anything differently, only that it would be nice to have her break all over again.
“Are you going to go back to sleep if I leave?” Gabe asked. He had retreated to the doorway but had obviously had second thoughts about leaving entirely until he was sure his daughter was going to actually get out of bed.
Chloe shook her head and then added, having taken in his neat suit, “You’re leaving already? Isn’t it a bit early for work?”
“I got a call about a suspected accident at the plant.” Seeing the girl’s interest peek suddenly, her eyes widening ever so slightly, the man held up a restraining hand. “Don’t even think about it Chloe. This isn’t something that you can go sticking your nose into. I’m not even sure that there has been an accident yet. I just need to go and take a look around. Understand?”
“’Kay,” she said somewhat reluctantly.
He stared at her for a moment while thoughts rolled over in his mind the meaning of which Chloe could only begin to suspect. “Okay, I’m going to head off then. Don’t be late to school.”
“I won’t be.”
“Make sure you aren’t.” With that he turned and left. Moments later Chloe heard the front door slam shut as he left and after that there was the sound of a car engine starting. Chloe let out a long sigh and looked over at her suitcases in the corner with the daunting knowledge that she’d have to hunt through them in a minute for something clean and un-creased to wear to school that day. She half wished that she had unpacked late last night when she had returned from her Aunt’s place in Metropolis instead of deciding to leave it and climb into bed.
Looking at the cases again and remembering her hast in packing with a frown Chloe decided that maybe the level of creasing didn’t really matter after all.
The summer had been fun and had given her to opportunity to get her mind off the events of the past few months in Smallville and everything they had entailed. For a while she had been able to forget all about school and Clark and the increasingly frequent freak occurrences. While she loved the town’s weirder characteristics the way in which she had found herself increasingly at the centre of events recently had not be an enjoyable change. It had been nice to spend as few weeks in a place where normal really did mean normal and she did not have to find herself being careful around anything other than ordinary evils.
Reluctantly she climbed out of bed and dragged her suitcase over onto its side. Finding a shirt that looked reasonably presentable and settling on a mid-length denim skirt the blonde grabbed the first set of underwear she found and headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower and having struggled to her head hair into something like it’s usual style the blonde descended into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl breakfast of cereal followed by an apple before heading out the front door and locking it behind her. The drive to school was uneventful but by the time Chloe pulled into her parking space outside the school she was already feeling the odd bubbling of nerves inside her stomach that reminded the girl that she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to go back to this yet. As she sat behind the wheel staring out of the window at the crowds of students walking back and forth the blonde girl found herself fighting for breath and half reaching towards the ignition to start up the car and head back to the safety of home.
A knock on the window near her head startled Chloe and she let out a loud yelp jumping in her seat and spinning around to look at whoever had dared to invade her little world. She found herself looking up at Pete who had a broad smile on his face and Clark who was stood just behind him, peering over his smaller friend with a nervous expression painted on his features. In a brief moment of guilt filled silence Chloe remembered the last words she had said to him before going away and winced mentally. She had a major case of apologising to do. Almost instantly she found herself reminding herself that it was at least some part his fault. She still hadn’t forgiven him for running off during the dance and he still hadn’t properly apologised to her for doing so.
Putting a carefully considered smile on her face Chloe pushed open the door and climbed out pulling her book bag after her.
“Hey when did you get back?” Pete asked.
“Last night,” she replied as cheerfully as she could manage. “How was your vacation?”
He shrugged. “A little boring actually. Nothing really happened.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Nice to know I didn’t miss any of the fun.”
Pete grinned at her again. “Did you think anything would dare to happen while you were away, Chloe?”
A smile broke onto her face almost reluctantly and the blonde girl shook her head in agreement. Glancing at Clark who was standing dead still with an almost confused expression on his face she took a deep breath and said, “And how was your vacation? Did you and Lana have fun?”
There had been a little more bite to her words than she had really intended and the moment that they were out of her mouth Chloe began to regret them. The tall boy’s shoulders slouched as the words impacted with him and he seemed to withdraw into himself slightly. “They were fine. Lana’s fine.” Then as if realising his mistake the boy blushed brightly. “I mean…”
“I know what you meant,” she interrupted then mentally added, and that wasn’t what I answered anyway. Turning away from the both she started to walk away. “Come on, we should get to class.”
3.
This was not how he had wanted Monday morning to go. When he had woken up this morning to the annoying sound of a telephone ringing in his ear as opposed to his radio-alarm clock Lex had known that it was going to be the perfect start to an absolutely terrible day almost instinctively. Now walking down the corridors of the plant and eventually emerging into one of the nameless vat rooms, only to find himself suddenly surrounded by plant staff all babbling on about things he wasn’t sure he cared about Lex had every one of his fears confirmed. It was going to be an absolutely terrible day.
Gabe Sullivan suddenly appeared in the crowd of faces and Lex found himself guided away from the main collection of people which the older man waved away as they tried to follow. When they were stood at one side, just out of ear shot of the others Gabe turned to him and said, “Mr Luthor, I’m sorry, I really don’t know how this could have happened.”
“How what could have happened Mr Sullivan? I’m afraid that no one has had the courtesy to inform me of exactly what has happened yet.”
He knew he had sounded curt and the expression that washed over the other man’s face confirmed his assumption. To his credit Gabe pretended to ignore his boss’s tone for which Lex found himself grateful. He was not in the habit of actually wanting to alienate his staff.
“Well, I was called at home this morning by some of the security people here at the plant. Apparently they were on their rounds and they found this,” Gabe said holding up a shoe that was sealed in a plastic bag, “sat on top of the platform up there.”
Lex followed where the man was pointing to with his eyes to find himself staring at one of the high platforms that were located at the side of each of the vats. “Someone fell in?” he asked trying to keep his voice calm while offering up a silent prayer to whoever was up there that he had mistaken Gabe’s meaning. Unfortunately the other man nodded. “Where’s the body?”
“This is the strange part Mr Luthor - there wasn’t one.”
“Sorry, what?”
“There was no body in the vat and we’ve done a thorough search of the plant and we haven’t been able to find one anywhere.”
Before he could stop it a groan escaped Lex and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, do we know who it might be?”
“A man called Lyle Garner was working late last night. He’s a lab technician. We have some security footage of him walking through the plant in this direction but nothing after that. He never used his pass to check out of the plant though so it’s possible it might have been him.”
“Does he have any family in town?”
“As far as we know he doesn’t. I talked to a couple of his co-workers. He’s single and from Metropolis so they didn’t think he had any ties in town.”
Lex thought for a moment then asked, “Has anyone contacted the police?” Gabe shook his head. “Okay, do that, but make it discreetly. The last thing we need is another scandal. Wait to see what they have to say before contacting his family. For all we know it might not be him anyway.”
“Yes, Mr Luthor.”
As Gabe walked away from him Lex turned to face the crowd who had been waiting patiently for him to finish his conversation. They watched him with expectant faces and he took a deep breath. “Why don’t we all try getting back to work?” he said. “I think about as much as can be done has been done about this situation.” There were a few apprehensive glances but Lex chose to ignore them by walking away.
4.
From his hiding place the creature who had been Lyle Garner watched as the confident, well groomed figure of Lex Luthor left the room and felt a sense of anger begin to boil inside of him. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was angered by the man’s casual, cool manner but he did know that it irked him so tremendously that a small hiss escaped him despite his decision to be quiet. As the anger grew the green mottling that now covered Lyle’s skin grew stronger, pulsing as his anger pulsed. Impulsively he scuttled across the ceiling, following the slight young man from the room and down the corridor. Lyle pursued him until it became clear he could go no further for fear of being noticed then halted.
A flurry of thoughts entered his head and he struggled to command them into any organised order. Frowning Lyle muttered something under his breath as one thought came to the fore of his mind.
His purpose had suddenly become clear.
“What the fuck?” a voice exclaimed from behind him and the creature who had been Lyle spun to find himself confronted with a pale young woman in overalls with the Luthor-Corp insignia on them. Her eye’s were widened in horror as she began to back away from him, too afraid of what might happen to turn her back on him and actually run away. Within thinking Lyle’s hand shot out, closing around her neck.
“Hello Lydia,” he said and the sound of his own voice startled him. It was hoarse, crackling out of his throat and for some reason it seemed difficult to annunciate the words he had intended to speak. “How are you?”
She didn’t answer, only cried and clawed hopelessly at the strong hand about her throat, desperate for him to let go as the life-breath began to drain out of her. A small smile slipped onto Lyle’s lips as he ever so slowly lifted her off her feet and slammed her against the wall. It trembled under the impact and it Lyle’s surprise softened as his fingertips brushed it. Without a second thought the creature who had been Lyle pushed the woman into the wall, watching in fascination as it closed again around her body again until only her hands were left sticking out into the corridor. Lyle gave an amused little giggle as the hands flapped for a few seconds in the air and then twitched violently, eventually stopping all together.
With a leap he reached the ceiling, using his strange new abilities to grip at the tiles there and scuttled off into the building.
5.
At lunch there had been no sign of Chloe. Lana had sat nervously next to Clark and across from Pete and waited from the blonde girl to arrive but she never had and by the end of their lunch beak she had been left with a bitter, unsatisfied feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had wanted to get this first meeting after summer break over with for so long that she had convinced herself that it would all work according to plan. She had wanted to explain to the other girl that she had never intended to take Clark from her, but sometimes things just happened and they were unavoidable and undeniable and that this was one of those things. She wanted to explain that if she could turn back the clock and not fall in love with the handsome boy then she wouldn’t, not because she wanted to hurt Chloe but because she really was in love with him and then ask if that didn’t mean something to Chloe that could help her get past whatever it was that she was feeling?
Clark left abruptly half way through the meal leaving her alone with Pete who had looked up and met her eyes before saying, “Don’t worry. Everything will work its self out soon enough. Chloe won’t be able to stay mad at him forever.”
In reply she had simple muttered something in the affirmative and then changed the conversation not wanting to have to think about what Chloe’s no-show actually meant. Now as she wandered through the nearly deserted halls of the high school after all the students were meant to have gone home Lana had to wonder whether what Pete had said was true. She had the sneaking suspicion though that if anyone would be able to stay mad at Clark forever it was Chloe and she didn’t want to be the cause of their friendship breaking up. Arriving outside the door to The Torch the dark haired girl paused, taking a deep breath and readying herself for what she was sure was going to be a tense conversation.
She knocked once on the door then entered without waiting for a reply knowing that Chloe wasn’t likely to hear anything when she was concentrating. As she entered the room through she found the petite blonde sat at her desk, staring at the door as it opened with tired looking eyes and a rather dazed expression on her face. When she saw that it was Lana who had entered the room Chloe’s back visibly stiffened and she sat straighter in her chair. Her eyes flickered once more in Lana’s direction before turning back to the computer screen that lit up her face with a sickly glow.
“What do you want?” Chloe asked abruptly.
“We need to talk.”
“Now, how did I know you were going to say something like that?”
Lana sighed and slipped onto one of the other chairs near to Chloe’s desk despite the irritated expression shot in her direction. “Why do you always have to be so stubborn?” When the blonde girl looked at her with eyes wide and flashing she continued, “You don’t give anyone a chance to explain Chloe. You have to make things black and white when we both know they’re not always that way.”
“Are you going to give me the speech about how there are grey areas? Because believe me when I say I’ve told myself it several times over the past few weeks.”
“I don’t want to argue with you. I came here because I knew that we needed to get whatever it is that you’re feeling out in the open. You’re hurting. I can understand that. But that doesn’t mean that you should stop seeing your friends. It doesn’t mean that Clark is no longer your friend either. He misses you.”
Chloe pursed her lips and asked quietly, “And what if I don’t want to be Clark’s friend anymore?”
“Just give him a chance. Give us all the opportunity to prove to you that we can still be friends.”
The blonde glanced up and met her eyes and what Lana saw there was something bitter and deep rooted. “You and I were never friends Lana.”
Ignoring the stab of pain that Chloe’s comment created in her Lana forced a smile onto her lips. “But we could be,” she offered sincerely.
Chloe’s features seemed to soften as something occurred to her and dipping her head the blonde seemed unable to look at Lana. “Its just that I always held onto the hope that he’d wake up one day. I always thought that if he just saw me as a girl and not his little sidekick friend then we’d… he’d…” She brought her hands up to her face and scrunched her eyes shut. To her surprise Lana saw that the other girl was rubbing at already sore eyes. “I don’t want to be angry with him,” she finally confessed.
“But you can’t help it.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Come out with us tonight Chloe. The boys are going to go to Talon and keep me company while I do my shift and you could sit with them. It could be just like any other night. No stress, no pressure, perfectly comfortable and you could leave anytime that you wanted.”
The blonde let out a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”
6.
It seemed that the entire student population of Smallville had decided to converge on Talon after their first day back at school after the summer break. The place was alive with the sound of people laughing and talking and the music that played in the background was a quiet buzz, hardly heard for the other noises. Lana looked harassed. The brunette was rushing around the coffee house her notepad in one hand and a tray balance on the other as she handed out orders left, right and centre. Chloe noticed that she still managed to give every person she talked to a sunny smile and knew that if their roles had been reversed that she doubted she could have been quite so cheerful.
It felt strange to walk back into this place with all its familiar charm after spending the summer so far away from it all. In one corner he spotted Clark and Lex sat together and surprisingly Pete was also relaxing in a chair with them without out any look of irritation on his face. The three of them looked up as she approached, Clark immediately moving aside to make room for her and reaching for a chair to fit in the gap between himself and Lex. Self-consciously she took the offered seat with a small smile that she refused to let falter.
“Lana mentioned that you had said you might be dropping by,” Clark said and to Chloe he sounded as if he was trying a little too hard to find something to say. She didn’t blame him. She was having a pretty hard time thinking of something to say herself to fill the uncomfortably silence that had been threatening to form ever since she joined the seated group.
Meeting warm brown eyes that were filled with something very like hope, Chloe replied, “She pretty much talked me into it actually. I didn’t feel like there was much of a choice.”
“Oh.” His face fell and Chloe couldn’t help but notice the disappointed look that Pete gave in her direction. She couldn’t decide whether she should feel bad about that or feel anger that he had so evidently decided to side with Clark.
For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence and then, to Chloe’s surprise, Lex’s voice filled the gap. “I hear you’ve been on vacation Miss Sullivan; I trust you had a pleasant time?”
Chloe had to remember not to let her jaw drop in surprise and for a moment she was stuck for what to say so she only nodded, then, apparently having recovered at least some of her higher brain functions said, “It was good to be back in the city, Metropolis I mean, for a while.”
“Lex was just telling us about the latest accident at the plant,” Pete offered, a smile of satisfaction filtering onto his face. Chloe gave him a withering expression quite unexpectedly then turned back to the young businessman who was watching her with a blank expression on his face. She doubted he had been giving away the information freely so she wondered how the two boys had goaded him into talking about it. He certainly didn’t look too happy that she had now found out about it.
Putting a small smile on her lips Chloe asked out of courtesy and so she wouldn’t betray that her father had already mentioned it to her, “Oh? What happened? Is that why my Dad had to rush off this morning?”
After picking up his coffee cup and taking a sip he replied, “It is.”
She waited for him to continue but when he said nothing more Chloe found herself forced to speak to fill the impending silence. “Want to tell what the accident was about? You know, what happened?”
“Real subtle there, Chloe,” Clark groaned.
“I’m not really doing ‘subtle’ today,” she said. “I’m still all tired so higher brain functions aren’t really all that engaged yet.”
“Why do I find that ‘yet’ ominous?” Clark asked, narrowing his innocent eyes at her in the closest thing to suspicion that Chloe had ever seen on his face. It was almost comical and she had to resist the sudden urge to laugh at him. Somehow she did not think that would go down all that well considering their current uneasy relationship.
“Because Mr Luthor here still hasn’t answered my question,” she said putting a small smile on her lips and turning back to the man. “Wishing I’d disappear yet?” Chloe asked, watching his face closely for any reaction.
He smirked, or was that an actual smile? It was always kind of difficult for Chloe to read. “Now why would I wish that, Miss Sullivan? Haven’t I told you before to call me Lex?”
“Yup you have ‘Lex’ and you’re avoiding the question again.”
That small smirk-smile had returned. “Unfortunately Miss Sullivan there isn’t anything of particular interest. There was small accident at the plant and someone overreacted. It has all been taken care of now so as you can see there really isn’t anything to tell.”
“You know that’s not fair,” Pete suddenly piped up. “If you’re going to force her to call you Lex then you should call her Chloe.”
“Shut up, Pete,” Clark said quickly.
As a thought entered Chloe’s mind the blonde stood up suddenly, grabbing her bag and slipping it over her head. “I’ve got to go,” she said.
“But you haven’t even had a drink yet,” the tall farm boy exclaimed. “Chloe Sullivan go without her caffeine fix? Impossible. Come on, just one drink.”
It brought a small reluctant smile to her lips. “No, I’ve really got to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
She turned and quickly made her way towards the exit not wanting to have to explain any further to Clark. As she had sat there watching Lex when he talked the thought had occurred to her that he was covering something up. Actually it had flashed into her mind with a megawatt light display but that didn’t really matter. On closer examination Chloe decided that it was only natural that he would try to keep things from her but Chloe felt the sudden urge to find out exactly what it was that he was covering up.
“You’re going so soon?” a voice called as she reached the door and Chloe spun to find Lana stood just behind her. The dark haired girl was carefully balancing a tray with one hand and had a wad of napkins in the other. “I thought we were going to get the chance to all sit down and have a chat.”
“Something came up,” Chloe told her.
“Oh,” she said and then after a moment added, “They didn’t do something to, you know, upset you did they?”
“No, no! They were all really, you know, nice.”
Lana’s brow creased a little again. “Then why are you going?”
Putting as cheerful an expression as she could manage on her face Chloe laughed, “Twenty questions much? I just want to get home and see my Dad. I’ve been away for a lot of the summer and as much of a geek as he can be I missed him.”
Lana gave an understanding smile and nodded. There was a sort of forlorn look on her face that Chloe recognised as the one that Lana always got when she thought of her own parents. “I guess I shouldn’t have hassled you into coming out tonight. Can you forgive me?”
“Sure,” Chloe replied feeling a tiny twinge of guilt in her chest. Why did Lana have to be so damn trusting all the time? “I’ll see you later okay?”
“Okay.”
When she reached home there was another car in the driveway telling her that her father was home. The Chinese takeout containers on the kitchen counter and the noise of the television blaring out in the sitting room told her further that whatever type of day it had been at work that it had been an exhausting one. It was a fact that didn’t surprise Chloe in the least. The weary figure of Gabe Sullivan looked up as his daughter entered the room and flopped onto the couch next to him.
At the sunny smile she presented him with the man sighed and with suspicion filling his voice asked, “What do you want, Chloe?”
“What makes you think I want anything?”
“Because that’s the same look your mother used to give me when she wanted something so get on with it.”
Chloe gave him another, more sincere smile and said, “I was just wondering how your day at work was.”
“You’ve heard something haven’t you?”
“I might have.”
“Chloe this isn’t something you should go snooping around in.” At the sudden look of further interest that flowed onto his daughter’s face Gabe realised his mistake and panicked adding, “I’m serious, Chloe,” for all the use it would actually do.
“I know, I know. Can it honestly hurt to tell me about it though?”
“Yes, it could, so just drop it. I’m going to go get a drink, do you want anything?”
She shook her head. “No, I think I’m going to go and attack some of that homework my evil teachers gave me. You’d think they’d never heard of post-holiday blues.”
“Okay sweetie.”
Leaving the sitting room Chloe headed in the direction of the stairs but changed direction at last moment and went into her father’s small study. Quietly she closed the door behind her, muffling the noise with her hand and then immediately began to search the room for the plastic keycard to the plant that she knew he always kept at home. It wouldn’t be breaking and entering. It really wouldn’t because she had the card and even if she was caught by security Chloe was certain that she could talk herself out of whatever trouble it got her into. Besides she didn’t honestly believe that Lex would want to press charges against her. She just hoped that her father did not find out because explaining why she was running around the plant in the middle of the night would be all too difficult and would probably end up with her getting grounded for a good six months.
Oh well, Chloe thought. The things I do for the sake of journalism and a decent story.
7.
Lex wasn’t entirely certain why he had decided to head back to the plant after leaving Talon. There was a niggling little insistent voice in the back of his mind trying to tell him something and although Lex was not certain what that something was he knew it had something to do with the plant. So he had decided to follow his instincts and that was why he was wandering around the huge facility in the middle of the night and slowly beginning to realise that maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
The plant was always disturbingly empty at the best of times; now it seemed to be a huge hollow shell that was dauntingly eerie and one that he didn’t particularly want to be in. Wandering around the corridors he felt oddly lost and wondered what he could do now that he was actually here. With nothing of importance immediately springing to mind Lex headed in the direction of his office. As he exited the elevator that led to the corridor that would take him there the young businessman spotted a streak of movement that made him tense and shrink away towards the wall so as not to be seen.
With a slight smirk Lex realised that it looked like he would have something to do after all. Trying to be as stealthy as he could Lex took to following whoever it was that he had seen. He watched as they appeared to head away from his office and down through the building until they entered one of the labs. Feeling a degree of concern coming over for him for the first time Lex watched further as they perched before a computer and tapped away. Whoever it was had dressed all in black with a black cap covering their hair but they had a brown leather satchel strapped across their body that looked distinctly out of place and more than a little familiar. Lex moved closer trying to get a better look at the person who was still intensely concentrating on the computer screen before them. To his surprise he realised that whoever it was she was female. Moving very slowly to avoid drawing attention to himself Lex edged around until he could see the person’s face and had to suppress a startled gasp.
After steadying himself Lex stepped forwards and into the ring of light given off by the desk lamp by the computer. He stood for a moment wondering whether she was going to notice him but when it became apparent that that wasn’t going to happen he coughed quietly, startling the girl and causing her to up tip her chair and land on the floor with a clatter that resounded loudly throughout the room.
“Okay, ouch!” she snapped and pushed herself back up into a sitting position. Looking up at Lex she said, “Now why did you go and do that?”
He stared at her in bafflement for a moment. “I didn’t do anything.”
She gave him a wry look and climbed to her feet, ignoring the offer of a helping hand that he gave. When she was safely back on her feet Chloe straightened her bag and pulled her top down over the revealing view of an expanse of creamy white flesh he was been given of her stomach.
“I don’t suppose you feel like explaining what you’re doing here do you?” he asked, picking up the chair and setting it back on its feet. As he did so he cast a curious eye at the computer screen and saw that she had somehow managed to access files on some of the latest experiments they had been working on. Frowning he turned back to her when he realised that she hadn’t said anything only to find the small blonde looking up at him defiantly.
“I think I’ll say no to that,” she answered.
“And I think I’ll have to insist.”
She let out a long sigh and pouted. “Why couldn’t you have been some dumb security guard?” she asked although the question didn’t seem to be addressed to Lex. He couldn’t help but stare at her in fascination.
“Chloe…” he said and there must have been something in his voice that sounded like a warning because she immediately took it as a challenge. That was one thing he had picked up on about Chloe almost the minute that he met her; if there was anything that Chloe enjoyed it was a challenge.
“Hey, so I was snooping. So what, it’s not like I found anything.”
“You found something,” he replied gesturing towards the computer screen.
“It didn’t really tell me anything.” She leaned forwards, brushing past him and switched the computer off again. “There. It’s all gone now. Are you going to frog march me out of here?”
“Let’s just say I’m going to make sure that you leave.” At a concerned look that passed through her eyes he added, “I won’t say anything to your father but you should really promise me you’re not going to do this again. It isn’t just yourself that you’d be getting into trouble if you got caught Chloe.”
She frowned at him and bit her lip. After a moment she said, “I guess I should thank you then even though it’s your fault I’m even here at all.”
He had been waiting for her to start walked towards the door and now that she did he followed closely, unwilling to let the small blonde out of his sight for a moment. “I’m afraid I don’t see your point.”
“Well, you have to admit that you did dangle this right in front of my nose. How on earth was I supposed to resist when you were being all secretive?”
He held the door open for her to walk through and after a moment’s startled pause she stepped through. “I wasn’t being particularly secretive, Chloe. I didn’t really think it was an appropriate conversation topic and even so, I would have thought that you would have had enough self-control not to go running off and do, well, this.”
“Is that an oh so eloquent way of you saying that you expected better from me?” she asked glancing at him as they walked down the corridor away from the labs. He didn’t catch the surprised look in her eye.
“It’s a way of me saying that you should have had more sense than to get caught if you found you really couldn’t resist.”
She gave him a little smile. “That’s alright then.”
“Chloe,” he said, taking hold of her arm and holding her still. “Seriously, you shouldn’t be snooping around here.”
“You sound like my Dad now.”
“Your Dad is right.”
She tugged her arm loose and looked at him with a look on her face that clearly told him she was more than a little annoyed. She was about to say something and then stopped. From this angle he could clearly see the sudden light that came into her eyes as she spotted something in the distance. “Hey, what’s that?” she asked and then set off towards whatever it was that she had spotted leaving Lex to have to jog a couple of steps to catch up with her.
“Chloe, I’m serious. You’re not even listening are you? What if it hadn’t been me who found you? What if it had been some security guard? You could have been in jail by now… Oh my God.”
He felt his breath stick in his throat as he stared at the sight which Chloe had spotted. The blonde girl had turned pale and had slumped against the opposite wall after slowly backed away from her discovery. Lex swallowed down the sudden rise of vomit that filled his throat and then coughed a little. There was a hand sticking out of the wall and the four fingers and the tip of a hand that could only have belonged to the matching hand. He reached forwards and brushed his fingers across them only to find them still warm.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Chloe shrieked. “Don’t touch it!”
Bending down he pick up something off the floor and held it up to her. “This is a security guard’s badge.”
“That… that was a security guard?”
“I’m guessing so.”
“Jesus. You don’t think… Has this something to do with the accident this morning?”
Looking over his shoulder at her he said, “Chloe…”
“What? It’s a valid question.”
“I don’t think so.”
She pushed away from the wall and came to stand beside him keeping her eyes averted from the hands. “That’s not a definite ‘no’.”
“What is the possibility that they’re even remotely connected? We don’t even have any proof that there was an accident this morning. Some guy has just gone missing. He could have just taken off and not told anyone or something. I’m sure there is another explanation.”
“Or he could be stuck in a wall somewhere with his hands stuck out!” she exclaimed and then let out a loud yelp as the lights suddenly went out and they were plunged into darkness. Lex felt her grab his arm and step closer so that he could feel the warm length of her body beside his. In the distance there was the sound of the turbines whirring as they shut down and the loud click of bolts being engaged.
“What was that?” Chloe asked, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
Lex blinked away some of the darkness as his eyes tried to adjust to the pitch blackness of the corridor. “It was the electronic locks engaging around the plant. It happens whenever there is a power cut so that nothing can be stolen while the security cameras are down.”
“By locks you mean the big scary ones that on all the doors leading to the outside that look like you would need a grenade to open them?” she asked, her panicked voice stringing the words altogether as she spoke rapidly.
“Yes. Then there are the gratings that come down over all the outside doors.”
“There isn’t even a fire escape open is there?” she asked quietly and Lex felt her shuffle even closer to him.
“No, there isn’t.”
“Lex, I don’t suppose I ever mentioned to you that I don’t exactly like the dark did I? Its kind of all collected to this time I was locked in a box underground when I was kidnapped…”
Taking a deep breath he fumbled around until he had his hand securely in hers. “We’re not in any danger Chloe.”
“Say that to the dead guy in the wall.”
There was the sound of clattering in the distance again and she jumped and leaned in closer to him. In a minute she was going to be on top of him if he didn’t do something quick. For a moment Lex contemplated the prospect and then pushed it away quickly. Now was not the time to be thinking like that. “I don’t suppose you had a flash light with you do you?” he asked.
“No.”
She sounded mournful and her voice was trembling. Lord God he hoped she didn’t start to cry. As much as it did not seem like her style he knew that at the moment ‘style’ was the last thing on this girl’s mind. “We just need to get to a phone. Then I’ll call someone and they’ll get us out of here. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He tugged a little on her hand and walked in what he thought was the direction to the nearest phone. “Come on then.”
One thought ran through his mind though and just wouldn’t go away. Why the hell had the backup system not switched on? A small ball of concern began to grow in his stomach. There was something wrong; something very wrong.
8.
Clark pushed open the back door into his kitchen and stepped inside with an almost weary expression on his face. The day had been more tiring than he had expected and he had found himself several times wishing that he was at home rather than trying to lead the normal life of a teenager; even if that normal life as a teenager had included stolen Lana-smoochies throughout the day. The thought made him grin a little and he quickly tried to cover it in case anyone else noticed.
“Hey honey,” Martha Kent said with a wide smile on seeing her son entering the kitchen.
“Hi Mom. Where’s Dad?”
“He’s upstairs taking a shower. Do you want anything to eat? I think there is some pie left in the refrigerator.”
Clark thought this idea over from moment and then shook his head. “I think I might just head up to my room.”
With a concerned look on her features Martha nodded and said, “Before you go call Gabe Sullivan. He rang here earlier tonight looking for Chloe and I said you would call when you got in. I’m sure she’s home by now but you should call him to make sure.”
“Okay Mom.” Grabbing the cordless phone he made his way up into his room and dialled in the Sullivan number which he had long known by heart. Five minutes later Clark could feel himself beginning to share Gabe Sullivan’s concern as it appeared that the young blonde reporter still hadn’t turned up and they both had no idea as to where she had gone. After promising to ring around all of the friends that he could think of Clark rang off. He couldn’t help but think that he had left Gabe even more concerned than before despite his promises to find out where his daughter had gotten to.
There was already a sneaking suspicion that he knew exactly where Chloe had gone. After making his phone calls it became apparent that no one seemed to know where the blonde had gone. Even Pete and Lana didn’t know and he had been certain that she would have mentioned something to one of them. Coming to a decision he told them both to meet him at a designated spot and then went downstairs to tell his parents where he was going. They both gave him concerned looks but wished him luck with his search all the same and let him go but not before making him promise to be careful.
With that in mind Clark left, using his super-speed to reach the place where he had asked Lana and Pete to meet him. As he reached the spot Clark was unsurprised to find that Chloe’s car was parked up by the side of the road. She hadn’t even taken the time to try and hide it. Moments later Lana pulled up in her Aunt’s car and then Pete showed up with an extremely irritated expression on his face and proclaiming repeatedly that he was going to kill Chloe this time, he really was. Lana had simply cast him a mollifying look and turned to Clark to hear what he had to say.
“There is nothing wrong with her car,” Clark told them with a sigh after each had taken a few minutes to look the vehicle over for any signs of damage or interference. He could hardly believe this was happening. “It looks like she just left it here.”
“We are within walking distance of the plant,” Lana observed stepping back from the vehicle and looking at the two boys. “If she didn’t want to be noticed this would be perfect. No one would think to look this far out but she would be able to get away without too much difficulty.”
Pete looked up from his perusal of the car and at the plant in the distance with a frown on his features that slowly turned to a look of dismay. Echoing Clark’s own sigh he said, “It’s her first day back in Smallville and she’s already getting into trouble.”
9.
It had been over two hours now and Chloe was getting more than a little concerned over exactly what they were going to. Of course, she had been concerned in the first place and had passed through hysteria and into an eerie calmness with the odd spattering of denial and now she was back around to concern; concern being only mildly better than hysteria because at least she didn’t have Lex alternately shaking her and holding her in an effort to calm her down. Chloe had been a little disturbed to learn that the latter of these two actions worked better than the first, as that only seemed to make her angrier at him. She couldn’t help but think it was strange how things worked out. Who would ever have thought that Lex Luthor would be comforting sort of guy? She could think of several other men that she would have expected to be more comforting, Pete and Clark not being the least of them, but there was something in the cool calmness and the collected manner in which he still held himself and her that was oddly reassuring to the blonde reporter.
They were sat in his office, on the floor, huddled around a torch that he had found after breaking the lock on a maintenance closet with a rather unexpected display of strength. Apparently even the boss’s keycard wouldn’t get you everywhere at the plant so Chloe had received a rather impressive display of him wielding an axe to break down the door. Of course then the axe had broken and she had been privileged to hear several new swearwords that she hadn’t known even existed. Being the gentleman he was Lex had apologised afterwards leaving Chloe grinning in amusement and him with a slightly petulant and charming pout on his face.
On some level at least she was actually pretty happy that the axe had broken. The repetitive sound of the blade hitting the wood had been too loud in Chloe’s opinion and she had been certain that it would attract whoever or whatever had murdered that poor security guard. The thought of spending your last few minutes on earth being somehow trapped in a wall terrified Chloe and sent shudders through her body that caught Lex’s attention and led to him lightly wrapping and arm about her again and giving her a brief hug.
It had taken her a good hour but Chloe had finally managed to get Lex to tell her about what had or had not happened to Lyle Garner. While the billionaire had seemed strangely reluctant to even consider the idea that Lyle’s accident had anything to do with the predicament they were in at present Chloe’s mind had already begun to tick over the possibility that this was another case for the Wall of Weird with relative ease. Hell, she knew in her heart that there was definitely something weird going on and no matter how much sweet talking and rationalising Lex did could detract from that. Beside it didn’t exactly take a genius to figure out that such was the case. And that, she figured, meant that Lex was either in denial or that he was deliberately covering something up. For everything Lex Luthor was, he wasn’t stupid.
Sighing loudly she reached forwards and picked up the bottle of water that Lex had found for her. Apparently he kept a private stash in his office so he wouldn’t have to venture out into the real world of the work place as often which confirmed several things about Lex that Chloe wasn’t sure whether she was glad to know. At the other side of their odd little camp Lex yawned and then immediately looked embarrassed for being caught off his guard. Chloe gave him an understanding smile which he seemed to accept grudgingly before rubbing his hand over his face.
They had retreated here only shortly after finding the second body. From the appearance of its hands, though she had been reluctant to look at them, Chloe was willing to bet that the corpse was female and the coolness of her flesh suggested she had been there considerably longer than the security guard had. A concerned expression had come over Lex’s face for the first time and he had suggested that they head to his office which he claimed would be safer than wandering the corridors. Once inside he had locked the door and said, very calmly “Perhaps we should stay here until tomorrow or until someone finds us.”
The way he had said it made Chloe suspect that he did not think anyone was going to find them before morning. As a result she had slowly begun to adjust herself to the idea of spending what she was certain was going to be several long hours in the young businessman’s company as fear kept them both awake.
After taking another sip of her water Chloe found herself wanting to fill the silence between them and asked, “Are you certain the phones aren’t working?”
Nodding he said, “Yes,” with only the slightest bit of irritation in his voice.
“And you’re still certain you haven’t got your cell phone?”
“It’s still outside; still locked in my car, Chloe.” There was a degree more irritation in his voice now and he shifted into a more comfortable position against the wall leaning his head back against it. After rubbing away some of the tension in her back Chloe crawled over to sit beside him.
After the curious look he gave her Chloe snapped, “What? I’m not allowed to be comfortable as well now am I?”
“You know I didn’t mean that.”
Looking around the dim gloom of the office Chloe observed, “I thought you would have a couch or something.”
“I’m not a psychiatrist, Chloe. What would I do with a couch?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. You could impress people with it or something. It would be like, ‘hey, I’m so important I don’t even need a desk to be intimidating.’”
A frown washed over his features and he half turned to look at her. “You think I’m intimidating?”
Looking sideways at him and meeting his stormy blue eyes Chloe found herself suddenly stumped for any kind of intelligent reply. “You know maybe you should just put that down to my lack-of-sleep befuddled mind and leave it at that okay? It’ll probably be safer for both of us.”
He nodded briefly in agreement then added, “You’re tired? Come here.” To her astonishment he lifted up his arm as if to suggest that she actually leaned against him.
“Now, just wait a minute…” she began but was promptly cut off by him as he insisted.
Reluctantly Chloe shuffled closer until she was in a comfortable position cradled against his side. Lex’s arm came down, closing the ring of warmth she felt and Chloe felt an almost instantaneous rush of doziness wash over her. He smelled good; like a mixture of coffee, soap and something underneath that was undeniably, purely male and Chloe couldn’t help but draw in several deep breaths as an odd feeling of contentment settled over her. She let out a long sigh even before she had realised that she had started to do so and heard Lex give a little chuckled at her. A sarcasm filled reply instantly came to mind but Chloe discovered that she did not really feel like voicing it aloud. For the moment it seemed like an unnecessary action that might disrupt their comfortable companionship.
They suddenly seemed to slump and Chloe realised that Lex was attempting to shuffle into a laying position. She lifted her head and let him make himself comfortable before taking up her previous position surrounded by what suddenly seemed like wonderfully protective arms. Chloe found herself having to admit silently to herself that the experience wasn’t entirely unpleasant. There was no way on earth that she was mentioning that fact to Lex though.
Ever so slowly her eyes fluttered shut and then Chloe Sullivan was asleep, still wrapped in the arms of an amused billionaire.
Title: Another Smallville Freak
Author: HumbugGirl
Email: humbuggirl@hotmail.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/peacefulempress/home.html or
http://www.geocities.com/oddfiction
Pairing: Lex/Chloe, hints Clark/Lana
Rating: 15 – language, sexual situations
Spoilers: None really.
Summary: An accident at the Luthor Corp plant leads to interesting consequences.
Disclaimer: Okay so I haven’t had the chance to come up with a proper disclaimer yet so you’ll have to put up with the basic ‘none of the characters belong to me, this is a non-profit piece of work just written for fun with praise directed at the creators of Smallville’ kinda thing.
Author’s Notes: 1) This was intended as a break from the usual relationshipper fanfiction I’ve been working on. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way but at least there is a plot beyond an angst or smut. 2) This will be a ChLex piece but it takes some getting there. Have patience.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
1.
Each vat stood nearly ten feet high, had a diameter of eight feet and was made of perfectly smooth stainless steel that shined in the dull lights. For each of the huge containers there was a set of steps attached to the side that enabled the lab technicians to climb up to check pressure gauges and temperature readings when the large lids were fastened on top. Tonight however they were not sealed letting the acid smell of chemicals fill the room along with the stench of waste that would turn anyone’s stomach.
Lyle Garner stared at the rows of containers and felt a heavy weight descend upon his shoulders. This was the part of his job he was really beginning to hate.
As a graduate straight out of Metropolis University he had still been naïve to believe that the world was his oyster. Tired with city life Lyle had opted to move away from the appropriately named city of his childhood years to Smallville, a place that had seemed nice enough especially when the large pay packet that came with working at the Luthor Corp plant there was taken into consideration. It hadn’t taken him long to realise that small town life wasn’t the idealised existence he had envisioned. Tonight was the perfect example. It was ten minutes after eight and most plant employees had gone home to their families and white picket fences and Lyle was still at work. He supposed that was the price for being the only unmarried single guy on his little team, whenever extra work had to be done they always managed to find some excuse to get out of it and leave him to take up the slack just because they had families and he didn’t. Well the way this was going he was never going to have a family to use an excuse if he didn’t have some free time soon. As it was he was exhausted by the time he got home on a night and the last thought on his mind was going out to enjoy himself.
With a reluctant sigh Lyle buttoned his lab coat to stop it flailing around him and mounted the steps heading up to the top of the vat. If the computer read outs were anything to go by then there was something blocking one of the gas escape tubes and if he didn’t figure out what it was and how to clear it then they were going to be in serious trouble come morning. Having reached the top he leaned over to tap the pressure gauge hoping that whatever it was would sort itself out. Maybe it was just a glitch in the system. When the reading did not alter Lyle groaned. He knew they should have powered down before now. But no, production was down five percent and they needed the new prototype formula to be ready within twenty four hours so trials could begin and hence some bright spark had decided that they should leave the vats to work overnight and it was because of that that Lyle found himself in this position now.
Leaning over the edge Lyle peered down, a frown appearing on his face as he noticed something unusual had begun to happen. What the hell was that?
The foam that covered the swirling, bubbling mass of liquid below seemed at first glance to have taken on a strange glistening quality. It appeared to sparkle and gave off a strange hissing sound as Lyle leaned further towards it with the curiosity that the man was feeling shining clearly on his face. This was like nothing that he had ever seen before. As he looked closer Lyle squinted his eyes and tried to see what it was that was causing the uncharacteristic sparkle. There was a green sheen over the surface of the foam and using one gloved hand he ran his finger through it, having to lean even further to do so. Suddenly a large bubble of gas broke to the surface and Lyle jumped, losing his grip on the side of the vat as the gas enveloped him and a dizzy sensation filled his head. He didn’t realise he was falling forwards until he hit the surface of the liquid.
2.
“Chloe.”
The voice had been an annoyingly persistent sound in her ear now for some time and just wouldn’t go away no matter how much she wanted it to. Burying her head deeper in her pillow the small blonde girl tried to pretend that the voice had not just called her again and sounded like it too was beginning to get irritated. Maybe if she tried hard enough it would just disappear altogether.
“Chloe Sullivan I know you’re awake so stop pretending that you’re still asleep.” Cracking one eye the girl found herself staring up at the face of her father, illuminated only by the faint light that managed to reach through her thick bedroom curtains and into the room beyond. “Come on missy, it’s time to get ready for school.”
Letting out a groan the teenager refused the urge that predictably struck her to close her eyes and go back to sleep. With considerable effort she pushed herself into a sitting position and ran her hands back over her hair to stop it from waving around her eyes. It had gotten slightly longer over the summer and was now at a length was just long enough to be irritable. She really would have to do something about it soon. She had meant to before school started but had somehow never quite got around to it. Summer had seemed like it would last forever this year and now it had finally drawn to a close Chloe wished that she could live it all over again. She wasn’t sure she would do anything differently, only that it would be nice to have her break all over again.
“Are you going to go back to sleep if I leave?” Gabe asked. He had retreated to the doorway but had obviously had second thoughts about leaving entirely until he was sure his daughter was going to actually get out of bed.
Chloe shook her head and then added, having taken in his neat suit, “You’re leaving already? Isn’t it a bit early for work?”
“I got a call about a suspected accident at the plant.” Seeing the girl’s interest peek suddenly, her eyes widening ever so slightly, the man held up a restraining hand. “Don’t even think about it Chloe. This isn’t something that you can go sticking your nose into. I’m not even sure that there has been an accident yet. I just need to go and take a look around. Understand?”
“’Kay,” she said somewhat reluctantly.
He stared at her for a moment while thoughts rolled over in his mind the meaning of which Chloe could only begin to suspect. “Okay, I’m going to head off then. Don’t be late to school.”
“I won’t be.”
“Make sure you aren’t.” With that he turned and left. Moments later Chloe heard the front door slam shut as he left and after that there was the sound of a car engine starting. Chloe let out a long sigh and looked over at her suitcases in the corner with the daunting knowledge that she’d have to hunt through them in a minute for something clean and un-creased to wear to school that day. She half wished that she had unpacked late last night when she had returned from her Aunt’s place in Metropolis instead of deciding to leave it and climb into bed.
Looking at the cases again and remembering her hast in packing with a frown Chloe decided that maybe the level of creasing didn’t really matter after all.
The summer had been fun and had given her to opportunity to get her mind off the events of the past few months in Smallville and everything they had entailed. For a while she had been able to forget all about school and Clark and the increasingly frequent freak occurrences. While she loved the town’s weirder characteristics the way in which she had found herself increasingly at the centre of events recently had not be an enjoyable change. It had been nice to spend as few weeks in a place where normal really did mean normal and she did not have to find herself being careful around anything other than ordinary evils.
Reluctantly she climbed out of bed and dragged her suitcase over onto its side. Finding a shirt that looked reasonably presentable and settling on a mid-length denim skirt the blonde grabbed the first set of underwear she found and headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower and having struggled to her head hair into something like it’s usual style the blonde descended into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl breakfast of cereal followed by an apple before heading out the front door and locking it behind her. The drive to school was uneventful but by the time Chloe pulled into her parking space outside the school she was already feeling the odd bubbling of nerves inside her stomach that reminded the girl that she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to go back to this yet. As she sat behind the wheel staring out of the window at the crowds of students walking back and forth the blonde girl found herself fighting for breath and half reaching towards the ignition to start up the car and head back to the safety of home.
A knock on the window near her head startled Chloe and she let out a loud yelp jumping in her seat and spinning around to look at whoever had dared to invade her little world. She found herself looking up at Pete who had a broad smile on his face and Clark who was stood just behind him, peering over his smaller friend with a nervous expression painted on his features. In a brief moment of guilt filled silence Chloe remembered the last words she had said to him before going away and winced mentally. She had a major case of apologising to do. Almost instantly she found herself reminding herself that it was at least some part his fault. She still hadn’t forgiven him for running off during the dance and he still hadn’t properly apologised to her for doing so.
Putting a carefully considered smile on her face Chloe pushed open the door and climbed out pulling her book bag after her.
“Hey when did you get back?” Pete asked.
“Last night,” she replied as cheerfully as she could manage. “How was your vacation?”
He shrugged. “A little boring actually. Nothing really happened.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Nice to know I didn’t miss any of the fun.”
Pete grinned at her again. “Did you think anything would dare to happen while you were away, Chloe?”
A smile broke onto her face almost reluctantly and the blonde girl shook her head in agreement. Glancing at Clark who was standing dead still with an almost confused expression on his face she took a deep breath and said, “And how was your vacation? Did you and Lana have fun?”
There had been a little more bite to her words than she had really intended and the moment that they were out of her mouth Chloe began to regret them. The tall boy’s shoulders slouched as the words impacted with him and he seemed to withdraw into himself slightly. “They were fine. Lana’s fine.” Then as if realising his mistake the boy blushed brightly. “I mean…”
“I know what you meant,” she interrupted then mentally added, and that wasn’t what I answered anyway. Turning away from the both she started to walk away. “Come on, we should get to class.”
3.
This was not how he had wanted Monday morning to go. When he had woken up this morning to the annoying sound of a telephone ringing in his ear as opposed to his radio-alarm clock Lex had known that it was going to be the perfect start to an absolutely terrible day almost instinctively. Now walking down the corridors of the plant and eventually emerging into one of the nameless vat rooms, only to find himself suddenly surrounded by plant staff all babbling on about things he wasn’t sure he cared about Lex had every one of his fears confirmed. It was going to be an absolutely terrible day.
Gabe Sullivan suddenly appeared in the crowd of faces and Lex found himself guided away from the main collection of people which the older man waved away as they tried to follow. When they were stood at one side, just out of ear shot of the others Gabe turned to him and said, “Mr Luthor, I’m sorry, I really don’t know how this could have happened.”
“How what could have happened Mr Sullivan? I’m afraid that no one has had the courtesy to inform me of exactly what has happened yet.”
He knew he had sounded curt and the expression that washed over the other man’s face confirmed his assumption. To his credit Gabe pretended to ignore his boss’s tone for which Lex found himself grateful. He was not in the habit of actually wanting to alienate his staff.
“Well, I was called at home this morning by some of the security people here at the plant. Apparently they were on their rounds and they found this,” Gabe said holding up a shoe that was sealed in a plastic bag, “sat on top of the platform up there.”
Lex followed where the man was pointing to with his eyes to find himself staring at one of the high platforms that were located at the side of each of the vats. “Someone fell in?” he asked trying to keep his voice calm while offering up a silent prayer to whoever was up there that he had mistaken Gabe’s meaning. Unfortunately the other man nodded. “Where’s the body?”
“This is the strange part Mr Luthor - there wasn’t one.”
“Sorry, what?”
“There was no body in the vat and we’ve done a thorough search of the plant and we haven’t been able to find one anywhere.”
Before he could stop it a groan escaped Lex and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, do we know who it might be?”
“A man called Lyle Garner was working late last night. He’s a lab technician. We have some security footage of him walking through the plant in this direction but nothing after that. He never used his pass to check out of the plant though so it’s possible it might have been him.”
“Does he have any family in town?”
“As far as we know he doesn’t. I talked to a couple of his co-workers. He’s single and from Metropolis so they didn’t think he had any ties in town.”
Lex thought for a moment then asked, “Has anyone contacted the police?” Gabe shook his head. “Okay, do that, but make it discreetly. The last thing we need is another scandal. Wait to see what they have to say before contacting his family. For all we know it might not be him anyway.”
“Yes, Mr Luthor.”
As Gabe walked away from him Lex turned to face the crowd who had been waiting patiently for him to finish his conversation. They watched him with expectant faces and he took a deep breath. “Why don’t we all try getting back to work?” he said. “I think about as much as can be done has been done about this situation.” There were a few apprehensive glances but Lex chose to ignore them by walking away.
4.
From his hiding place the creature who had been Lyle Garner watched as the confident, well groomed figure of Lex Luthor left the room and felt a sense of anger begin to boil inside of him. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was angered by the man’s casual, cool manner but he did know that it irked him so tremendously that a small hiss escaped him despite his decision to be quiet. As the anger grew the green mottling that now covered Lyle’s skin grew stronger, pulsing as his anger pulsed. Impulsively he scuttled across the ceiling, following the slight young man from the room and down the corridor. Lyle pursued him until it became clear he could go no further for fear of being noticed then halted.
A flurry of thoughts entered his head and he struggled to command them into any organised order. Frowning Lyle muttered something under his breath as one thought came to the fore of his mind.
His purpose had suddenly become clear.
“What the fuck?” a voice exclaimed from behind him and the creature who had been Lyle spun to find himself confronted with a pale young woman in overalls with the Luthor-Corp insignia on them. Her eye’s were widened in horror as she began to back away from him, too afraid of what might happen to turn her back on him and actually run away. Within thinking Lyle’s hand shot out, closing around her neck.
“Hello Lydia,” he said and the sound of his own voice startled him. It was hoarse, crackling out of his throat and for some reason it seemed difficult to annunciate the words he had intended to speak. “How are you?”
She didn’t answer, only cried and clawed hopelessly at the strong hand about her throat, desperate for him to let go as the life-breath began to drain out of her. A small smile slipped onto Lyle’s lips as he ever so slowly lifted her off her feet and slammed her against the wall. It trembled under the impact and it Lyle’s surprise softened as his fingertips brushed it. Without a second thought the creature who had been Lyle pushed the woman into the wall, watching in fascination as it closed again around her body again until only her hands were left sticking out into the corridor. Lyle gave an amused little giggle as the hands flapped for a few seconds in the air and then twitched violently, eventually stopping all together.
With a leap he reached the ceiling, using his strange new abilities to grip at the tiles there and scuttled off into the building.
5.
At lunch there had been no sign of Chloe. Lana had sat nervously next to Clark and across from Pete and waited from the blonde girl to arrive but she never had and by the end of their lunch beak she had been left with a bitter, unsatisfied feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had wanted to get this first meeting after summer break over with for so long that she had convinced herself that it would all work according to plan. She had wanted to explain to the other girl that she had never intended to take Clark from her, but sometimes things just happened and they were unavoidable and undeniable and that this was one of those things. She wanted to explain that if she could turn back the clock and not fall in love with the handsome boy then she wouldn’t, not because she wanted to hurt Chloe but because she really was in love with him and then ask if that didn’t mean something to Chloe that could help her get past whatever it was that she was feeling?
Clark left abruptly half way through the meal leaving her alone with Pete who had looked up and met her eyes before saying, “Don’t worry. Everything will work its self out soon enough. Chloe won’t be able to stay mad at him forever.”
In reply she had simple muttered something in the affirmative and then changed the conversation not wanting to have to think about what Chloe’s no-show actually meant. Now as she wandered through the nearly deserted halls of the high school after all the students were meant to have gone home Lana had to wonder whether what Pete had said was true. She had the sneaking suspicion though that if anyone would be able to stay mad at Clark forever it was Chloe and she didn’t want to be the cause of their friendship breaking up. Arriving outside the door to The Torch the dark haired girl paused, taking a deep breath and readying herself for what she was sure was going to be a tense conversation.
She knocked once on the door then entered without waiting for a reply knowing that Chloe wasn’t likely to hear anything when she was concentrating. As she entered the room through she found the petite blonde sat at her desk, staring at the door as it opened with tired looking eyes and a rather dazed expression on her face. When she saw that it was Lana who had entered the room Chloe’s back visibly stiffened and she sat straighter in her chair. Her eyes flickered once more in Lana’s direction before turning back to the computer screen that lit up her face with a sickly glow.
“What do you want?” Chloe asked abruptly.
“We need to talk.”
“Now, how did I know you were going to say something like that?”
Lana sighed and slipped onto one of the other chairs near to Chloe’s desk despite the irritated expression shot in her direction. “Why do you always have to be so stubborn?” When the blonde girl looked at her with eyes wide and flashing she continued, “You don’t give anyone a chance to explain Chloe. You have to make things black and white when we both know they’re not always that way.”
“Are you going to give me the speech about how there are grey areas? Because believe me when I say I’ve told myself it several times over the past few weeks.”
“I don’t want to argue with you. I came here because I knew that we needed to get whatever it is that you’re feeling out in the open. You’re hurting. I can understand that. But that doesn’t mean that you should stop seeing your friends. It doesn’t mean that Clark is no longer your friend either. He misses you.”
Chloe pursed her lips and asked quietly, “And what if I don’t want to be Clark’s friend anymore?”
“Just give him a chance. Give us all the opportunity to prove to you that we can still be friends.”
The blonde glanced up and met her eyes and what Lana saw there was something bitter and deep rooted. “You and I were never friends Lana.”
Ignoring the stab of pain that Chloe’s comment created in her Lana forced a smile onto her lips. “But we could be,” she offered sincerely.
Chloe’s features seemed to soften as something occurred to her and dipping her head the blonde seemed unable to look at Lana. “Its just that I always held onto the hope that he’d wake up one day. I always thought that if he just saw me as a girl and not his little sidekick friend then we’d… he’d…” She brought her hands up to her face and scrunched her eyes shut. To her surprise Lana saw that the other girl was rubbing at already sore eyes. “I don’t want to be angry with him,” she finally confessed.
“But you can’t help it.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Come out with us tonight Chloe. The boys are going to go to Talon and keep me company while I do my shift and you could sit with them. It could be just like any other night. No stress, no pressure, perfectly comfortable and you could leave anytime that you wanted.”
The blonde let out a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”
6.
It seemed that the entire student population of Smallville had decided to converge on Talon after their first day back at school after the summer break. The place was alive with the sound of people laughing and talking and the music that played in the background was a quiet buzz, hardly heard for the other noises. Lana looked harassed. The brunette was rushing around the coffee house her notepad in one hand and a tray balance on the other as she handed out orders left, right and centre. Chloe noticed that she still managed to give every person she talked to a sunny smile and knew that if their roles had been reversed that she doubted she could have been quite so cheerful.
It felt strange to walk back into this place with all its familiar charm after spending the summer so far away from it all. In one corner he spotted Clark and Lex sat together and surprisingly Pete was also relaxing in a chair with them without out any look of irritation on his face. The three of them looked up as she approached, Clark immediately moving aside to make room for her and reaching for a chair to fit in the gap between himself and Lex. Self-consciously she took the offered seat with a small smile that she refused to let falter.
“Lana mentioned that you had said you might be dropping by,” Clark said and to Chloe he sounded as if he was trying a little too hard to find something to say. She didn’t blame him. She was having a pretty hard time thinking of something to say herself to fill the uncomfortably silence that had been threatening to form ever since she joined the seated group.
Meeting warm brown eyes that were filled with something very like hope, Chloe replied, “She pretty much talked me into it actually. I didn’t feel like there was much of a choice.”
“Oh.” His face fell and Chloe couldn’t help but notice the disappointed look that Pete gave in her direction. She couldn’t decide whether she should feel bad about that or feel anger that he had so evidently decided to side with Clark.
For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence and then, to Chloe’s surprise, Lex’s voice filled the gap. “I hear you’ve been on vacation Miss Sullivan; I trust you had a pleasant time?”
Chloe had to remember not to let her jaw drop in surprise and for a moment she was stuck for what to say so she only nodded, then, apparently having recovered at least some of her higher brain functions said, “It was good to be back in the city, Metropolis I mean, for a while.”
“Lex was just telling us about the latest accident at the plant,” Pete offered, a smile of satisfaction filtering onto his face. Chloe gave him a withering expression quite unexpectedly then turned back to the young businessman who was watching her with a blank expression on his face. She doubted he had been giving away the information freely so she wondered how the two boys had goaded him into talking about it. He certainly didn’t look too happy that she had now found out about it.
Putting a small smile on her lips Chloe asked out of courtesy and so she wouldn’t betray that her father had already mentioned it to her, “Oh? What happened? Is that why my Dad had to rush off this morning?”
After picking up his coffee cup and taking a sip he replied, “It is.”
She waited for him to continue but when he said nothing more Chloe found herself forced to speak to fill the impending silence. “Want to tell what the accident was about? You know, what happened?”
“Real subtle there, Chloe,” Clark groaned.
“I’m not really doing ‘subtle’ today,” she said. “I’m still all tired so higher brain functions aren’t really all that engaged yet.”
“Why do I find that ‘yet’ ominous?” Clark asked, narrowing his innocent eyes at her in the closest thing to suspicion that Chloe had ever seen on his face. It was almost comical and she had to resist the sudden urge to laugh at him. Somehow she did not think that would go down all that well considering their current uneasy relationship.
“Because Mr Luthor here still hasn’t answered my question,” she said putting a small smile on her lips and turning back to the man. “Wishing I’d disappear yet?” Chloe asked, watching his face closely for any reaction.
He smirked, or was that an actual smile? It was always kind of difficult for Chloe to read. “Now why would I wish that, Miss Sullivan? Haven’t I told you before to call me Lex?”
“Yup you have ‘Lex’ and you’re avoiding the question again.”
That small smirk-smile had returned. “Unfortunately Miss Sullivan there isn’t anything of particular interest. There was small accident at the plant and someone overreacted. It has all been taken care of now so as you can see there really isn’t anything to tell.”
“You know that’s not fair,” Pete suddenly piped up. “If you’re going to force her to call you Lex then you should call her Chloe.”
“Shut up, Pete,” Clark said quickly.
As a thought entered Chloe’s mind the blonde stood up suddenly, grabbing her bag and slipping it over her head. “I’ve got to go,” she said.
“But you haven’t even had a drink yet,” the tall farm boy exclaimed. “Chloe Sullivan go without her caffeine fix? Impossible. Come on, just one drink.”
It brought a small reluctant smile to her lips. “No, I’ve really got to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
She turned and quickly made her way towards the exit not wanting to have to explain any further to Clark. As she had sat there watching Lex when he talked the thought had occurred to her that he was covering something up. Actually it had flashed into her mind with a megawatt light display but that didn’t really matter. On closer examination Chloe decided that it was only natural that he would try to keep things from her but Chloe felt the sudden urge to find out exactly what it was that he was covering up.
“You’re going so soon?” a voice called as she reached the door and Chloe spun to find Lana stood just behind her. The dark haired girl was carefully balancing a tray with one hand and had a wad of napkins in the other. “I thought we were going to get the chance to all sit down and have a chat.”
“Something came up,” Chloe told her.
“Oh,” she said and then after a moment added, “They didn’t do something to, you know, upset you did they?”
“No, no! They were all really, you know, nice.”
Lana’s brow creased a little again. “Then why are you going?”
Putting as cheerful an expression as she could manage on her face Chloe laughed, “Twenty questions much? I just want to get home and see my Dad. I’ve been away for a lot of the summer and as much of a geek as he can be I missed him.”
Lana gave an understanding smile and nodded. There was a sort of forlorn look on her face that Chloe recognised as the one that Lana always got when she thought of her own parents. “I guess I shouldn’t have hassled you into coming out tonight. Can you forgive me?”
“Sure,” Chloe replied feeling a tiny twinge of guilt in her chest. Why did Lana have to be so damn trusting all the time? “I’ll see you later okay?”
“Okay.”
When she reached home there was another car in the driveway telling her that her father was home. The Chinese takeout containers on the kitchen counter and the noise of the television blaring out in the sitting room told her further that whatever type of day it had been at work that it had been an exhausting one. It was a fact that didn’t surprise Chloe in the least. The weary figure of Gabe Sullivan looked up as his daughter entered the room and flopped onto the couch next to him.
At the sunny smile she presented him with the man sighed and with suspicion filling his voice asked, “What do you want, Chloe?”
“What makes you think I want anything?”
“Because that’s the same look your mother used to give me when she wanted something so get on with it.”
Chloe gave him another, more sincere smile and said, “I was just wondering how your day at work was.”
“You’ve heard something haven’t you?”
“I might have.”
“Chloe this isn’t something you should go snooping around in.” At the sudden look of further interest that flowed onto his daughter’s face Gabe realised his mistake and panicked adding, “I’m serious, Chloe,” for all the use it would actually do.
“I know, I know. Can it honestly hurt to tell me about it though?”
“Yes, it could, so just drop it. I’m going to go get a drink, do you want anything?”
She shook her head. “No, I think I’m going to go and attack some of that homework my evil teachers gave me. You’d think they’d never heard of post-holiday blues.”
“Okay sweetie.”
Leaving the sitting room Chloe headed in the direction of the stairs but changed direction at last moment and went into her father’s small study. Quietly she closed the door behind her, muffling the noise with her hand and then immediately began to search the room for the plastic keycard to the plant that she knew he always kept at home. It wouldn’t be breaking and entering. It really wouldn’t because she had the card and even if she was caught by security Chloe was certain that she could talk herself out of whatever trouble it got her into. Besides she didn’t honestly believe that Lex would want to press charges against her. She just hoped that her father did not find out because explaining why she was running around the plant in the middle of the night would be all too difficult and would probably end up with her getting grounded for a good six months.
Oh well, Chloe thought. The things I do for the sake of journalism and a decent story.
7.
Lex wasn’t entirely certain why he had decided to head back to the plant after leaving Talon. There was a niggling little insistent voice in the back of his mind trying to tell him something and although Lex was not certain what that something was he knew it had something to do with the plant. So he had decided to follow his instincts and that was why he was wandering around the huge facility in the middle of the night and slowly beginning to realise that maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
The plant was always disturbingly empty at the best of times; now it seemed to be a huge hollow shell that was dauntingly eerie and one that he didn’t particularly want to be in. Wandering around the corridors he felt oddly lost and wondered what he could do now that he was actually here. With nothing of importance immediately springing to mind Lex headed in the direction of his office. As he exited the elevator that led to the corridor that would take him there the young businessman spotted a streak of movement that made him tense and shrink away towards the wall so as not to be seen.
With a slight smirk Lex realised that it looked like he would have something to do after all. Trying to be as stealthy as he could Lex took to following whoever it was that he had seen. He watched as they appeared to head away from his office and down through the building until they entered one of the labs. Feeling a degree of concern coming over for him for the first time Lex watched further as they perched before a computer and tapped away. Whoever it was had dressed all in black with a black cap covering their hair but they had a brown leather satchel strapped across their body that looked distinctly out of place and more than a little familiar. Lex moved closer trying to get a better look at the person who was still intensely concentrating on the computer screen before them. To his surprise he realised that whoever it was she was female. Moving very slowly to avoid drawing attention to himself Lex edged around until he could see the person’s face and had to suppress a startled gasp.
After steadying himself Lex stepped forwards and into the ring of light given off by the desk lamp by the computer. He stood for a moment wondering whether she was going to notice him but when it became apparent that that wasn’t going to happen he coughed quietly, startling the girl and causing her to up tip her chair and land on the floor with a clatter that resounded loudly throughout the room.
“Okay, ouch!” she snapped and pushed herself back up into a sitting position. Looking up at Lex she said, “Now why did you go and do that?”
He stared at her in bafflement for a moment. “I didn’t do anything.”
She gave him a wry look and climbed to her feet, ignoring the offer of a helping hand that he gave. When she was safely back on her feet Chloe straightened her bag and pulled her top down over the revealing view of an expanse of creamy white flesh he was been given of her stomach.
“I don’t suppose you feel like explaining what you’re doing here do you?” he asked, picking up the chair and setting it back on its feet. As he did so he cast a curious eye at the computer screen and saw that she had somehow managed to access files on some of the latest experiments they had been working on. Frowning he turned back to her when he realised that she hadn’t said anything only to find the small blonde looking up at him defiantly.
“I think I’ll say no to that,” she answered.
“And I think I’ll have to insist.”
She let out a long sigh and pouted. “Why couldn’t you have been some dumb security guard?” she asked although the question didn’t seem to be addressed to Lex. He couldn’t help but stare at her in fascination.
“Chloe…” he said and there must have been something in his voice that sounded like a warning because she immediately took it as a challenge. That was one thing he had picked up on about Chloe almost the minute that he met her; if there was anything that Chloe enjoyed it was a challenge.
“Hey, so I was snooping. So what, it’s not like I found anything.”
“You found something,” he replied gesturing towards the computer screen.
“It didn’t really tell me anything.” She leaned forwards, brushing past him and switched the computer off again. “There. It’s all gone now. Are you going to frog march me out of here?”
“Let’s just say I’m going to make sure that you leave.” At a concerned look that passed through her eyes he added, “I won’t say anything to your father but you should really promise me you’re not going to do this again. It isn’t just yourself that you’d be getting into trouble if you got caught Chloe.”
She frowned at him and bit her lip. After a moment she said, “I guess I should thank you then even though it’s your fault I’m even here at all.”
He had been waiting for her to start walked towards the door and now that she did he followed closely, unwilling to let the small blonde out of his sight for a moment. “I’m afraid I don’t see your point.”
“Well, you have to admit that you did dangle this right in front of my nose. How on earth was I supposed to resist when you were being all secretive?”
He held the door open for her to walk through and after a moment’s startled pause she stepped through. “I wasn’t being particularly secretive, Chloe. I didn’t really think it was an appropriate conversation topic and even so, I would have thought that you would have had enough self-control not to go running off and do, well, this.”
“Is that an oh so eloquent way of you saying that you expected better from me?” she asked glancing at him as they walked down the corridor away from the labs. He didn’t catch the surprised look in her eye.
“It’s a way of me saying that you should have had more sense than to get caught if you found you really couldn’t resist.”
She gave him a little smile. “That’s alright then.”
“Chloe,” he said, taking hold of her arm and holding her still. “Seriously, you shouldn’t be snooping around here.”
“You sound like my Dad now.”
“Your Dad is right.”
She tugged her arm loose and looked at him with a look on her face that clearly told him she was more than a little annoyed. She was about to say something and then stopped. From this angle he could clearly see the sudden light that came into her eyes as she spotted something in the distance. “Hey, what’s that?” she asked and then set off towards whatever it was that she had spotted leaving Lex to have to jog a couple of steps to catch up with her.
“Chloe, I’m serious. You’re not even listening are you? What if it hadn’t been me who found you? What if it had been some security guard? You could have been in jail by now… Oh my God.”
He felt his breath stick in his throat as he stared at the sight which Chloe had spotted. The blonde girl had turned pale and had slumped against the opposite wall after slowly backed away from her discovery. Lex swallowed down the sudden rise of vomit that filled his throat and then coughed a little. There was a hand sticking out of the wall and the four fingers and the tip of a hand that could only have belonged to the matching hand. He reached forwards and brushed his fingers across them only to find them still warm.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Chloe shrieked. “Don’t touch it!”
Bending down he pick up something off the floor and held it up to her. “This is a security guard’s badge.”
“That… that was a security guard?”
“I’m guessing so.”
“Jesus. You don’t think… Has this something to do with the accident this morning?”
Looking over his shoulder at her he said, “Chloe…”
“What? It’s a valid question.”
“I don’t think so.”
She pushed away from the wall and came to stand beside him keeping her eyes averted from the hands. “That’s not a definite ‘no’.”
“What is the possibility that they’re even remotely connected? We don’t even have any proof that there was an accident this morning. Some guy has just gone missing. He could have just taken off and not told anyone or something. I’m sure there is another explanation.”
“Or he could be stuck in a wall somewhere with his hands stuck out!” she exclaimed and then let out a loud yelp as the lights suddenly went out and they were plunged into darkness. Lex felt her grab his arm and step closer so that he could feel the warm length of her body beside his. In the distance there was the sound of the turbines whirring as they shut down and the loud click of bolts being engaged.
“What was that?” Chloe asked, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
Lex blinked away some of the darkness as his eyes tried to adjust to the pitch blackness of the corridor. “It was the electronic locks engaging around the plant. It happens whenever there is a power cut so that nothing can be stolen while the security cameras are down.”
“By locks you mean the big scary ones that on all the doors leading to the outside that look like you would need a grenade to open them?” she asked, her panicked voice stringing the words altogether as she spoke rapidly.
“Yes. Then there are the gratings that come down over all the outside doors.”
“There isn’t even a fire escape open is there?” she asked quietly and Lex felt her shuffle even closer to him.
“No, there isn’t.”
“Lex, I don’t suppose I ever mentioned to you that I don’t exactly like the dark did I? Its kind of all collected to this time I was locked in a box underground when I was kidnapped…”
Taking a deep breath he fumbled around until he had his hand securely in hers. “We’re not in any danger Chloe.”
“Say that to the dead guy in the wall.”
There was the sound of clattering in the distance again and she jumped and leaned in closer to him. In a minute she was going to be on top of him if he didn’t do something quick. For a moment Lex contemplated the prospect and then pushed it away quickly. Now was not the time to be thinking like that. “I don’t suppose you had a flash light with you do you?” he asked.
“No.”
She sounded mournful and her voice was trembling. Lord God he hoped she didn’t start to cry. As much as it did not seem like her style he knew that at the moment ‘style’ was the last thing on this girl’s mind. “We just need to get to a phone. Then I’ll call someone and they’ll get us out of here. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He tugged a little on her hand and walked in what he thought was the direction to the nearest phone. “Come on then.”
One thought ran through his mind though and just wouldn’t go away. Why the hell had the backup system not switched on? A small ball of concern began to grow in his stomach. There was something wrong; something very wrong.
8.
Clark pushed open the back door into his kitchen and stepped inside with an almost weary expression on his face. The day had been more tiring than he had expected and he had found himself several times wishing that he was at home rather than trying to lead the normal life of a teenager; even if that normal life as a teenager had included stolen Lana-smoochies throughout the day. The thought made him grin a little and he quickly tried to cover it in case anyone else noticed.
“Hey honey,” Martha Kent said with a wide smile on seeing her son entering the kitchen.
“Hi Mom. Where’s Dad?”
“He’s upstairs taking a shower. Do you want anything to eat? I think there is some pie left in the refrigerator.”
Clark thought this idea over from moment and then shook his head. “I think I might just head up to my room.”
With a concerned look on her features Martha nodded and said, “Before you go call Gabe Sullivan. He rang here earlier tonight looking for Chloe and I said you would call when you got in. I’m sure she’s home by now but you should call him to make sure.”
“Okay Mom.” Grabbing the cordless phone he made his way up into his room and dialled in the Sullivan number which he had long known by heart. Five minutes later Clark could feel himself beginning to share Gabe Sullivan’s concern as it appeared that the young blonde reporter still hadn’t turned up and they both had no idea as to where she had gone. After promising to ring around all of the friends that he could think of Clark rang off. He couldn’t help but think that he had left Gabe even more concerned than before despite his promises to find out where his daughter had gotten to.
There was already a sneaking suspicion that he knew exactly where Chloe had gone. After making his phone calls it became apparent that no one seemed to know where the blonde had gone. Even Pete and Lana didn’t know and he had been certain that she would have mentioned something to one of them. Coming to a decision he told them both to meet him at a designated spot and then went downstairs to tell his parents where he was going. They both gave him concerned looks but wished him luck with his search all the same and let him go but not before making him promise to be careful.
With that in mind Clark left, using his super-speed to reach the place where he had asked Lana and Pete to meet him. As he reached the spot Clark was unsurprised to find that Chloe’s car was parked up by the side of the road. She hadn’t even taken the time to try and hide it. Moments later Lana pulled up in her Aunt’s car and then Pete showed up with an extremely irritated expression on his face and proclaiming repeatedly that he was going to kill Chloe this time, he really was. Lana had simply cast him a mollifying look and turned to Clark to hear what he had to say.
“There is nothing wrong with her car,” Clark told them with a sigh after each had taken a few minutes to look the vehicle over for any signs of damage or interference. He could hardly believe this was happening. “It looks like she just left it here.”
“We are within walking distance of the plant,” Lana observed stepping back from the vehicle and looking at the two boys. “If she didn’t want to be noticed this would be perfect. No one would think to look this far out but she would be able to get away without too much difficulty.”
Pete looked up from his perusal of the car and at the plant in the distance with a frown on his features that slowly turned to a look of dismay. Echoing Clark’s own sigh he said, “It’s her first day back in Smallville and she’s already getting into trouble.”
9.
It had been over two hours now and Chloe was getting more than a little concerned over exactly what they were going to. Of course, she had been concerned in the first place and had passed through hysteria and into an eerie calmness with the odd spattering of denial and now she was back around to concern; concern being only mildly better than hysteria because at least she didn’t have Lex alternately shaking her and holding her in an effort to calm her down. Chloe had been a little disturbed to learn that the latter of these two actions worked better than the first, as that only seemed to make her angrier at him. She couldn’t help but think it was strange how things worked out. Who would ever have thought that Lex Luthor would be comforting sort of guy? She could think of several other men that she would have expected to be more comforting, Pete and Clark not being the least of them, but there was something in the cool calmness and the collected manner in which he still held himself and her that was oddly reassuring to the blonde reporter.
They were sat in his office, on the floor, huddled around a torch that he had found after breaking the lock on a maintenance closet with a rather unexpected display of strength. Apparently even the boss’s keycard wouldn’t get you everywhere at the plant so Chloe had received a rather impressive display of him wielding an axe to break down the door. Of course then the axe had broken and she had been privileged to hear several new swearwords that she hadn’t known even existed. Being the gentleman he was Lex had apologised afterwards leaving Chloe grinning in amusement and him with a slightly petulant and charming pout on his face.
On some level at least she was actually pretty happy that the axe had broken. The repetitive sound of the blade hitting the wood had been too loud in Chloe’s opinion and she had been certain that it would attract whoever or whatever had murdered that poor security guard. The thought of spending your last few minutes on earth being somehow trapped in a wall terrified Chloe and sent shudders through her body that caught Lex’s attention and led to him lightly wrapping and arm about her again and giving her a brief hug.
It had taken her a good hour but Chloe had finally managed to get Lex to tell her about what had or had not happened to Lyle Garner. While the billionaire had seemed strangely reluctant to even consider the idea that Lyle’s accident had anything to do with the predicament they were in at present Chloe’s mind had already begun to tick over the possibility that this was another case for the Wall of Weird with relative ease. Hell, she knew in her heart that there was definitely something weird going on and no matter how much sweet talking and rationalising Lex did could detract from that. Beside it didn’t exactly take a genius to figure out that such was the case. And that, she figured, meant that Lex was either in denial or that he was deliberately covering something up. For everything Lex Luthor was, he wasn’t stupid.
Sighing loudly she reached forwards and picked up the bottle of water that Lex had found for her. Apparently he kept a private stash in his office so he wouldn’t have to venture out into the real world of the work place as often which confirmed several things about Lex that Chloe wasn’t sure whether she was glad to know. At the other side of their odd little camp Lex yawned and then immediately looked embarrassed for being caught off his guard. Chloe gave him an understanding smile which he seemed to accept grudgingly before rubbing his hand over his face.
They had retreated here only shortly after finding the second body. From the appearance of its hands, though she had been reluctant to look at them, Chloe was willing to bet that the corpse was female and the coolness of her flesh suggested she had been there considerably longer than the security guard had. A concerned expression had come over Lex’s face for the first time and he had suggested that they head to his office which he claimed would be safer than wandering the corridors. Once inside he had locked the door and said, very calmly “Perhaps we should stay here until tomorrow or until someone finds us.”
The way he had said it made Chloe suspect that he did not think anyone was going to find them before morning. As a result she had slowly begun to adjust herself to the idea of spending what she was certain was going to be several long hours in the young businessman’s company as fear kept them both awake.
After taking another sip of her water Chloe found herself wanting to fill the silence between them and asked, “Are you certain the phones aren’t working?”
Nodding he said, “Yes,” with only the slightest bit of irritation in his voice.
“And you’re still certain you haven’t got your cell phone?”
“It’s still outside; still locked in my car, Chloe.” There was a degree more irritation in his voice now and he shifted into a more comfortable position against the wall leaning his head back against it. After rubbing away some of the tension in her back Chloe crawled over to sit beside him.
After the curious look he gave her Chloe snapped, “What? I’m not allowed to be comfortable as well now am I?”
“You know I didn’t mean that.”
Looking around the dim gloom of the office Chloe observed, “I thought you would have a couch or something.”
“I’m not a psychiatrist, Chloe. What would I do with a couch?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. You could impress people with it or something. It would be like, ‘hey, I’m so important I don’t even need a desk to be intimidating.’”
A frown washed over his features and he half turned to look at her. “You think I’m intimidating?”
Looking sideways at him and meeting his stormy blue eyes Chloe found herself suddenly stumped for any kind of intelligent reply. “You know maybe you should just put that down to my lack-of-sleep befuddled mind and leave it at that okay? It’ll probably be safer for both of us.”
He nodded briefly in agreement then added, “You’re tired? Come here.” To her astonishment he lifted up his arm as if to suggest that she actually leaned against him.
“Now, just wait a minute…” she began but was promptly cut off by him as he insisted.
Reluctantly Chloe shuffled closer until she was in a comfortable position cradled against his side. Lex’s arm came down, closing the ring of warmth she felt and Chloe felt an almost instantaneous rush of doziness wash over her. He smelled good; like a mixture of coffee, soap and something underneath that was undeniably, purely male and Chloe couldn’t help but draw in several deep breaths as an odd feeling of contentment settled over her. She let out a long sigh even before she had realised that she had started to do so and heard Lex give a little chuckled at her. A sarcasm filled reply instantly came to mind but Chloe discovered that she did not really feel like voicing it aloud. For the moment it seemed like an unnecessary action that might disrupt their comfortable companionship.
They suddenly seemed to slump and Chloe realised that Lex was attempting to shuffle into a laying position. She lifted her head and let him make himself comfortable before taking up her previous position surrounded by what suddenly seemed like wonderfully protective arms. Chloe found herself having to admit silently to herself that the experience wasn’t entirely unpleasant. There was no way on earth that she was mentioning that fact to Lex though.
Ever so slowly her eyes fluttered shut and then Chloe Sullivan was asleep, still wrapped in the arms of an amused billionaire.