Out of the Depths (3rd of a trilogy - updated 12/16/14)

I am having trouble editing posts (they disappear), which is why this post is taken from another forum where swear words are censored. If there are any issues with this thread, you can always find my stuff at:

http://planetoftheapril.blogspot.com...ths-intro.html

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/apeyg...124795_600.jpg

Title: Out of the Depths
Sequel to: Deep in the Bottle and The Depths We Sink To
Author: TheAmazingApe/Apeygirl/April
Pairing: Chlex (others featured)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: triquel, smut, angst, missing scenes for season 8, alternate season 9
Spoilers: Up to the end of season 8
Short summary: Sequel to Deep In The Bottle/The Depths We Sink To. Chloe and Lex end up teaming up to fight an unexpected enemy… there may be sexual tension involved.

Super long author’s note:

I always planned to wrap up my Chlex trilogy. I just never knew exactly how. I had these vague ideas about explaining season 8 through Chlexy lenses before taking Chloe away from everything before she was marginalized and derailed (from a character standpoint) in season 9. As much as I enjoyed Chlollie, a lot of the events of season 9 featured a cold and calculating Chloe I had a hard time reconciling with the Chloe I knew.

But I always heard these rumors about how season 9 was supposed to be… back when they thought Rosenbaum might come back. I never kidded myself they’d go Chlex, but I remember spoilers hinting Lex and Chloe working together to fight a Clark that was not quite right. I always wondered how season 9 might have gone with that. Then I got a charity request fic from Bek…

She wanted woman-choking Clark in season 9 addressed in a special way… with Chlex working against him with “some verbal judo, some cat and mouse and a whole lot of sexual tension.”

I pretty much knew then that this was how to wrap this trilogy up. I wanted more than Lex rescuing Chloe from her life of servitude. I wanted Chlex working together, and Lex having a chance to right his past wrongs by being the one that saves the world from an alien invasion.

How could I resist writing this fic that way?

In other words, I’m finally finishing this trilogy now. I will be dealing with Season 8 and a small part of season 9, but this will be going AU. I really want to get Chlex to a happy end. But I almost love the challenge of working with canon and making sense of it… but only up to a point. :) So I want to find a way to explain season 8 for Lex, as hard as that may be. Wish me luck!

Might I just say that I found season 8 fascinating up to the finale? Despite a few episodes and arcs I hated, the general arc (the B&B of Chloe and Davis) was interesting up until they made Davis just another psycho (and negated all Witwer’s fine work) in the finale. It was a bit like how I felt about Lex, though not to that extent. I really wish this was a show that liked their villains nuanced instead of shoving everyone into black/white boxes.

There might be some frustration for you guys in early chapters, waiting for Chlex to finally meet up. They will be thinking of each other, but not in each other’s space until I can make it happen. I’m sorry for that. I just want to explain/fanwank some canon where I can. I never have dealt with season 8 directly and didn’t want to move onto my alternate season 9 until I had made people (Lex especially :mad:) explain their actions. I’ll try to keep my forays brief, only dealing with things either related to Chlex or that I want to fanwank. :)

Rest assured, I will make Lex look better than the show did. I hope that helps

On to the story…

The last we left off was after Season 8’s Odyssey for Chloe and we checked in with Lex at the beginning of Plastique.

This chapter is taking glances at Plastique, skipping over Toxic, though referencing it, then moving onto Instinct for both Chloe and Lex (as he’s got Tess’ eyes in this time).

Summaries of each if you need them:
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Plastique
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Toxic
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Instinct

The prologue you might remember from The Depths We Sink To’s ending. Just reposting it as I’m picking up just after it.

Prologue

It was done. After a month of sickening boat trips and fleabag motels, one bed away from the human wasteland that was Otis Bergman as he snored the damned night away, it would be over. He'd still pay him well.

Lex had always believed in rewarding loyalty, especially when it was hard to find good help on a limited budget. Hell, Otis had been technically working on speculation. He'd paid their way this far on Lex's promises. And Lex would make good on those promises now. They were in Georgetown now. As this was the last fleabag motel, it was only fitting it was the worst of them, dank and mildewy with peeling wallpaper. The only thing he could give it was that it had a coffee maker.

He went about making it mechanically, not that he'd drink it. It was only Otis who was stupid enough to drink the water here. Still, he stared at it for a moment. Those stupid miniature coffee makers seemed to have that effect on him. They made him think of her. He supposed they always would. She was the one who'd showed him how, speaking obnoxiously slowly with a condescending smirk he still saw so clearly, still wanted to kiss right off her. This is how real people live, Lex, she'd said that weekend, that weekend that, though he'd not known it at the time, had turned out to be the best he'd ever have. He'd long accepted that she'd always be there, always the voice in his head. He wondered if she'd be impressed at how effortlessly he could make coffee now. Obviously not, considering he'd destroyed her best friend.

He grabbed Otis' piece of sh!t laptop and stepped outside, trying to ignore the memory of his supposed death as it assaulted him again. He'd done what he had to. He'd intended on paying for it with his life. The fact that he hadn't was something he couldn't help. But still... Even after he got the money, what kind of life was this? What good would that tropical island be when he was alone? Without the quest, there was only her -- the only thing he needed now and the one thing he'd never have. Still, after a month in squalor, his wants were selfishly eclipsing his needs. He wanted soft beds and good food and the f*cking internet...

He slapped the side of the laptop as it slowly powered on, knowing it didn't help, but feeling some small satisfaction in just hitting something. This sh*thole boasted free wireless, but only delivered it in choppy bursts if you marched back and forth outside the room. Still, he didn't need much. Just a glimpse of a full account and maybe... maybe just a glimpse into the feed. He'd only seen the world through Tess Mercer's eyes a mere handful of times in this month. But it had been almost enough.

Enough to see Lana Lang alive and well, though she'd escaped from Tess. He didn't much care about that. He was magnanimous enough to be glad she was free from what he was sure was The Traveler's infection. He'd seen a Daily Planet headline claiming Regan, F*cking Regan, was missing. He couldn't be too bothered about that, either. He knew what happened now. Not in exact detail, but he knew where Chloe was kept at Black Creek. And it wasn't under his orders.

That was another thing that made him positive he could never touch her again. He'd never be anything more to her than a locked door.

The door opened behind him and he stepped quickly away as Otis barreled out. "Damn it, Otis..."

"Oh, hey. Sorry, Mr. Lachlan. Just wanted to thank you for making coffee. Real nice of ya. So how about our money, huh?"

"Soon," Lex said, rolling his eyes at Otis' presumption, as if they were some kind of team. He'd be dropping his services as soon as... His eyes flew to his second tab. He always had Mercer's feed open, but it barely ever came through. He rather hoped she wasn't bathing. He'd caught that once or twice and quickly shut it off. Tess was a beautiful woman, but something about the sight of her left him disturbed. He wanted to see Chloe. He saw the files through Mercer. He knew her status. But he had to see her face. Just once more. Just to know for sure...

But Chloe wasn't what he saw on that feed. He saw Clark. He saw Clark looming above him... or Tess. Heard sirens and saw smoke behind him.

"Guess this must be my stop," he heard Tess say. And Clark. He smiled.

"He's alive," Lex breathed.

"Who's alive?" Otis asked, almost disinterestedly. "Hey, this is great coffee, Mr. Lachlan. I'm not even kidding." Lex found himself stiffening as Otis threw a rather beefy arm over his shoulder. "Aw, heck. I'll just say it. I'm gonna miss you."

Lex shook him off, waiting for another glimpse, but Clark was gone, replaced by paramedics and...

"So what do we do after we get the money, huh? You know, they got some sweet resorts here. Or maybe somewhere else in the Caribbean. I just bet..."

"We're not staying here," Lex said, realizing he'd keep Otis around after all. He'd need some help. He had a real mess to clean up over there. It wouldn't do to be seen. "We're going to Metropolis," he said calmly, switching over to his newly replenished account. "And call me Mr. Luthor."

Chapter One

Metropolis, September 22nd, 2008

Chloe stared around the rubble, knowing she’d find Clark around here somewhere. It was his first day at The Daily Planet, after all. That bus crash shook half the block and he’d have heard it even if it didn’t. Sure enough, she found him hovering over a little girl, talking to a paramedic… though not the one she’d just left.

It was strange. His face kept swimming in front of her eyes. He said his name was Davis. There was something about him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something in her wanted to talk to him more… and maybe not surrounded by rubble and smoke and injured people. Maybe that was why she ended up volunteering to ride along to the hospital with the girl she’d been helping, with Bette.

No. That was for Bette, just for Bette. She was engaged, after all. She shook it off and moved toward Clark. “Hey, Clark.”

“Chloe?” Clark moved around the stretcher, his hands moving to her shoulders. “You all right?”

“Yeah. I just got here,” she said breathlessly, still a bit dazed with all the destruction. “I just helped this girl that was on that bus.” And met a handsome paramedic named Davis. Don’t forget that… Stop it!”What happened?” she said, gripping Clark back and trying to focus on what was important.

Clark started walking, gesturing for her to follow. “Well, I heard there was a bomb on the bus, but I haven't had a chance to check it out.”

Chloe had to smile. “Even a dress shirt can't hide the hero in you, huh, Clark? Heck of a first day at the office.”

“Well, that's why I'm there -- so I can be around to help more people. Working at the Daily Planet, I'll hear about every crisis as it happens.” He sighed and turned to her. “I just wish that you were there with me.”

She rolled her eyes. She knew this was coming. She’d been rehearsing for this. Codependent barely covered her with Clark, but it went both ways. Really, it would be hard. They were so used to investigating together and The Daily Planet would seem like a dream come true if this had been last year. Maybe that dream had become tainted for her, with all that happened.

“You know, now that Lex isn't running things...”

Chloe cut him off quickly, keeping a smile pasted on. “Yeah. I've spent almost my entire life praying to the gods of journalism. It might be kind of nice to try something new, you know? See how it feels.” It almost felt true. Really, that was only a small part of it. The fact that Lex wasn’t running things only reminded her that Lex wasn’t there. Maybe a body hadn’t been found, but how could he have survived such harsh exposure when Clark barely did? She didn’t want to mourn Lex Luthor, not after months captive under his orders. But it still caught her sometimes.

Aside from that, change was a good thing. Lana had taken steps for her to take charge of Isis months and months ago. And, though she’d scoffed at the idea at the time, just a little, there were resources there for Clark. Maybe she might not agree with how Lana started it. But think how much she could do for Clark with all that technology at her fingertips.

And it wasn’t just something new. It was something realistic, something she could have without worrying it would be snatched away.

“Now you're ready for a change?” Clark was saying.

Speaking of something she could have… “Actually, uh... there's pretty big changes.” The ring, silly as it was, was on her finger. She wondered if Clark had already noticed.

He didn’t. He was staring at his beeping cellphone. “Apparently the goddess of journalism is wondering where I am.”

Chloe kept her smile on. She should be happy for him, for Lois. Maybe they’d work well together. Still… “With Lois on the case, it's gonna get harder to duck away to save the day,” she warned.

Clark gave her a withering look. “If I could hide my secret from you, I think I can handle your cousin.”

Chloe chuckled. “Good luck with that.” He was almost adorable sometimes, thinking he hid his secret so well. His cellphone beeped again, with all the equipment around them and it reminded her she was supposed to be hitching an ambulance ride. “I got to go. Uh, tell Lois that I said to take it easy on you,” she said by way of a goodbye.

She was happy for him. If anyone was going to have her old desk, she’d rather it was him. When Lois first brought it up to her, she’d thought Chloe might be upset. But she’d rehearsed a lot of speeches since Lex fired her. She didn’t want to go back. Maybe she'd finally said it enough times to believe it herself. She didn’t want to work her way up a third time only to find herself pushed down again. She wanted to focus on realistic goals, things she could have... like a happy life with Jimmy and maybe something like Isis. Just maybe.

Isis, she could have. Maybe she would reopen it. She could help people. Hell, she was helping people already.

She moved back to poor Bette, being loaded into one of many ambulances. Poor kid. She really was shaken up. Davis caught her eye and smiled slightly. She found herself smiling back widely. There was something about him that put her at ease…

The Ritz Carlton, Georgetown, Cayman Islands

“This is more like it, huh, Mr. Luthor?”

“It’s Lachlan,” Lex hissed, annoyed. The money transfer had upgraded their lodging in mere hours, along with the internet signal. But he was still working with Otis’ piece if **** laptop. The video kept hanging. He hadn’t seen another glimpse of Clark.

Otis leaned across the table on the outdoor patio, whispering. “I thought you said to call you Mr. Luthor.”

“Not in public,” Lex said impatiently. “Everything, including my identification is under Alex Lachlan. For God’s sake, keep up.” Was it strange that he missed f*cking Regan right now? At least he didn’t have the attention span of a gnat.

Otis just shrugged. “I’m good as long as the drinks keep coming.”

Then again, there was a simplicity to Otis, unlike anyone he ever had working for him, a… friendliness. It wasn’t something he ever cared about before, but now, isolated from even his own name, it gratified him. He’d keep him around just a little longer.

At least he’d be spared his snoring as the suite had two bedrooms… if it was ever ready.

Otis clinked the ice in his glass. “Hey, you sure you don’t want a little…”

“Just coffee,” Lex grunted. He hadn’t touched a drink since Metropolis. He saw things clearer now. He’d been rash -- always angry and almost always half-drunk. He never thought of himself as an alcoholic. In fact, he hated the idea of those people crying in front of a group of strangers. He didn’t need that. He just wasn’t going to drink. It was as simple as that. He was going to need mental clarity to go on. Now if he could just get clear video… “Yes.”

“Good news?” Otis piped up.

“I’ve got the feed back.” Better than that, he saw Clark again.

“That lady? Oh, good. That should make you feel better.”

“This isn’t about me feeling better.” Lex rolled his eyes and put his headphones on. “Just shut up for a minute.”

“… what I can to save the planet,” Tess was saying. “But, for the sake of the shareholders, let's keep that between ourselves, hmm? Seems we were destined to meet. I already had you on my to-do list today.”

Clark looked uncomfortable. And it was so satisfying that Lex was disappointed when she turned away.

“Lex told me all about you,” he heard her say as the feed caught the desk. But she quickly turned back and Lex could see that patented Clark Kent look. The one that said he was preparing a lie.

“Well, not much to tell, really.”

“Hmm. He said you have a thing for saving people. And after this morning, I'd say that's true.”

Clark was silent and she moved closer.

“Ever since Lex's disappearance, I have used all of LuthorCorp's resources to find him.”

Clark’s brows drew together. “Do you have any leads?”

Lex had to wonder what Clark wanted to hear – yes or no?

“The world's a big place. I was hoping his good friend could tell me where to look,” Tess said pointedly.

Clark took a deep breath. Another lie being prepared? “The Lex Luthor that I knew disappeared years ago. It's been a long time since we were friends.” That or sanctimonious prattle. “I don't know what happened to him.” Now, that was a lie. He’d been there at the end, in his f*cking arms. That wasn’t to say that Clark had an inkling where he was now, but still…

Yet he wouldn’t have expected Clark to tell the truth, in any case.

“Fair enough.” Tess seemed to agree as she turned away to pick up a card. Cards already? She worked fast. “But if you do think of something, please give me a call. And, Clark... you were extraordinary out there. Thank you for saving my life.”

Clark took it and moved to open the door before turning back. “I saw how this job consumed Lex's life,” that familiar, stalwart tone. How Lex hated it. “I'd hate to see the same thing happen to yours,” he finished before closing it behind him.

It opened almost immediately on a woman with long, blonde hair. He suddenly wondered if Tess and Chloe could meet just for a second, just to see…

“Handsome,” the woman cooed.

“And a liar,” he heard Tess say harshly. “He's hiding something.”

“I’ll have someone watch him.”

“No. I'll keep an eye on this one personally.”

Good. Good girl. He had been initially upset with her on learning of her freeing the mutants from Black Creek. But she’d tagged them, hadn’t she. She was even marking up their files, making note of which ones might be useful. It wasn’t something he might have considered and he had to admire the logic behind it. They might need as much power as they could get.

Tess moved to the sideboard as the woman moved out. Her hand hovered over the liquor.

“Don’t do it,” Lex hissed, as if she could hear.

But her hand gripped a water bottle instead. She drank deeply before sighing. “Where are you, Lex?” she sighed.

“Don’t worry about it,” he found himself whispering. He didn’t exactly want to be found. He had so much to do. He had been rash before and it wasn’t just the drinking. He needed this time away, this perspective to figure out what was next. He needed to be prepared to face Clark, take him down if need be.

Doctor Groll was a big part of that preparation, as was Project Prometheus. Groll had nearly found a way to isolate the nanotechnology, get it to graft to human skin. He told himself it was about protecting himself, protecting the world. If they could get it to work, it would be about more than destroying Clark…

The thought made him shudder. Did he really want to destroy him? There were so many times, looking back now, when his life was saved with no explanation. He knew now that it was all Clark. Hell, they first met with Clark saving his life.

But Clark… he didn’t know he was a danger. Lex realized that in those last moments with him. All that power, power he didn’t even know the full extent of, could be so dangerous in the wrong hands. Lex didn’t even kid himself that his were the right ones. He was just the one thrust into this position. He knew so much more than anyone… But he could know more.

There was time now, with Groll still working on the technology, time to prepare for whatever he had to face with Clark, whatever he had to do. Time to gather information. Then he’d know what to do.

Manhattan, October 7th, 2008

Lex was glued to his screen – a slightly better screen now, top of the line—as it was showtime. Tess had been contacting Doctor Groll for weeks and Lex had finally given him leave to make himself available to her. Groll had been struggling to find a way to make the nanotechnology work. Maybe the crystal found at the site would work. Lex half-wondered why he hadn’t just had taken it from her to begin with. Then again, how would he do that?

He glanced at Otis, laughing at a rerun of Sanford and Son while shoveling steak fries into his gaping maw. Otis was pretty much useless in stealth. His girth alone disallowed it.

Yet he couldn’t seem to cut him loose. Perhaps he was just getting soft. Perhaps he wanted the company. He turned his attention back to Tess as she moved around the crystal, suspended as if in mid-air between the glowing rings Groll had designed to read it.

“You know, Lex Luthor may have been wowed by your high-tech smoke and mirrors, Dr. Groll,” she said as she circled him as well, “but I've come to expect more hard-core evidence from boys and their toys.

Dr. Groll seemed to be engrossed in his work. “So far, my toys have provided a breakthrough: identifying the crystal's origin.”

Tess still didn’t seem impressed. Hell, Lex was. She was so close to things in mere weeks he’d worked years at, thanks to him handing this to her. He wondered if Tess wasn’t a bit of a spoiled brat. Then again, one look at her early life and he knew that was wrong.

“Prove to me I wasn't wrong spending weeks to lure one of Lex's top scientists out of hiding,” she said dully.

Dr. Groll moved to what Lex still thought was a rather impressive display, the crystal suspended between the circling rings. “After an exhaustive battery of tests, we discovered that the crystal's composition doesn't match any element on this planet. It appears to be some kind of computer hard drive.” His eyes turned back to Tess. “We believe it may be alien.”

Tess’ tone was derisive. “You can't be serious.”

Lex almost had to laugh. Of course Tess didn’t understand. She hadn’t even opened to her mind to the possibility. He supposed she’d learn as he had, the brat.

It was uncharitable, he supposed, but it was hard for him to respect her these days, with what he’d learned. Not everything about Tess Mercer was clear on her resume. Her relationship with Oliver Queen, for one thing, annoyed him to no end. He couldn’t think why.

For a moment, he thought it may be jealousy. He’d gone so long without even a glimpse of Chloe, he started to think Tess had supplanted her in his mind. But that wasn’t it. He respected Tess, or he wanted to. Every time those moments through her eyes became too private, too personal, he turned away. And that wasn’t because he was a gentleman. Hell, if the same situation had applied to Chloe, he’d be glued to the screen. He still knew Chloe was lost to him, but he wouldn’t hesitate to look at her… all of her.

Yet, when it came to Tess, he felt almost sick. She was an attractive woman. He knew that objectively, but viewing her in those moments felt wrong. He couldn’t quite explain it. He even half-wondered if it was guilt. That emotion Chloe seemed to think he should feel and was incapable of.

You want to know what you can't feel, Lex?... Guilt. And you should. You really should… You might justify what you do with some great end, but you can't admit that what you do to get it is sick and depraved and...

When would she stop? It had been months since he’d seen her and she was still this voice in his head.

He didn’t feel guilty about using Tess to monitor what was happening back home. She might not know she was his eyes and ears, but she was being compensated for more than that. Didn’t she have control of his entire empire? And it would even out in the end.

Still, he couldn’t bring himself to see Tess unclothed. Maybe it was because she was vulnerable. Maybe it was just a step too far. Maybe he did have boundaries. As for Oliver, maybe he was just annoyed. He wanted to respect her. That was hard to do with her consorting with the overgrown frat boy that made his life miserable for years.

She’d told Oliver about Lionel, too, about his part in his parents’ deaths. He’d been annoyed at her over that, too. Not that he shared any blame in that. But he wondered, he just wondered, if Oliver would choose to put that on him. Pete Ross had, after all, hated him violently for years, for something his father did. He wondered when he’d stop paying for the sins of Lionel Luthor? Then again, maybe it was only fair. He had ended Lionel’s life. Maybe it was only right he pay for his crimes.

He forced his attention back to Tess and Groll.

“I know that's hard to accept,” Groll was saying, “but that's what the facts support.”

Tess’ feed moved closer to Groll. “No, the facts are, Lex disappeared in an arctic wasteland here on earth. He's not lost in space,” she said derisively, as if irritated at the idea.

Oh, Tess. You’ll learn…

“This crystal is the only clue that we have, so stick to science, not science fiction, and find me Lex Luthor,” she finished hotly.

Dr. Groll moved back to his laptop. “ Preliminary findings suggest that the crystal responds at a molecular level to sonic vibrations. If you allow me to proceed, this frequency generator may be the key to telling you what you want to know.”

“For your sake, I hope it is,” Tess said drily before Groll pushed a button.

Lex chuckled. He did like her, some annoyances aside. His laughter died as he saw, through Tess’ eyes, the rings speed up, the crystal spin as if possessed. Maybe it was. In the next second, it shot a bright, white pillar of light straight through the ceiling.

Tess’ eyes followed it before dropping back to the crystal, growing dark as the rings settled around it, slowing yet still moving.

“What just happened?” Tess breathed.

Lex was wondering the same damned thing.

Weeks in Manhattan now and he had only got pages of Virgil Swann’s notes from what staff there were at the end. Most of it was encrypted… or in some form he could barely comprehend. Symbols and scribblings. Some of them looked to be so close to the cave drawings. He’d had Jimmy Olsen, silly boy that he was, diving into them, but nothing ever came of it.

Then again, Jimmy wasn’t the right resource to tap. No. That would be Chloe, always so loyal to Clark.

He pulled off his headphone. “Otis, I need a hacker”

Smallville, October 8th, 2008

Chloe dug into Jimmy’s box. Each item unearthed was a surprise. Not all of it was a good surprise, either. Bass fishing. Not her thing. In fact, most of his things were decidedly not her thing. But couples didn’t have to be simpatico on every level.

She was committed to Jimmy, regardless, just like she was committed to Isis. She was determined to make both work. She caught sight of her ring. Clark had found it last week, had returned it to her with the unanswered question of what it all meant.

She’d felt so afraid at the time. “When Jimmy and I get married, things will probably change -- between us, I mean.”

But Clark had told her that her happiness was the most important thing in the world, that she’d have a wonderful life with Jimmy, not to worry about anything else. But she had been worried, so she’d held on tight, wanting to feel safe with him just one last time before everything changed. It had changed. It was strange with Clark last week, even through Oliver’s sickness, there was stiffness between them.

But maybe that was to be expected. Everything was changing… and that included her.

She’d only just adjusted to the idea of her meteor power to find it gone. She supposed she could see this as Brainiac infecting her… if she wanted to see the glass half empty. But couldn’t it be half full? Maybe this wasn’t so much an infection as a higher state of being.

Regardless, things were changing even now. Jimmy was moving into the already cramped apartment. She tried to see that as a good thing, but it was still hard, especially when staring at VHS marked “Bass Explorer.”

She heard the door open behind her and knew it had to be Jimmy. She manufactured a laugh. “You know, unpacking your fiancé really should be a wedding requirement course. I had no idea you had such a propensity for recording bass-fishing shows and reading Pablo Neruda love poems... and that you've collected every CD ever made by ABBA,” she finished, trying to withhold judgment.

Jimmy only shrugged. “I'm complicated.”

“Who knew there were so many sides to Jimmy Olsen?”

He moved around the counter. “Why? Do you have a problem with that?”

“Not at all,” she said brightly. “I love a man of mystery.” He leaned across the counter and she met him halfway, meeting his lips. Maybe they didn’t know everything about each other. Maybe it wasn’t fireworks with Jimmy, but it was… there for her. It was dependable. He was dependable and sweet and most girls had to make scads of mistakes before finding a guy like him. Hell, she only had one mistake… and, as it was Lex and as it was hidden from all who knew her, it barely counted. And damn it, she was supposed to go a day without thinking of Lex today. Starting again now…

She pulled away from Jimmy, trying to focus on him. She would be completely focused on him. “But I would keep the ABBA away from Lois,” she said with a smile as she took his CDs to the table. Mamma Mia was a smash hit on Broadway, but not with Lois. “She's a Whitesnake girl, and I don't think she'd understand this side of you.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “Well, I don't think that Lois likes any side of me these days. She's still mad 'cause I didn't tell her the truth about Lex Luthor's arctic antics.”

Chloe couldn’t blame Lois there. She knew how it felt to be kept out of a secret. “Yeah, Lois wins medals for holding a grudge.” She smiled. “Don't worry. Just a couple of weeks of walking around on eggshells, and it'll all be over.” Or she hoped so. Lois hadn’t been the biggest Jimmy fan before this and Jimmy’s deal with Lex certainly didn’t help. She tried to tell Lois it was loosely connected to her and her time away, but it didn’t help.

Jimmy chuckled. “Great.”

Chloe just kept unpacking, moving to the bedroom… or bedspace. How the hell were three people going to share this tiny place when two barely worked? She came back out to find Jimmy staring at a wrinkled, pink paper.

She knew what it was. She’d kept it all these years, hadn’t she? “I guess we sort of skated over the conversation about boundaries,” she found herself saying dully.

Jimmy looked slightly guilty, then aggrieved. “Looks like I stumbled into the razor wire surrounding the Clark issue again.”

She wasn’t sure who to be angry at here. Herself for keeping it or Jimmy for reading it.

“I knew that he was your first love. I just,” Jimmy swallowed hard, “never knew that you felt like this.”

Herself. That was who was to blame. Why the hell had she kept it? “It's ancient history,” she said, moving toward him. “I wrote that when I was 15. I've told you before -- Clark is my best friend, and that's all.”

Jimmy was staring at the letter. "I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend," he read before glancing at her. “You realize I'm living my biggest nightmare right now.”

“Jimmy, it was a schoolgirl crush. And to be perfectly honest, this constant insecurity about Clark is really starting to wear thin.” How many ways and times did she have to reassure him?

“Every time I try and leave it in the past,” Jimmy said with annoyance, “it just keeps making its way into the present.”

“I…” Chloe was seriously at a loss here. She’d told Clark about her and Jimmy, that she was engaged to him. Hell, she had accepted his proposal with a plastic toy ring! “I don't know what else I can do.”

Jimmy stared hard at her. “Why don't you start by asking yourself... why you never said these things to me?” He handed her back the letter and turned away.

Chloe stared after him as he left, not sure what to say. Weren’t they adults? It was a letter written by a child! Why did she have to explain something from so long ago?

Manhattan, 11:00 pm

“How is this taking so long?” Lex griped to Otis. He’d given the hacker the address to the Isis building last night. All he had to do was transfer some files. Just the symbols and their meanings. He knew Chloe had them, if anyone did. Hell, she could at least give him that, whether she knew it or not.

“Hey, I just hired the guy. But, believe me, he’s good. He’ll get you what you need.”

“How do you know?”

“Hey, he helped me erase my entire existence.” Otis shrugged and moved to him. “You try getting away from loan sharks. They don’t give up easy. Now, let’s just order something. Maybe with protein. You look too pale.”

Lex shrugged Otis off. “Stop mothering me.”

Otis just laughed. “Somebody should. You’ll give yourself an ulcer, the way you keep…”

“Just shut up and let me check the feed,” Lex grumbled. It was obnoxious, the way Otis kept trying to… he wasn’t sure what he was doing. If he were naïve, he’d call it taking care of him. But to what end? Otis got a hotel roof over his head and weekly paycheck, but it wasn’t that much.

“You and your Tess show,” Otis clucked as he moved to the living area. “I don’t know why you watch. It doesn’t even tell you anything and you only end up hating it.”

He supposed Otis was right about that. The last installment, this afternoon, was just an exercise in futility. He had to watch Tess be nearly strangled by some woman… or creature. Tess only lost consciousness, but Lex wanted to reach through the screen and handle it better. He wasn’t sure how, but he would at least have been less surprised. She still didn’t know, did she, that there was more out there than simple science could tell?

He sometimes wondered about contacting her, about just hinting that she should open her mind. But what good would that do? Maybe she wasn’t ready to know…

His breath hitched as the feed came in. It wasn’t the mansion or The Planet. She was somewhere new tonight. The Talon. And, as he knew all too well, there was only one reason to be there after closing…

That reason was almost walking out of frame, checking her phone before Tess spoke.

“Good evening, Miss Sullivan,” Tess said evenly, stopping her.

Chloe turned and faced her, faced him. It had been months since he’d seen her face. She’d kept her hair short… not that he minded, but Lex always noticed. Was she still with Olsen? After everything she’d been through, he rather hoped not, that she had a wider scope than to play with little boys. He almost hated that he didn’t know for sure. But he’d been trying to keep clear of things that clouded his judgment. And Sullivan definitely could count herself among those things.

“I am sorry for the cloak-and-dagger routine,” Tess was saying as she moved closer, “but I didn't have time to schedule this little meet and greet. My name is –“

Chloe cut her off and she stopped. “You can save the introduction. I know who you are. And I don't care to talk with anyone connected to Lex Luthor.”

So she was still angry. Maybe he couldn’t blame her. F*cking Regan had put her in with the other mutants, after all, as if she was just another freak.

Tess barely paused. “It's no secret that you and Lex have your differences, but...I'm sure that you are far too fair a person to fault me for his mistakes.”

Chloe only scoffed.

“Because I - I really need your help,” Tess went on, unfazed. “I know that you've cracked into some of the most complex and protected computer systems in the world, and I'd like to hire you to do the same for me.”

“I guess Lex's lackeys didn't tell you that he actually dropped the dime on me for being a techno-wiz,” she said, smiling all the way. “I was locked up. It wasn't pretty.”

That wasn’t true. He hadn’t told a soul. Sure, he’d locked her up, but not by telling tales to the DDS. In fact, he’d shielded her from them. Then again, he couldn’t expect her to be grateful, not with where f*cking Regan put her.

He looked over her for a moment, noting her blouse, buttoned to the neck and ugly plaid jacket. She was wearing pants, too. It was a real shame that a woman with a curvy, compact body like Chloe’s did nothing but hide…

“Well, no laws will be broken,” Tess was saying slowly. “You'll be trying to hack a very… unique supercomputer.”

Lex’s eyes widened. Was she talking about the crystal? Chloe may have some skills, but hacking this technology was beyond her… Or did he know even less than he thought about her?

Regardless, Chloe gave her a look that was almost a sneer. “Sorry. My plate's full,” she said before turning away.

“Yeah, I'm sure planning a wedding and starting up the Isis Foundation have you pretty busy.”

Chloe stilled. So did Lex.

Planning a wedding? He shook his head. “No,” he whispered aloud as Chloe turned back. “Chloe, no.”

“How did you know all that?” she asked.

“I have access to all of Lex's records.”

Lex shook his head again. She didn’t get this from him. Planning a wedding? Running Isis? Planning a f*cking wedding? This was after his time.

“And I know everything about you, Chloe,” Tess went on. “Which is why I know you're the only person that can help me. So I'm hoping you'll reconsider.”

Lex barely cared what Chloe said now. She was running Lana’s pet project. She was marrying… f*cking Jimmy. It had to be. Who else would it be?

“You learned well from Lex,” Chloe said sweetly, with a smile. “When you don't get your way, you just...threaten. This isn't my first tour of duty on the Luthor battlefield. So you're gonna have to come at me with a lot more firepower.”

She walked away. Tess watched her. Lex watched her, pissed off and dazed and just a little turned on. Even buttoned up like a schoolmarm, even marrying God damned Jimmy Olsen, he wanted to reach through that screen and take her.

But she was closed to him now. He had to remember that. He had things to do, so much to learn and…

There was a knock on the door and he snapped the laptop shut. “That better be good news,” Lex said, turning, rubbing his temples. Marrying… Jimmy Olsen… Damned….

Otis came out of the smaller bedroom, apologetically. “You know, it might be the food. I know you said you didn’t want anything, but I thought some soup might…” His voice trailed off as he opened the door. “Oh. Did you-know-who send you?”

“I’m looking for Mister… Lachlan is the name I have.”

Lex squeezed his eyes shut at that voice. He knew that voice. He just hoped he’d never hear it again.

“Who’s asking?” Otis said warily.

“Just let him in, Otis,” Lex said tiredly as he stood, moved to the door and saw the man. Of course. Of all the people to find him, it had to be F*cking Regan.

TBC

I’ll be back with a wee bit more on Identity (and F*cking Regan might have some explaining to do) before glancing over as many other episodes as can cram into the next.

You know what’s funny? Around the end of depths we sink to, I gave Otis the last name Bergman. I just picked it because I couldn’t find a last name for him. Funny enough, I just looked up the Smallville comics to see what they named him out of curiosity and they named him Otis Berg. Heh. Did not know that. Weird. I thought of changing it, but eh… I’m not really going to go with the comics as I’m breaking with canon in early season 9. Besides, SV’s had a decided lack of overtly Jewish characters. Has it had any?

I’m looking forward to writing Otis as I want this fic to have SOME comic relief. As it is, season 8 is a rather joyless season.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed despite the separation of Chlex. Back as soon as I can be. :)

Ok, I've had a pretty rough, busy and tireding few days and now I come back home tired again and with no life left in me until... I open up my FeedDamon with all the updates from pages I look into and... there's your blog! And there's Out of Depths!!!
I'm alive again! I am SO FUCKINNNGGGGG HAHAHAHAPPPPPPYYYYYY!!!
Thank you so muchhhh for starting this!!!!!!!
Can;t wait to read more.
This is a great idea - the Chlex against evil Clark angle.
I hope they will work through all their issues and have their happy ending which will be probably a little bitter sweet after everything they've been through, but still... that;s even better. :):) More real.

Just one question though, not that I mind, but I thought Lex knew Tess was his sister from the beginning. In the finale when they finally met she asked: Did you always know?
And he said: Why do you think I recruited you?
So I just guessed he found her because he knew she was his sister,
But ya know, this way it's even better, because I really like that he doesn't want to see her naked, but doesn't know why.

Great job! Looking forward to more!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TrinityR

I'm alive again! I am SO FUCKINNNGGGGG HAHAHAHAPPPPPPYYYYYY!!!
Thank you so muchhhh for starting this!!!!!!!

---

Aw, glad I could help with a bad day.

Quote:

---

This is a great idea - the Chlex against evil Clark angle.

---

It was really Bekah/msedopportunity's idea. I'd previously wanted to have Lex kind of kidnap Chloe after Doomsday and get her away from all the misery to end this. I only had vague ideas, as I wasn't going to start it until I'd got my other fics down to a manageable number. Then Bek requested a dark fic with Chlex vs. Evil!Clark and I thought that might be a better way to end this. I truly think Smallville was going to do something like that in season 9 before the plan changed/they wussed out. I've got some ideas as to how this could have been set up by season 8's ending and am really looking forward to Lex and Chloe meeting again as well as him clashing with the JL.

Quote:

---

I hope they will work through all their issues and have their happy ending which will be probably a little bitter sweet after everything they've been through, but still... that;s even better. :):) More real.

---

I definitely want to get them to a place where they're ready to be together. Lex is going to use this time away to become a better man.

Quote:

---

Just one question though, not that I mind, but I thought Lex knew Tess was his sister from the beginning. In the finale when they finally met she asked: Did you always know?
And he said: Why do you think I recruited you? So I just guessed he found her because he knew she was his sister,

---

I'm not going with SV canon after season 8 (though I might use some parts of season 9). But I have an alternate explanation in mind as to how Tess was put on his radar.

Quote:

---

But ya know, this way it's even better, because I really like that he doesn't want to see her naked, but doesn't know why.

---

I think it'll be interesting when he finds out. :)

Quote:

---

Great job! Looking forward to more!

---

It might be a bit before I get back to this one, but I'll try to be as quick as I can.

can't wait to see what happens next.and you know lex does not want chloe to marry jimmy.going to be interesting see lex and chloe working together against evil clark

I don't mind all the waiting:) As long as this at least started:) It can only go forward now:) In the meantime I keep on rereading Almost Whole:)

This is great. I've waited forever for this sequel and now it is finally here. I am so happy and can't wait for more.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by trckyrcky

This is great. I've waited forever for this sequel and now it is finally here. I am so happy and can't wait for more.

---

You might have to wait a bit for the next, but I promise not more than a a few weeks. :) I've just got a few updates on other fics, then I'll be back to this one. Honestly, I've seriously missed this. I think I wrote that first chapter in one sitting. I was just so happy to get back to a Chlexy world.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/apeyg...120475_900.gif

great start please keep going I can't wait for more.

OMG this is so great
I've been a little away from Chlex because of my obsession with Chlollie but I think I can manage both ships together from now on lol
Can't wait for more
:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by starmoon

great start please keep going I can't wait for more.

---

I'm definitely going to keep going. I can't promise the updates will be especially quick as I've got three other fics ahead of this one, but I should have this one updated later this week. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by malugargula

OMG this is so great
I've been a little away from Chlex because of my obsession with Chlollie but I think I can manage both ships together from now on lol :)

---

Give in to the multishipping. Chloe is too much woman for just one ship. She deserves two --- dare I say THREE -- ships at the least!

I enjoyed Chlollie as well (and we all know about my enduring love for Chlark), but there's something about that Chlex! I am so happy to be writing in my Chlexy universe again!

Also new icon coming!

ETA: I hope? Does anyone know how to upload an icon here? IDK, but there seems to be no option to do it!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheAmazingApe

ETA: I hope? Does anyone know how to upload an icon here? IDK, but there seems to be no option to do it!

---

Check out the other thread you opened. I've posted detailed instructions of how to do it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lexie

Check out the other thread you opened. I've posted detailed instructions of how to do it.

---

Thanks. I did. Still having issues. But I'll figure out why I'm not getting that custom option at some point. :/ In the meantime, it's not super important.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lexie

Check out the other thread you opened. I've posted detailed instructions of how to do it.

---

Thanks. I did. Still having issues. But I'll figure out why I'm not getting that custom option at some point. :/ In the meantime, it's not super important.

Nice more soon please.

Oooooohhhh my gooooooodness I am so addicted to this! Insanely, insanely good stuff here! Anxiously awaiting the next update!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by trinna

Nice more soon please.

---

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this one. It's busy for me in RL and I just haven't had much writing time. But here I am!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Domino

Oooooohhhh my gooooooodness I am so addicted to this! Insanely, insanely good stuff here! Anxiously awaiting the next update!!!

---

I was, too!!! I never though it would take me more than two months!

Anyway, here we are with the new chapter and I am very pleased to add a banner from the awesome Purple_moon123, who has now provided banners for three of my fics!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mnBfcWO6Qz...ut_chlex_4.jpg

Picking up right where we left off with (Fucking) Regan showing up, so timeline-wise, we’re still just after the Chloe/Tess scene in Instinct and will be finishing with that episode. Also, lots of talk about the events of Odyssey.

I’m trying not to go into crazy detail, but I have to get into episode scenes that I can use both to support Chlex and to make Chloe and Lex look better than the show did. Chloe staying so devoted to Jimmy with how he treated her in season 8 made her look so weak and passive and season 8 made Lex look like no more than a petty, jealous douche. So I must fix. Fanwanking this show’s crap takes time and effort. Think of all the things I could have accomplished in life if this was a show I could just watch and enjoy. Ah, Smallville. How you failed me at every turn!

Links if you need them:
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Odyssey
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Instinct

Chapter Two

Manhattan, October 8th, 2008 - 11:20 pm

“I’m looking for Mister… Lachlan is the name I have.”

Lex squeezed his eyes shut at that voice. He knew that voice. He just hoped he’d never hear it again.

“Who’s asking?” Otis said warily.

“Just let him in, Otis,” Lex said tiredly as he stood, moved to the door and saw the man. Of course. Of all the people to find him, it had to be Fucking Regan.

Regan stepped in, staring at Lex with wide eyes. “Sir! I never doubted I’d somehow…”

“How did you find me?” Lex cut in tightly, already tired of him.

Regan smiled, as if it was some sort of praise. “Well, it wasn’t easy. Lachlan was listed as an investigator under your payroll, but I noticed deposits to his off-shore account seemed to stop at your disappearance and I followed that trail and I thought…”

“Did you ever think I didn’t want to be found?”

Regan looked taken aback. “I did assume your enemies might be one reason, but… Sir, I have been loyal every step of the…”

“Just get in here.” Lex turned, moving back into the suite’s living area, rolling his eyes at the thorough ass-kissing he was surely about to be treated to. “So you figured out Lachlan. Great.”

He turned to find Regan preening. “Well, not exactly. But I thought he might have some information that…”

“That wasn’t a compliment, Matthews,” Lex groaned, sinking to the couch. “If you can find him, who’s to say every other…” He stopped, glaring at the TV.

“This is the big one. You hear that Elizabeth? I’m comin’ to join you, Honey!”

The audience seemed to find it hilarious, but Lex wasn’t in the mood. “Will you turn that damned thing off?” He snapped at Otis.

“Oh, sure thing, Mr. L.” Otis finally closed the door and rushed to the TV to shut Fred Sanford up before turning, staring from Lex to Regan. “So… I take it this guy worked for you, huh?”

“How did you figure that?” Lex sneered.

“Well, he called you ‘sir,’ so I thought to myself…”

“It wasn’t an actual question,” Lex said through clenched teeth. He turned his attention back to Regan, who was looking Otis over with obvious disdain. “How many other people are going to show up looking for Lachlan?” Lex asked, calling Regan’s attention back to him.

“No one else. I swear, Mr. Luthor,” Regan said quickly. “I was just more vigilant than most. I followed up any and all possible leads as I never stopped believing…”

“Yes, so you said,” Lex broke in impatiently, Regan’s sucking up, as always, rubbing him the wrong way. “You also said you’ve been loyal all this time.” He stood and moved to the mini bar, his hand hovering over a miniature Johnnie Walker Black before he forced himself to grip a lukewarm Perrier instead. “I just wonder what your definition of the word is,” he finished as he turned back, leaning against the small counter.

Regan blinked at him, “I have never given up on you, even all these months…”

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about your flagrant disregard for my orders.” He put her in a six-by-ten cell. Lex couldn’t forget that. He had her take her meals in guarded lines, in a gray jumpsuit, as if she were nothing more than…

“With all due respect, Mr. Luthor, I didn’t defer to Mercer because I felt she was not carrying on your work in the spirit you must have believed she would.”

Lex shook off the thought of Chloe kept like an animal and turned his attention back to Regan. “That’s not what I’m talking about, either. I have no complaints about Mercer’s work thus far.”

Regan drew back as if offended. “Then perhaps you’re not aware that she released every single mutant in Black Creek and…”

“And tagged them with locator chips and she is courting the loyalty of the ones she believes will be useful.” It’s something Lex wished he’d thought of himself, not that he’d tell Regan that. He’d rather Regan think it was all part of his plan. But it wasn’t. He wished it had been. He’d always been too close to the situation, also half-drunk. He moved away from the bar behind him, itching for a drink still. “I know every move Mercer makes.”

“How do you…”

“I’m talking about one particular… freak.” He hesitated to use the word describing her, also hated letting Regan know that Chloe was more than the average prisoner to him. But Regan had to be taken to task. “Sullivan, Regan. I left specific instructions about where she was to be held.” He wasn’t sure if the more luxurious accommodations would have gratified Chloe any more than a cell, but she would have been safer. He’d gone to The Arctic half sure he was on his way to his death and that was one of the only things he needed to be sure of; that she’d be safe. On some level, he thought, if Mercer found her there, she’d recognize Chloe was important somehow, maybe they might even be looking for him together and working side by side, where he could see her every moment and…

“But, Sir, when you disappeared…”

“I’m sorry.” He speared Regan with a glance. “Does that mean that my instructions don’t get carried out? I had reasons for her being kept in secure quarters with Lang when…”

“But Lang escaped.”

“And?” Lex still wasn’t sure how much he cared about that. “That doesn’t mean Sullivan gets put in general population. Hell, I’d rather you released her than…”

“But with her powers…”

“What was she going to do out there?” Lex sneered. “Heal too many people?”

Regan shook his head. “You don’t know,” Regan said, so softly Lex barely heard it. “I thought you must have known.”

“Known what?” Lex took a step forward.

“Who’s Sullivan?” Otis asked, crunching on a handful of chips.

Lex turned to Otis. He’d almost forgotten he was there. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Just asking. Hey! Why don’t I change up that soup I was getting you and just order us all somethin’ nice, huh?” Otis smiled at the both of them.

Neither man smiled back.

“You know, they do this Beef Borgignahn thing here. I mean, it’s just beef stew, but pretty tasty with some nice bread and a bottle of red. Why don’t we all…”

“Why don’t you do something useful and order it… in the other room?” Lex suggested, turning back to Regan.

“Okay, okay.” Otis backed toward the master bedroom. “Hey, I can get us the match on pay-per-view, too, if you guys wanna…”

“Fine,” Lex ground out. “Idiot,” he muttered when the door closed.

Regan stared at the door. “Where did you pick up that thing?”

“He’s been useful,” Lex growled. It was one thing when he insulted Otis. That didn’t mean Regan was allowed. “He also follows instructions,” he added. “Now what is it you think I don’t know about Sullivan?” he asked, keeping his tone level. But he was offended. He’d like to think he knew more than most.

”I put her in general population,” Regan said, shrugging. “But that was because I assumed you had her taken to your quarters for questioning. When you were gone, I assumed…”

“Yes, you’ve been telling me all about what you assume. Now what about Sullivan?”

“We had an updated note that she was a healer, but that was not what we observed. During testing, we found unnatural recall and data comprehension. It was almost like she were… some kind of computer.”

Lex stared at Regan, but saw Chloe, standing defiantly before Tess on his feed just moments ago, refusing to hack into the crystal. He knew Chloe had leapt over the odd government firewall, but alien technology was something beyond her. Wasn’t it?

“…crack any codes we put in front of her and even she seemed surprised by her abilities. Of course, this was when she was cooperating. As soon as she realized she wasn’t being held by the DDS, she became difficult and I had to take matters into my own hands.”

He could barely take in any of this. Chloe’s mutated power was enough, but now he wondered what else she’d gone through at Black Creek. He’d seen Regan’s brand of autonomy with the guard at Intercept, with wanting to get rid of Milash… Lex groped for the edge of the couch and sank into it, drops of mineral water spilling in his lap. “How exactly did you do that?”

Regan hesitantly took a seat in the small wingback across from him. “We had encrypted data on a group of mutants who attacked us while we searched for you and she had been unscrambling the transmissions into cell numbers that helped us locate each, but she stopped after only two, almost as if she knew the numbers. She attacked her holder and I had to step in and… help things along.”

“Yes. How?” Lex ground out, clutching the plastic bottle until it caved in his hand.

“Well, I stepped in to interrogate the terrorists we had. The water-based freak and the screamer. They were in league with The Traveler. I could tell. They were also in League with The Green Arrow, working under him. Don’t you see? They’re all connected?”

Lex shook his head. Yes. He knew that. All of them had worked against him. Of course they were connected to each other – and to Clark, to Chloe. Maybe they were all under his spell, the same as she was. He still could barely comprehend it, but he had some sort of power over them, some form of mind control. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to care about that at the moment. As much as he was learning all he could about Clark: The Traveler, the origins and the mysterious symbols that seemed so tied to him, he could only see Chloe at Regan’s mercy. “What about her? What did you do to her?” He met Regan’s confused eyes, realized he might be giving too much away. He forced a smile. “I mean, I’ve dealt with Sullivan. I know how difficult she can be. How could anyone get her to cooperate?”

Regan let out a chuckle. “Not willingly. I used the spinal fluid you harvested from her mother. Your scientists finally made it effective in making people… extremely cooperative. I explained to her what it was and how it only worked for a short time and…. Well, it worked on Sullivan regardless.”

“Did it?” Lex took a long drink from his bottle, more to tamp down nausea than for thirst. He knew he had no right to be so squeamish. He’d paid for the work that made a part of her mother into a tool to be used against her. And he’d have used it eagerly… against anyone but her. She had to know that. Of course, with Regan handing that info to her, how was she to know anything but that he was toying with her and hers? Hell, even if she did know this was a call he never would have made, it wouldn’t make it better. She never seemed to care that it would all even out in the end. She’d just see him, harvesting parts of her family.

I'm a meteor freak, Lex. I'm nothing more than something that jumped out of a petri dish to you in the end.

It wasn’t true, whatever she thought. With her, he’d have found some other way. For her…

Me, whoever you're holding in some undisclosed location... It's all the same. I can't pretend I'm special just because we used to fuck.

But she was special. She had to know that. Then again, maybe she didn’t. Not after Regan… It didn’t matter. She was lost to him. He turned his attention back to Regan.

“… finally gave us the final three digits,” he was saying. “And Green Arrow was in the facility and...”

Lex leaned toward him at that. “And did you unmask him?”

Regan drew back, sputtering. “Uh… Well, I… You know, I felt it would be a better use of time to inject him with the serum to have him help us find you, Sir.”

“Yes, of course.” Lex rolled his eyes. “Because knowing his identity is definitely not something we could use against him.”

“Well, he disappeared from the facility and the others escaped and I knew that Mercer would screw it up, which is exactly what she did. She freed all the…”

“Mercer hasn’t done anything she wasn’t told to,” Lex lied quickly before moving on. “But Sullivan was freed, obviously. I’ve seen her.”

“How did you…”

“Never mind that,” Lex cut him off. He wasn’t about to tell Regan about the feed Tess was giving. “Let’s just say Sullivan’s not using her powers to plot world domination. She’s planning her God damned wedding,” he muttered before he could stop himself. Somehow, it was all making him angrier. If her healing powers had somehow mutated into super-intelligence, then why was she marrying Jimmy Fucking Olsen? But what was it to him? He had to forget her… except for how he was still waiting on a hack from those Isis computers of what he knew had to be her work. But her personal life was nothing to him now. It had to be.

“Well, it’s a relief, Sir. But that doesn’t mean our work is done.”

He turned to Regan, shaking his head. “Our work?” If anything was truly nothing to him these days, it was Regan. “I think our work together is done.”

“I beg to disagree, Mr. Luthor.”

Lex narrowed his eyes. “What are you after? Money? Your extremely generous salary was paid up until the end of this year,” Lex said pointedly, standing.

Regan put his hands and stood as well. “Sir, I’m not extorting you. I truly believe in your cause. The Traveler must be identified and destroyed.”

The Traveler had been identified and, as for him being destroyed… Lex didn’t like to think about that part. It had all seemed so simple in that crystalline shelter, in the moment it fell around him and Clark, as if it was an act of God. It had seemed like an end that was so simple and clean. They would leave the world safe, leave it together. But they were alive and the idea of calculating plans to destroy someone he’d once called a friend…

“And Project Prometheus must be completed at all cost if we are to…”

“What?” Lex shook of the thought of Clark and stared at Regan. He wasn’t supposed to know about that.

“I tracked down a few more employees and found a Doctor Groll that…”

“Yes, I know who he is,” Lex said, standing and pacing away. “But I thought Prometheus was scrapped,” he lied, “considering I was missing.”

“Groll seemed to indicate it was ongoing under an anonymous backer.”

Yes, me. Lex busied himself with pouring the rather flattened Perrier into a tumbler and bending to the mini fridge for ice cubes. Regan knew too much.

“If we can lure him back,” Regan went on, “then the project can be in its rightful…”

“Boxing!” Otis slammed out of the master bedroom. “I tell ya, we picked the right night for a fight. We got Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins, kid versus old timer and right oughtta Atlantic City. Call me crazy, but I think the old guy has a chance. Anyway, the food’ll be right up, they said.”

“Yes. Thank you,” Lex said tensely, turning to him, then staring at him blankly.

“You okay, Mr. L?”

“I don’t know,” Lex sighed. Here he was standing between two loyal employees. One a complete idiot, the other a complete asshole. Of course, the idiot was pleasant and the asshole was competent and he wondered why he couldn’t take the best qualities of both and combine them into an employee he could stand to be around. God, he still missed Gina!

But, damn it all, he had to work with what he had.

“There’s something I need you to do,” he said, agitating the ice in his glass as he turned to Regan.

“Anything, Sir,” Regan said eagerly, stepping forward. “Did you want me to liaison with Groll about your current location so that…”

“No,” he cut in. He didn’t even want Regan to know his current location, but that couldn’t be helped. “I can handle Groll,” he said dismissively. “I want you to retrieve something from Tess Mercer… without her knowledge. An artifact: a crystal.” He didn’t want her prying into it any further. Not yet. He’d seen it for himself, the way she scoffed at the idea of other life forms. He might have felt that way in her place, but he’d seen too much. But Tess hadn’t seen enough, not to deal with this.

Regan looked annoyingly gratified. “Yes. She might not be discerning enough to deal with the things we have. I can certainly…”

“Get it tonight,” Lex cut in. He may have been thinking the same thing himself, but he didn’t care for Regan’s easy agreement. “Then we’ll see if I require your services further,” Lex finished, wanting to leave him in some doubt.

There was a knock at the door and Otis rushed to it. “That’s the food. You guys are in for a real treat. They do some real nice…”

“I don’t think I’ll be staying for that,” Regan cut in with a very tight, very false smile at Otis. “I have things to do.” He moved closer to Lex. “I will get it tonight. You will see.” Regan said before pushing past Otis, past the room service cart, and out the door.

Metropolis, October 9th, 2008 – 11:12 am

Chloe kept her eyes on the new Isis files. More and more people were coming forward and requesting counseling. Putting ads in all the tri-county papers, even the tabloids, hadn’t hurt. Lana may have started Isis, but she’d done very little with it so far. Chloe remembered having to hunt it down, herself. She had to make sure they knew there was something out there other than Belle Reve.

She stared at her ad from The Smallville Ledger, filing it with the others for posterity. Sometimes she was proud of it, of the wording, the way it offered no judgment. She’d like to think it beckoned them in and maybe someone with her way with words should actually be writing or… She should stop thinking about things she couldn’t have. Counseling these other mutants was something she could have. She wasn’t even sure if she was qualified to do that, but she’d been in their position and that was something. Hell, she’d spent so many years exposing them and their crimes, the least she could do now is offer a safe space in the hopes that maybe less of them would turn to crime.

“Chloe?”

She heard Clark’s voice and shoved the ad in the file. What was she doing worrying about her qualifications for Isis now? She had other concerns. Jimmy-related concerns. “Hey. I just talked to the doctor. I'm bringing Jimmy home in two hours, with his heart in the right place and his hormones in check,” she finished as she slammed the cabinet shut and moved to the table with the new apps for group therapy.

“I guess you figured out that Maxima kissed Jimmy,” she heard Clark say.

Chloe turned to him, trying to lean very casually against the table. “Oh, please. One look at Jimmy's blood panels, and I put it all together.” And she wasn’t angry. She really wasn’t. She’d been relieved, in fact. Maybe Jimmy had strayed a little, but could she say she hadn’t? The very night before Lex disappeared, she strayed a damned lot... with Lex. And maybe they weren’t engaged then. Maybe she’d even resigned herself to running away with Lex at that moment, Jimmy and her over in her mind.

It hadn’t turned out that way. Now, she was marrying Jimmy with a toy ring on her finger to prove it. She had to keep reminding herself why. Jimmy was good for her. Jimmy was safe. Jimmy was normal. He might get sucked into her strange world sometimes, but she had to remind herself that it wasn’t Jimmy’s fault. Maybe this actually evened things out a little.

“I can't say I'm thrilled that he macked on an alien goddess,” she said levelly to Clark, “but I got to say --Maxima knows how to rev a guy's engine.” Things between her and Jimmy had never truly revved up again. Maybe this was really her fault. She’d shut him out. If she weren’t so caught up in Lex, even now, even with him gone…

“Yeah, speaking from experience,” Clark was saying, “he didn't stand a chance. Especially since she went after him when he was vulnerable. He was really shaken up about some letter.”

Chloe moved away, so caught up in her own guilt about Lex that she’d nearly forgot what set Jimmy off. But, damn it, it was still ridiculous. “Yeah. That letter was for you. I, uh, read it to you sophomore year in high school when you were really sick. The only way I had enough guts to tell you how I actually felt was when you were unconscious,” she said in a rush as she moved to her desk and her bag to retrieve it. But, even saying the whens and the whys of the letter brought it home more. It was ridiculous. She’d been fifteen when she wrote that and she and Clark had never done anything then. Hell, they’d never really done anything since. Yet, for two years, Jimmy kept insisting on feeling threatened by Clark.

Yet, even as she handed the letter to Clark, she knew Jimmy had a reason to be threatened. It just wasn’t by Clark. Damn it again! Maybe she deserved his suspicion. Maybe it was there rightfully and Jimmy was just putting it on the wrong guy.

"I may not be the one you love today,” Clark read aloud, “but I'll let you go for now, hoping one day you'll fly back to me."

Chloe tried to smile. “The kicker is, you did respond, with one word -- Lana." It still hurt just a little, not with who she was now, but how she felt then had a sort of echo, getting weaker with time. It had hurt then, wanting someone so much, pouring so much into resisting it and working with them, then feeling so very unwanted in return. But it had dulled over the last year. Sometimes she wondered if she truly loved Clark. She had no doubt she felt that way at the time, but maybe it was just admiration and friendship and, obviously, attraction. He’d attracted her on so many levels and, to feel something that intense and find it unrequited was a devastating blow to a girl… and especially at fifteen. She did feel valued by him on other levels: for her work ethic, loyalty, certain special skills. But the sting of feeling unwanted, unattractive only went away years later.

And she desperately wished she could say that her relationship had been the catalyst. But it had really all started with a forgotten birthday and a bottle of scotch… She turned her attention back to Clark and his heavily furrowed brow.

“I guess I always knew. I just...

“Clark, that was a long time ago,” she cut in, moving to him, hoping to cut off the guilt train before it left the station. “Don't worry. I don't feel that way now. I just wanted you to read it so that I could finally close that chapter of my life and put it behind me.”

He was still frowning.

“But don't get me wrong. I don't regret having had those feelings.” Maybe most of her willingness to help him had started out with a crush, but it had gone deeper by now. Working with him, making the world a better place at his side had become second nature by now. She did love him, but with something so much deeper than a teenage crush. They were partners in this now. Loving Clark had paved the way for saving the world and… Jimmy. She had to remember Jimmy. “But that's because they helped prepare me so that I was ready to share my love with the perfect person. And to me, that person is Jimmy.” It would be. It had to be. They’d gone this far. She could forgive the things she knew in the hopes that Jimmy would have forgiven all the things he could never know. It would be fine. Everyone would be fine. Of course, Clark was still looking so aggrieved. “So you blew it, Bud.” She took the letter back with a smile, hoping he’d return it.

Clark did, finally. “I just want you to be happy.”

He meant it. Clark was almost incapable of lying, after all. That’s why he needed her around. “Clark, what you and I have, I will never share with anyone else.” She wasn’t even sure what to call it at this point. It was too vital to be called friendship and a little too incestuous to be called family. “You're my BFF,” she said, settling on that, silly as it was, “which is why, um, when Jimmy and I get married, I was hoping that... you would give me away at the altar.” It wasn’t as if she had anyone else to do it. Her father had responded to her “save the date” in the negative, after all. She’d been trying not to think about that.

But Clark was all smiles. “Absolutely. I'd be honored to, Chloe.” He pulled her in.

She hugged him back, but kind of waited for the realization. The “what about your father? Why isn’t he giving you away?” She didn’t want to think about it, but sometimes she wished just one person would ask so she could give voice to all the resentment of it. Even Lois never mentioned him except for a bland “What’s Uncle Gabe doing these days?” Chloe sometimes felt like he was some distant uncle to her as well. She forced a smile as Clark pulled away.

“And I may have an early wedding present for you,” he said brightly. “Since Jor-El created Brainiac, I think he can cure your infection.”

Chloe moved away, forcing herself to hold that smile. “Maybe so, but I thought that when the fortress disappeared, so did your father.” Infection. She almost hated to think of this that way. Maybe it was a gift. She didn’t ask for it, but she didn’t exactly ask for healing and this was… Well, it could be… She didn’t want to say “better,” but it could be more useful on a day-to-day basis. Yet she wasn’t sure Clark was ready for that take on it.

“Jor-El's just complex computer programming inside a Kryptonian crystal,” he said, “the same crystal that produced the fortress. And now Tess Mercer has it.”

Chloe thought back to last night, Tess in The Talon, coming at her with honeyed words and then veiled threats in a rather Luthory way she knew all too well… and maybe missed a little, perverse as it was. But she’d been too busy dismissing her to think further. “That's the computer she wants me to hack into.”

“I think I can re-create Jor-El and the fortress. I just need to get that crystal back. The only problem is, I've already searched the Daily Planet and the mansion. I haven't found it.”

“Maybe this time, we use a little less brawn and a little more brain.”

Manhattan, October 9th, 2008, 2:02 pm

Lex needed a little more sleep… or any. Still, he wasn’t sure he could get any now, with Otis snoring away on the couch. He’d tried to go into the bedroom and it seemed almost louder. Why the hell hadn’t he gotten rid of him yet? Still, Otis had come through. His little associate finally hacked through Chloe’s defenses at Isis and Lex, as much as he knew he needed sleep, didn’t exactly want it when he could spend more time poring over the spoils.

It wasn’t as if Chloe kept a journal of everything she did. He wasn’t so lucky, especially with how tight she’d been with her work at The Planet. But he knew she was one to keep a hell of a database and he wasn’t disappointed. Most of it he knew of, the Torch articles, The Ledger, The Planet, even national publications scanned in… all relating to what had been her life’s work, cataloguing the freak events and outright freaks out of Smallville. But there was one file in particular he wanted. He knew she had to have something on the symbols. He just never expected it was a God damned dictionary.

He hadn’t been able to sleep, obsessed trying to translate what he could with Swann’s notes. It was a long and boring process. It wasn’t as if the symbols were in any order he could comprehend. And there were thousands of them. He’d barely gotten two sentences.

This is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and deliver him from…

That was an entire night’s work. He’d need a damned team working night and day, but he couldn’t have that. There weren’t enough people he trusted with something this huge.

Kal-El. He knew who that was by now and…

Otis let out another loud one and Lex groped blindly for his headphones to catch Tess’ stream. He wasn’t sure that was much better as Tess was still punching and kicking away at her trainer. He listened absently to her and the man. His Japanese had never been as good as his German and both were a little rusty from disuse, but it seemed she was horribly unfocused. She hit harder at the accusation. He knew why she was so pissed off. He’d seen her open that case this morning and stalk all over the mansion, but hadn’t listened in as she’d almost immediately gone to change for this little workout session and he didn’t want to see that. Besides, he didn’t need to see or hear anything more. It was obvious enough that Regan had done his job.

He stared at his phone, thinking he’d probably have to dole out some kind of positive reinforcement in that direction. Regan was still an asshole, but he was an extremely efficient one. He’d barely started pulling his headphones off when he saw her. Not Tess. Her.

He leaned forward, but Tess turned away from Chloe and back to her trainer. Luckily, she dismissed the man and quickly turned to face Chloe again… then walked right past her.

“Damn it, no!”

“Do you kickbox, Chloe?” Tess asked, then turned to Chloe again. “I find it helps focus my anger.”

She was wearing a skirt. He really did miss her legs in a skirt… and other parts. He wished she’d turn around.

“Maybe I should rush over to the dojo,” Chloe said, rather bitterly, “cause I have a lot of it building up right now.”

Of course, he was okay with seeing her angry, too. How many times had they started out that way only to end somewhere else. He wondered if… He drew back, reminding himself he wasn’t Tess, even if he was seeing Chloe through her eyes. She wouldn’t make the same moves he would in her position unless… He shook himself, rather sickened by the idea. As much as the sight of two attractive women had always been a little treat, the thought of Chloe touched by anyone but him wasn’t something he wanted to see, let alone the strange repulsion that always seemed to hit him at the idea of Tess in any sort of sexual…

“Call me paranoid,” Tess said, drawing him back to what was actually happening, “but it sounds like that rage is directed at me.”

Chloe nearly spoke over her, her eyes hard. “I don't appreciate people breaking into my office when I'm not around.”

Tess was in Isis?

“The door was open.”

Lex shook his head. He must have missed that. Fucking Regan! The man might have retrieved the crystal, but he’d distracted him all damned night before that! Of course, that wouldn’t have happened if he had something with enough drive space to save the feed, rather than at the mercy of the stream. He couldn’t keep this up, dealing with a laptop and whatever hotel room he ended up in.

“Do it again, and I'll press charges,” he heard Chloe say.

“You made your point.” Tess moved past her, which annoyed Lex to no end, grabbing a towel off her… his desk, actually.

“Listen, while I'm here, maybe I could take a look at that supercomputer.”

He sat up straighter. Why was she so interested? Of course, he knew why. It would have to do with Clark. Maybe he sent her here, under whatever hold he had on her. That aside, he still didn’t know how to feel about it, that Chloe could deal with something so advanced as to be beyond him and all the scientists he knew. It made him almost wistful for a different world, one where they worked together. But he abandoned that thought as Tess turned back to Chloe, still so hungry for the sight of her.

“Sorry, but, uh... looks like the little hacker bird missed the worm.”

Chloe moved toward Tess, her brows drawing together. “What do you mean? I thought you said that I was the only one capable of getting into it.”

“You might be, but we won't know now, because I don't have it.”

Lex glanced at his phone again, reminding himself to call Fucking Regan when Tess’ eyes slid to the desk again.

“It was stolen,” she said, her gaze moving to Chloe once more.

Chloe looked rather adorably confused again. “Well, who else would want it?”

Tess started to move. “I intend to find out. Stay by your phone, Chloe. Only a handful of people knew about that device,” he eyes slid away again, “and when I find out who has it, I'm taking it back.” That was it. Only one short glance at Chloe before she started pummeling her trainer again.

Lex vaguely heard the click of Chloe’s heels fading away between the grunts and punches. He found his interest fading as well, the longer he knew she’d left the room. He tore the headphones off, annoyed at himself. He had to stop this. This obsessive focus on Chloe achieved nothing. She was engaged to her manchild and counseling the very people he had tried to protect the world from and she was… she was the enemy. He hated to think it, but there was a line between them and there had always been. When would he stop stupidly attempting to erase it?

He reached for his phone, trying to focus on what needed to be done. As annoying as it would be, he had to give Regan his due. The man had been useful.

“Sir?”

“I understand Mercer’s found the crystal missing and she’s very upset,” he said dully. “Well done.”

“Is she?” Regan laughed.

It only served to annoy Lex. “So where is it?”

“It’s safe.”

“You said you have it,” Lex prodded Regan, a little worried now. Would the man try to hold it for some kind of collateral? He still wasn’t stupid enough to trust Regan implicitly.

“Yes. I retrieved it fairly easily and…”

“Then why aren’t I holding it right now?”

“You said you’d be moving on to London. I thought I might stay on here, tie up some loose ends, then meet you there when…”

Lex held the phone away, rubbing at his eyes. God, he was too tired for dealing with whatever Regan thought.

“…obviously need to monitor Chloe Sullivan.”

He brought the phone back to his ear quickly. “What?” He hadn’t told Regan about the hack. After the way Regan treated her, he didn’t even want Sullivan on Regan’s radar. “Why would I need that?”

“Well, you seemed so interested in her before. I thought you might want eyes on Sullivan.”

He did. Dear God, he did. But not like this. “That was just…” Damn it! How was he going to get out of this? “I wanted her under special care at Black Creek for her… connections and the hope her loyalties could be changed.” It was nearly true. “Since it’s obvious that won’t happen, I have no further interest in her. I’m… I’m not even sure she knows anything we can use,” he lied. “Just get me the crystal and…”

“But it won’t take much,” Regan cut in. “I can easily hire maintenance workers to bug her apartment and…”

“You’re wasting time.” Even saying it he knew it would be useful. He might need eyes somewhere else other than wherever Tess happened to be. But bugging her home… It was something he hadn’t done, even before. It was something even he knew was a touch too far. Unfortunately, Regan had no problem taking things too far, as usual.

“I’ve already made preliminary arrangements. The meter reading at The Talon can include all parts and a simple…”

“No,” Lex broke in. That would mean seeing her at home, seeing her with Olsen. And that wasn’t happening. “I have other ways of seeing what I need to and I don’t want your work wasted on… some den mother to low-rent freaks.” He wondered how Chloe saw it, what she was dedicating herself to now. He hadn’t gone through the entire Isis database, so seduced by all those symbols. But he’d glanced over enough to know that seemed to be her plan: counseling them, keeping their secrets in some vain hope they’d be useful members of society with some coffee and donuts and group sessions.

He supposed she saw it as some kind of mission of mercy. She was the type to. This power... I was given a gift and it's my right to use it to... do good things. That was what she said. And he knew that wasn’t just her healing power talking. It was just her. But her power had obviously mutated and here she was, still giving herself to any sad stray who needed her. He hadn’t complained so much when her focus had been on him, but that wasn’t what had him so annoyed now. He may think this was a bit beneath her, especially now, but she wasn’t just helping the freaks. She was helping Clark. Why else would she have a damned database of his home planet’s symbols? But to what end? He had to find out. But not like this. Besides the obvious violation, it felt almost like cheating.

“I still think,” Regan was saying, “she might know more. I saw it at Black Creek. She knew what she was decrypting and…”

“Because she’s a sympathizer,” Lex cut in. “She’s an under-qualified therapist to freaks and nothing more. So she knows a few vigilantes. That doesn’t mean she can lead us to The Traveler any more than your failed experiment with Green Arrow did,” he said, hoping that would be the end of it.

Regan was silent on the other end, so he knew it must be.

“I’m still more concerned about how you found me,” Lex began, wondering if he’d berated him too hard. Regan still had the crystal. He didn’t want him holding out for wounded pride. “Your particular skills must have helped things along, but what about others? Are we sure no one else is on the same trail?”

“Sir, believe me. No one else was following my leads. There may have been whispers here and there, some ideas of someone fitting your description seen in Georgetown.”

Lex groaned. He actually hadn’t thought he’d been noticed so far.

“I swear,” Regan was saying, “It was only enough to know you were alive.”

“Enough,” Lex repeated dully. “That’s more than they need to know.”

“Well, it was only from some associates overseas who travel in similar circles, stay at similar hotels.”

“Damn it.” He should have known. Just because he had the money to spend didn’t mean he had to spend it. If anything, the ostentation would only draw attention. He’d have to downgrade. “If you hear any more whispers, whisper something else,” he began. “Get the word out that I’m done for, weak as a kitten, at death's door.”

“Weak? Why would you want anyone to think…”

“Because they won’t be expecting me. Just get here,” he barked. “I need you here,” he said, just a little more nicely now. He still needed the crystal. Hell, he might still also need Regan, effective as he was.

“Yes, Sir. Immediately.”

Lex hung up and stared at his computer, content to let his enemies believe he was weak. It wasn’t something he’d ever tried before. In the corporate world, it was almost a sin. But he wasn’t in that world now. And he was feeling stronger every day.

He glanced over Tess’ feed, still wailing on her trainer, maybe harder than before. He wondered if Chloe’s visit had something to do with that. He knew the confusion in Chloe’s eyes was genuine, but he wasn’t sure Tess did. Taking that crystal wasn’t some petty act. She wasn’t informed enough to have it. She hadn’t seen enough to know what she was holding.

He frowned at the screen, then finally decided to take the heat off Chloe. Maybe not just that. Tess had to know, in whatever small way he could tell her, that he was on her team.

Implanting spyware in her eyes? That’s teamwork for you. The voice, as always, sounded too much like Chloe’s.

It hadn’t been the plan, making her his eyes. It has been happenstance. Hell, he hadn’t even been the one that hired her. That had been under Lionel’s watch. He’d scouted her out and Lex had been thinking of shutting her entire project down the day he went to inspect their work. When the explosion destroyed the South Pacific lab, it was probably grounds for doing just that. But he went in after her. Something told him to. He could barely explain it. And he hadn’t even planned to implant the nano-cams. But her optic damage demanded reconstructive surgery and when his scientists had suggested testing the transmitters on her, it seemed to good an opportunity to waste.

Yet he’d balked at first. It seemed a waste of time, for one thing, using that technology on a lab research assistant. For another, he felt… He wasn’t sure what he felt then or why he cared, but there was a certain guilt in saving her life only to invade it. That same impulse that had him going into the burning building after that somber, no-nonsense red-head almost pulled him away from going through with this violation.

But, in the end, it was impractical to waste a perfect opportunity to test the technology and those same objections became arguments in favor of it – she was just an assistant. And hadn’t he saved her life? Surely this was a small price for her to pay. He had given her a generous raise, however. And he’d made it a point to know her better.

It wasn’t exactly engrossing stuff, looking into the goings on of a laboratory. But he found her background interesting enough. She was smart, obviously overqualified for her position. He didn’t often find one of his employees had made it into an Ivy League college while still wearing braces, so he sat up a little straighter when he accessed her feed after knowing that.

Besides that, she was loyal to him, almost to a fault. No coworker could complain about the boss without her sternly reminding them he saved her life. He found a certain gratification in that, even found himself watching her work, the way she interacted with those around her and, seeing her world, he almost found himself knowing what she might say or do, as if he was transmitting his will to her, impossible as it seemed. There was a kinship there. And maybe some of it had been his mourning Gina, maybe some of it had been that burnt red hair that sometimes made him think of his mother when she passed by a mirror, but he had faith in her, enough to put her in charge of everything he’d fought to control even if it seemed like a shot in the dark.

She hadn’t disappointed him so far. She needed to know that somehow. He pulled up his email and searched through his pictures, looking for the crystal’s gif scan Groll had last sent him. He quickly masked his IP and address and tried to think up a subject line that might not get sent to spam before he settled on “LOOKING FOR THIS?”

Was it vague? Maybe. But he knew her by now. She’d look over everything. She had that sort of dedication.

He took the scan and added text:

WE WILL DISCUSS THIS LATER

No. That was implying a meeting and he wasn’t sure he wanted her to anticipate something he couldn’t deliver. He stared over the symbols printed out and spread over the table. He still had so much to do.

YOU WILL KNOW WHY IN TIME

No. He wasn’t even sure he could promise that. Maybe he was wrong about Tess. She’d done well in his stead so far, but she might never be able to handle the… alien element. She’d scoffed at it so readily. She was…

He finally settled on the truth…

YOU ARE NOT READY YET

He sat back, staring at the words. Then he stared over the symbols, scrawled on every but of paper he could find and barely known to him, still.

This is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and…

And what? What was he the last hope for? Conquering other planets? Visitors from Krypton had been here before. He knew that much from the caves. He knew that from Veritas and all the talk of The Traveler. But to what end?

YOU ARE NOT READY YET

The words might as well apply to him. But it didn’t matter if he was ready to know. He could never stand not knowing.

YOU ARE NOT READY YET – X

He added the letter hastily and hit send, not sure if he was hoping she knew it was a message from him or if she didn’t.

It didn’t matter. It was done. He minimized her feed and brought up Chloe’s little Rosetta Stone again. He had to do this, symbol by symbol...

This is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and… deliver… him… from… evil…

He sat back. It sounded almost noble. Almost like a prayer. Of course, he had to wonder what the Krypton definition of evil was...

TBC

Lex right now…

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/apeyg...124492_900.gif

I’m taking him on a little journey in this fic, getting him all the knowledge I can and having him draw his own conclusions, whether they’re wrong or not, to start with. I really want Lex to indulge in all the info-porn he ever wanted before I have him meet up with Chloe again.

Anyway, I really did want to deal with more than Instinct in this chapter, but it just had so many things, between Chloe and Lex, that I wanted to address. Even as I write it, Chloe is obviously frustrating with her so blindly marrying never-right-for-her Jimmy and Lex is annoying in still theorizing Clark is an evil overlord mind-controlling his subjects. The difference between me and Smallville’s season 8 is I’m only writing these issues to fix them later. The show never did explain why they kept shoving Chimmy at us when pretty much no one enjoyed it, did they? Seriously, if they were planning to kill him off and NOTJIMMY him, then why? Why did we have to watch his non-chemistry with Chloe? Why?

Ah, this show. Even years later, it’s still frustrating.

I will try to get through two episodes in the next chapter. I really don’t want this fic to be as long as the last if I can help it.

BTW, sometimes I use music to force myself to focus when I am blocked (and I was so blocked on this chapter). Sometimes the song is what I imagine to be playing during the “scene” and sometimes it’s just something light enough to put me in the mood to write without being too obtrusive. This chapter seemed to want light progressive rock. My playlist was…

Rilo Kiley: Science vs. Romance
Furniture: Brilliant Mind
M83: Midnight City

I promise to be back in less than a month with the next, if not sooner!

I'm posting here the same comment I left you on your blog (ou answer here faster I guess:P) plus, I have a few comments I suspect you never read to you other stories, so I just paste them here, all right?

To this chap

Finally!! I thought I would never stop waiting!
There are two things I keep waiting for this summer! First is the final season of True Blood and every episode I watch with my eyes plastered to the screaan and with oblivity to what's happening outside the show,
then there's your fic. I'm reading it the very same way!!!

I don't know whether to leave you a comment here or on NaughtySeduction... maybe on both is safer? It's enogh for you though to just answer one one site.

Hahha! I love that:
“What was she going to do out there?” Lex sneered. “Heal too many people?”


You know, make it as long as it can be. I don't mind - just write faster lol


Oh, and one more thing. Will you adress the episode in which Chloe lost her mind? That would be interesting if all she could remember was Lex...
Wishful thinking from my part?
And then Clark earased her memories and that could be a perfect reason for her to kind of turn her back on him!! (provided she found out;/)


Almost Lois Intro:

just finished rereading this part. I even enjoy it more the second time around!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this series!!
Just wanted to tell you that:)
As a writer myself I know how hard it is to actually come up with something new regarding Smallville or Superman and make it original, it is also hard to write a story like an actual book, it has certainly taken me a lot of time to learn until I did it, so I really respect you for this and for finishing all your stories too! There is nothing worse than just leaving your readers hanging there! Especially ,when it's so well written!

Almost Clark chap 13.

think I have grown up and matured with this story as well as you said you have.
When I read it first and then kept on waiting for the updates I kept thinkng: Chloe! Just forgive him already! be with him! Stop pushing him away!
But now when I actually am rereading it, I see that you made it all perfect, because what Clark did to Chloe was not right and what she let him do was not right either.
But I can understand them. I was there once, few years ago when I still wasn't that mature.
Now that I have grown I think differently and I just wanted tell you that you really did a great job with writing Chloe and Clark through all those parts. They have grown up.


Almost Whole Intro:

I can't believe I did not catch that the first time I was reading this!
A person who would want to hurt both Lex and Chloe? After some thinking it can be pretty obvious.
I notice the hint in doctor Albright's scribbled. It was: grady. leery.
And I was like... Chloe!! can't you... wait, you can't. You can't remember.
How could I miss this before?


I love how you write Martha. Especially I love the chapter when she says this: Happiness isn't a happy ending. Because there is no ending. Life goes on. Happiness is... moments. These little times when you appreciate what you have more fully.

It's so true:) I wish I knew that myself earlier but I guess it's good I figured that out in my early twnties than later lol


Tightly Controlled:

You know, you should write some hot Clex fic:D


That would be all:)
Can;t wait for more of Chlex!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TrinityR

I'm posting here the same comment I left you on your blog (ou answer here faster I guess:P) plus, I have a few comments I suspect you never read to you other stories, so I just paste them here, all right?

---

I'm so sorry I let replies pile up so much. It's just so hard on fics that aren't current. It's hard enough to find time to write, let alone reply to replies. LOL. But I do save each one when they come into my email in a folder to get through and, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've started replying to backed-up comments on my "fic homework entries," including yours. I have a plan in place to get to yours in bulk whenever I update Chlex (whether it's on a Chlex fic or not) as I know you Chlex the most. :)

Quote:

---

Finally!! I thought I would never stop waiting!
There are two things I keep waiting for this summer! First is the final season of True Blood and every episode I watch with my eyes plastered to the screaan and with oblivity to what's happening outside the show,
then there's your fic. I'm reading it the very same way!!!

---

LOL. I'm glad to be right up there with TV! Makes me feel like a showrunner. Sorry the wait's been so long. A girl's gotta pay the bills, first of all, and we all know fic doesn't exactly help with that. ;)

Quote:

---

I don't know whether to leave you a comment here or on NaughtySeduction... maybe on both is safer? It's enogh for you though to just answer one one site.

---

Honestly, it's easiest to leave it on the forum for whatever fic as I always reply to any and all comments before posting on a forum. I try to reply to comments on blogger, but the notifications/threading issues frustrate me there. So I am much more vigilant either here or on Ksite.

Quote:

---

Hahha! I love that:
“What was she going to do out there?” Lex sneered. “Heal too many people?”

---

Heh. It really is a non-issue, that healing power. TBH, I really wished the show had kept it once they established it as her power rather than brush it aside. I think Chloe struggling with whether to use something so self-damaging could have been an interesting dilemma and it's something the show barely explored. I'm not saying I wouldn't have wanted her to have something cooler to work with, but once the show gave her that, I wish they'd dealt with it realistically rather than just getting rid of it in season 8.

Quote:

---

You know, make it as long as it can be. I don't mind - just write faster lol

---

If only I could!

Quote:

---

and one more thing. Will you adress the episode in which Chloe lost her mind? That would be interesting if all she could remember was Lex...
Wishful thinking from my part?

---

I have been toying with the idea of SOMETHING happening involving Chlex during that episode's timeline. I won't be going AU or changing canon, but I have had a scene in mind. But I'll say no more on that for now.

Quote:

---

And then Clark earased her memories and that could be a perfect reason for her to kind of turn her back on him!! (provided she found out;/)

---

I've dealt with Chloe finding out in a couple fics by now on a Chlark level. I do want her to find out here, too. But it might not be the same way. Suffice it to say, this will be addressed in this fic in a different way. I just haven't worked out how yet.

I'm going to answer your other fic comments in the current "fic homework" entry on my blog, among others. :) It's not like this forum kicks you out for not being Chlexy enough or for multishipping, but this is a Chlex forum, so I'll keep the other Chloe ships there. Cool?

Quote:

---

That would be all:)
Can;t wait for more of Chlex!

---

I can't, either! Every time I get into this fic, I wish I could stay a while. But it's got a few other fics on the front burner ahead of it. Once I get them done, I can settle into this one for a good long while!

glad you updated can't wait to see what happens next

Your fic is better than the last two seasons of Smallville (so disappointed with so many unresolved/unexplored story arcs)! I stumbled across your first story in this trilogy and am blown away with your sexy/villainous/dastardly/powerful/human depiction of Lex and the snarky/intelligent/torn/kindred Chloe.

I can't say enough great things about each of your fics, but especially this last update. I love that Lex is still pining for Chloe (and really hope that we can get Jimmy out of the way ASAP and avoid Davis altogether--hated that little tangent the writers took her on). Chloe seems only to really respond to Lex when she feels needed by him; when is he ever going to get that through his thick skull and just come clean with her? So deliciously frustrating. :)

I love that Lex has put down the bottle and is focusing on being more honest...now he just needs to be honest with himself about the depth of his feelings for Chloe and grovel/trick her into wanting him again. He could always dangle Clark over her head to get her back by his side--which is where she belongs.

So excited for a new update! Thank you for the lovely and all-consuming (Yes, I binge-read all of your fics in a weekend!) writing.

~flirty

I can't believe it took me so long to get here, it's in the graveyard. I'll see if I can get someone to dig it up. I'm guessing it's four months or graveyard. I'll remember that and endeavor never to make you wait more than a month again! I am deeply ashamed.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/apeyg.../65383_900.gif

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cbrunberg

glad you updated can't wait to see what happens next

---

Thanks so much. I'm just sorry you've waited so long.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flirtydramagirl

Your fic is better than the last two seasons of Smallville (so disappointed with so many unresolved/unexplored story arcs)!

---

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/apeyg.../87062_900.gif

Well, to be fair, it's not hard to be better than the last two seasons of Smallville.

Quote:

---

I stumbled across your first story in this trilogy and am blown away with your sexy/villainous/dastardly/powerful/human depiction of Lex and the snarky/intelligent/torn/kindred Chloe.

---

I confess, I do like writing him a little dark. He's just sexy that way!

Quote:

---

I can't say enough great things about each of your fics, but especially this last update. I love that Lex is still pining for Chloe (and really hope that we can get Jimmy out of the way ASAP and avoid Davis altogether--hated that little tangent the writers took her on).

---

I'm actually going to be dealing with and making sense of season 8 up to a point. I have extensive notes and am laying a foundation that explains everything. I hope you still enjoy. :)

Quote:

---

I love that Lex has put down the bottle and is focusing on being more honest...now he just needs to be honest with himself about the depth of his feelings for Chloe and grovel/trick her into wanting him again. He could always dangle Clark over her head to get her back by his side--which is where she belongs.

---

He'll get there. :)

Quote:

---

So excited for a new update! Thank you for the lovely and all-consuming (Yes, I binge-read all of your fics in a weekend!) writing.

---

Aw! Thanks so much. I'm glad you enjoyed them! I'll endeavor to be back here quicker with the next chapter.

Okay, by the end of two weeks. Sorry!

Dealing with Committed. Summary if you need it:
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Committed

I’m trying not to have Chloe and Lex apart for too long, but there are so many things from season eight I want to apply a Chlexy fix to (or just make sense of) or that I can’t resist letting Lex give commentary on. Rest assured, I will skip anything that I can in the interest of getting our duo in the same general area.

Chapter Three

Smallville, October 15th, 2008 - 10:34 pm

She hadn’t talked about it, not to anyone. But she kept thinking he’d show up somehow. She hadn’t invited him, but there was an announcement and she stupidly thought her dad might come. Just walk in and call her some embarrassing pet name and envelope her like before.

Regardless, there was a definite lack of benevolently smiling family at their engagement party and that included Jimmy’s end.

Chloe turned to Jimmy as they lightly strolled away from The Talon, getting some air after the last guest drove off. “You know, it's a shame your parents couldn't be here tonight. I would have really loved to celebrate your impeccable taste with them.” He’d gotten her a ring, and not a plastic one, after all. It wasn’t gaudy or flashy. It was sweet and simple, just like their life would be.

Jimmy sighed. “Well, they send their love. Dad is this close to closing a big deal in London. His, um, priorities are a little out of whack, but he means well.”

She couldn’t judge. She wanted to meet them, but it wasn’t as if her father had met Jimmy, either. Not even tonight. She felt silly, again, for hoping he might. If her father had RSVPed no to her wedding, then why would he show up for her engagement party? Maybe it was this dangerous life she led. He’d been blacklisted, they’d both been declared legally dead, and things never, ever went back to anything resembling normal. Maybe he had something normal now. Maybe that was how he wanted his life.

Still, there was something in her that knew Jimmy wasn’t telling the truth. She couldn’t tell to what degree, but she’d always been good at spotting a lie, after watching Clark do it so badly over the years. Yet, she couldn’t judge there, either. He didn’t know much about her life, her real life. But she would give him anything she…

Not the truth. That would just be a little too intimate to share with someone you had no real intention of staying with

Lex. Every time she looked at her life and tried to be happy with it, there his voice was, always a smirk in it. And part of her wanted to hear it, wanted to keep that insufferable, smirking voice alive. But she also hated it, hated that it invaded every moment with Jimmy, as if she wasn’t allowed to be happy.

And what about you? You with your mysterious activities. Are you happy, Chloe? Unemployed and stuck in a dead-end relationship, always landing in dangerous..."

She shut him off. She couldn’t keep letting him in. She could be happy if she tried.

Sometimes, she wondered if trying would involve telling Jimmy everything. Not the stuff that wasn’t hers to tell, but the things that were… The things she’d done wrong. Lex….

It didn’t matter. Lex was gone and so was her past with him. They were the only two who knew. She should be happy enough Jimmy could deal with Clark, these days.

With that thought, she turned her eyes to Jimmy as they strolled. “Oh, well, I still hope you enjoyed yourself tonight. You know what was my favorite part of the evening?”

Jimmy chuckled. “If you say Lois' toast, I'm getting a prenup.”

“God, no!” She was still trying to figure out what that was about. Lois had never had any issue with Jimmy before. She turned to face him. “When Clark was toasting us, I looked over at you, and you had the most wonderful smile on your face. You know, it really means a lot to me that you're finally okay with Clark.”

“Me being uptight about you and Clark is yesterday's news. There may be a textbook's worth of history between the two of you, but the future is all Chloe and Jimmy's story.”

She leaned in to hug him. This would work. She would make this work. She felt him stiffen slightly… in more ways than one. She pulled back and met his eyes. “You know, I think it's about time we head upstairs for some much-needed alone time.” She’d put him off long enough, almost a year by now. It was time.

Jimmy grinned. “Oh, I think that is a fantastic idea.”

But they didn’t get to take even a step back to The Talon before there was a bright light, a man, a stabbing pain in her stomach. She’d been tranqued before. She knew the sting and the numbness. But who…

Paradise, Nevada – October 16th, 2008, 7:01 am, PST

“I’m telling you, you’ll give yourself an ulcer,” Otis said from the couch, which was still a mess of pillows and blankets.

“Shut up, Otis,” Lex groaned, shoving The Daily Planet away and trying to get a better look at his print-outs with the limited space on the thing Budget Suites dared to call a table. “And clean up your damned bed.”

“Ah, fine,” Otis grumbled, then kept babbling. “My uncle drank five cups a day and, hand to God, his stomach lining went kaput.”

Lex took another long, slightly defiant sip of his coffee. He’d sent Regan back to Metropolis after taking hold of the crystal and he and Otis relocated to this supposedly more inconspicuous little craphole in the ironically named Paradise, Nevada.

At least the suite was cheap at a weekly rate and the internet was steady. “Business class,” Otis had called it. “Good enough service and it’s almost all conventions and shit near the airport. No one’s gonna look twice, even at you. It’s just what you need till we can find something better. I’m working on something. I know a guy.”

Otis always talked about knowing a guy. Otis always talked. It pretty much never ended. Lex wondered if he’d sent the wrong man away.

“… but you know, he also had diverticulitis. You know, I’m afraid I’m gonna get it, too. Could you imagine, not eatin corn for the rest of your…”

“Why the hell am I keeping you around again?” Lex cut in, turning to face him.

Otis dropped a pillow and frowned. “Hey, I’m just tryin’ to help.”

“Nagging me like a damn woman,” Lex muttered. He had to remind himself that Regan was still the more annoying option. But he had to keep him in the circle with all he knew, that or kill him. He chuckled, then sobered up, reminding himself that it wasn’t a joke. Between Grant, Lionel and Patricia Swann, he’d gone hallucinating, drunken, batshit crazy. He didn’t think he could handle any more blood on his hands, literally or figuratively.

He’d told Regan to go back and gather documents, said he’d never dealt with things after Lionel’s death with all the Veritas business and The Traveler and being carved up. “I want to make sure my holdings are in order for if or when I choose to come back,” he’d lied. Compared to all he was learning, he barely gave a shit what was in Smallville and Metropolis, but it was enough to send Regan off, mollified.

“Of course.” Regan had nodded sagely. “You never know what Mercer might do if she has access to sensitive information.”

Lex let him go on with that assumption, since he was still so damned petulant about Tess. Lex wasn’t sure what he’d say to this little TV show of his. He absently cast an eye and one ear to his laptop, Tess’ feed still active. Lex wasn’t too happy with Tess, himself, at the moment.

He’d had a good enough morning at first, finding a strange enjoyment in Tess’ frustration at the missing crystal. It wasn’t even at her expense. He liked seeing someone, anyone, share his own anger at being left out. He wondered if Clark found it fun to watch him flounder. Then again, he shouldn’t take the idea of Clark so lightly. Clark was The Traveler and sent to “rule them with strength.”

On this third planet from this star Sol, you'll be a god among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength, my son. That is where your greatness lies.

It had come from Swann’s notes, not a translation, right beneath a sketch of a spacecraft, a small one according to the dimensions scribbled around it. There was no source for the passage, but Swann claimed that there were many ways to take it, though he didn’t elaborate.

Lex could only think of one way to take it. And it was disturbing, to say the least. He should be concentrating on that passage, translating the rest, not grousing over Tess’ questionable dalliances. But to see Oliver Queen lounging behind what was his desk… for a time was truly pissing him off.

“…can't find time to return my calls,” the idiot was saying, “but you do manage to fit it into your busy schedule to buy the Star City Towers right out from under me.”

“Business is business,” Tess said levelly.

“Well, this is not about business. And to be honest with you, revenge is not your best…”

“Why don’t I get you some green tea?” Otis nagged. “There’s a Starbucks right across…”

“Shh!” Lex waved him off. Luckily, Tess wasn’t taking Oliver’s shit.

“One of the most important things that Lex taught me is you can't afford to live in the past.”

“Did Professor Luther also teach you a thing or two about deception?”

“Fuck you,” Lex growled.

Otis sniffed. “Well, I was only…”

“Not you!”

“…about obsession?” Queen was saying. “I hear his class in murder's an easy A.”

“Nothing to your class in torture,” Lex ground out, “you sadistic, suddenly self-righteous…”

”He's done more for this world than you ever will, Oliver. He dedicated his life to making it a safer place,” he heard Tess say.

“Thank you,” Lex breathed. Damn it, he was trying!

“So is that a yes on tea?”

He turned to Otis. “Yes. Fine. Anything to get some damned quiet.”

“…like Lex may have been a little bit more than a mentor,” Oliver was saying insidiously.

“Seriously? Fuck you,” he hissed over the vague sound of Otis shutting the door.

Tess seemed to share his sentiments. “If you're done wasting my time, I have phone calls to make.”

“Look, uh, I'm sorry. Really, okay? I didn't come here to battle with you. Actually, I came here to…”

Lex’s phone took that damned moment to ring. “Yes? What, Regan?”

“Sir, I never anticipated… That is…”

“Spit it out. I’m busy,” Lex snapped, then thought better of it. He didn’t want Regan disgruntled. “I’m very occupied with these symbols. Unless this is important...”

“It is. Among all the documentation on stocks and property, I found your journals and…”

“Burn them,” Lex cut in. Everything he thought he knew was wrong, anyway.

“But what about your father’s journals?”

“My father didn’t have any journals,” Lex said absently, turning his attention back to Mercer and Queen.

“...over dinner,” Queen was saying, an obnoxious, shit-eating grin on his face.

You haven't changed one bit. Oliver always wants what Oliver can't have.

Lex chuckled. “Good girl.”

“You know, sometimes a meal's just a meal.

Lex shook his head. “Don’t fall for it.”

”You pick me up at 7:00.”

“7:30 it is.”

“Damn it, you’re better than this,” Lex hissed.

“Sir? Sir?”

“Yes. Regan. What?” he snapped.

“Your father’s journals? I can’t just leave them here for Mercer to find. She’s been filling out forms for access to documentation and…”

“My father didn’t keep journals. I told you.”

“With all due respect, Sir, I’m looking at them and he did. There are also scribblings, scraps of paper with strange drawings like…”

“Like the caves,” Lex breathed. He’d suspected it at different times, but maybe it was true. It would certainly explain Lionel’s sudden admiration for Clark Kent. Maybe he’d invaded Lionel’s mind as well as Chloe. “Send me every scrap he wrote.”

“And your writings? Should I destroy…”

“No,” Lex cut in, watching through Tess’ eyes as she moved about her office, humming to herself, as if looking forward to her little dinner date with Queen. How old was she, anyway? Barely twenty-five? She should know a little more about the world, should know there was more to it than what she saw. Maybe that would help her keep focus. “Leave them. I want them where Mercer can find them,” he said, knowing Regan would balk, which he did.

“Sir…”

“Do you work for me or not? Maybe you should trust that I know what I’m doing!” It was a lie. He was making it up as he went, but it felt right, the way taking this time to learn felt right. He hadn’t felt anything this clearly right since Room 23 at The Paradise Motel. “Send me Lionel’s writings and anything with one of those damned symbols, but leave the journals for Mercer” he finished, wondering if her little date with Queen wasn’t on the right path after all. Maybe she wouldn’t find out anything was missing if she were sufficiently distracted. He’d decide later, after he saw what his dear father wrote, what she was and wasn’t ready to know.

He needed a distraction himself. His eyes moved to that copy if The Daily Planet. He’d been having Otis pick it up at an airport news stand, knowing Kent worked there now. But he hadn’t seen much from him or even Lane. He did see an engagement announcement, however.

And he refused to think about it.

Smallville – October 16th, 2008, 7:45 pm

She could barely think about it without shuddering, how close she’d come to ruining everything. It wasn’t the threat of death. She’d been at the mercy of crazy people too many times to fear death. It was the idea of dying the wrong way that ultimately killed her. As much as she had entertained the idea of telling Jimmy about Lex, she didn’t want him or anyone to know as her last utterance.

Jimmy had only just begun to accept Clark’s place in her life. Even with it her insane affair with Lex over, even with Lex gone, Jimmy couldn’t handle knowing that. Yet, in those few moments with that obviously unhinged man hooking her up to a polygraph, she thought of spilling it all. Not because of the lie-detector. Any idiot knew those were bunkum and any number of stressors could cause that needle to go wild whether you were telling the gospel truth or not. No. It was because a part of her needed to tell all.

Hadn’t she always been the greatest proponent of the truth? Maybe this latest round of being strapped down in dank room with a psycho was her comeuppance for all the times she kept things from Jimmy, from Clark, from Lois, from all that knew her. Maybe she deserved to die confessing her sins. Last rites, last confession. Wasn’t that what they called it? Her religious education had been disinterested at best, but weren’t you supposed to come clean at the end?

But something in her said not to tell it, that surviving this was the only thing that mattered, with flashes of calm amid the panic and sometimes, she could swear, the face of that nice paramedic whenever she thought of Lex.

Chloe… Have you ever cheated on your fiancé?

No.

She said it with surety. Jimmy wasn’t her fiancé then, after all. Just Jimmy. Just a boyfriend she was struggling to connect with again. And she’d been ready to leave him for Lex. With Lex. So it hadn’t been cheating. It was just love for the wrong man.

Are you in love with anyone else?

Jimmy begged her not to answer, but that was silly. She wasn’t in love with anyone else. How could she love a man now dead? He didn’t even exist. That lie, it didn’t even take work, though it did leave her feeling empty inside.

I’m going to ask you one more time. Are you in love with anyone else?

No. Only you, Jimmy, forever.

She’d kept her breathing even, but had been afraid of a spike. But the polygraph didn’t react, only confirming that polygraphs were a toy. Even so, she meant what she said. If it wasn’t true, she would make it true. He loved her, even with her dangerous life and her secrets. Wasn’t that worth forever?

Congratulations, James Olsen, Chloe Sullivan. I now pronounce you husband and wife.

“Chloe?”

She jerked in the tub, turned to the door. “Yeah, Jimmy. Out in a sec.” She knew she had beaten the test, but a part of her still felt so… dirty about it. Not about saving her life, obviously, but about there being lies at all.

The doorknob rattled. “I can come in and…”

“No. I’m fine,” she called out. “Just a sec.”

She’d told him she didn’t think she’d have survived across from anyone else in that room and she meant it. Jimmy didn’t know polygraphs were easily fooled with a few deep breaths. More than that Jimmy didn’t know how to lie. He didn’t have any secrets. She’d told him that, too. She loved that about him. He was normal, he was simple and uncomplicated and, she was positive, good for her.

Better than Lex, at least. She had to stop fixating on him with his irritating… She frowned, staring into the bathwater. She couldn’t think what was so irritating about him at the moment. Was it his eyes? Dark and sort of knowing or the dimple in his chin that…

No. That was Davis. She shouldn’t be thinking of Davis. She leaned back in the tub, struggling to see Lex. Sometimes she liked to remember the good parts. Sometimes she worried she was forgetting him altogether, especially lately.

But maybe that was for the best. She shouldn’t be thinking of Lex, either.

The man she should be thinking about knocked again, just then. “Chloe, the police are downstairs. Also, Clark left some messages. He sounded worried.”

“I’ll be right out.”

Paradise, Nevada – October 16th, 2008, 8:01 pm PST

Lex wanted to tell them both to get out so he could concentrate. Between Regan’s insufferable good mood and Otis babbling about whatever-the-hell… booze, now.

“… and you just get some cheap stuff and pour it in.

“Seems like a lot of stupid effort for a couple shots of cheap vodka,” Regan was saying, still a smug edge in his voice.

“No, no. You drink the good stuff and replace it with the cheap stuff. You rich types don’t know how to save a buck…”

“Would the both of you be quiet?” Lex snapped, rubbing his eyes when the symbols started swimming in front of them. Lex had always been a good student. As few friends as he’d had in his formative years, he'd had nothing else to do with his time. But he couldn’t decipher this with all the noise. Besides that, Lionel’s scribblings weren’t neatly organized or even clearly drawn as compared to Chloe’s little database. But he’d get it done before he touched the journal. He wouldn’t open it now, anyway, with these clowns still in the room. But he was also… not quite ready.

He’d made his peace with what he’d done in those dark months. Not that he had any illusions he was forgiven in the eyes of God, should he exist. But he knew it wasn’t the action of a sane man. He wanted to stay sane, stay focused, keep absorbing what he could before thinking about his father. He wasn’t quite sure what that would do to his mental clarity.

“Sorry about that,” Regan said, not sounding sorry at all. “Are they still going at it?”

“I could care less,” Lex lied. He’d minimized and muted the feed and it would stay that way until he was sure Queen was gone. He really didn’t need to see or hear that, but Regan seemed awfully interested and amused about the whole thing.

Fucking Regan was supposed to send the journals and writings, not hand-deliver them. And stupid Otis had opened the door before Lex had time to hide Tess’ feed. The only upside to Regan knowing was that it had cured him of his obsessive jealousy. One of the many downsides were the snide, congratulatory remarks.

“Now I understand everything. Amazing idea, Mr. Luthor. I’m sure you’ve learned so much,” he’d said, then proceeded to make so much debauched commentary whenever Tess passed a mirror in her workout, that Lex was ready to shut it off. He did it in a snap once he saw where things were going with Queen.

“At least it’s clear how she operates now,” Regan was saying, lounging on the couch with a tiny bottle of scotch. “I think I finally figured out why your father hired her in the first place. A little young, but I understand Lionel had no minimum age.”

Lex ground his teeth. She might have been hired before his time in charge, but he’d have made the same call. “Mercer’s level of education had her over-qualified to work in a lab,” he said as calmly as he could manage, “so I really doubt that’s the case.” What did Regan have anyway, some two-year community college degree?

“Hey, I guess only that journal will say for sure,” Otis said around a mouthful of chips. “Have you…”

“No,” Lex broke in. “I’m waiting for some time to absorb it in peace,” he finished pointedly, turning in his chair.

“Okay, okay.” Otis stood. “I can take a hint. I’ll get over to the gas station, get some more liquor for the company.” He nodded to Regan. “You know they sell it right at the gas stations here. Isn’t that the best?”

“The very best,” Regan said with a phony smile. He waited until Otis was out the door before he laughed. “So I understand why Tess is around, but why him?”

“I need someone for simple errands. Might as well be Otis. He’s simple enough to follow instructions without improvisation.”

“I know you weren’t expecting me.” Regan sighed. “But I couldn’t just send the writings. This is too sensitive for Fed-Ex.”

“How much of it did you read?”

“Just enough to confirm it was Lionel’s,” Regan said soberly. “I understand now how you feel about your family’s privacy. But I still wish you’d let me in further. I think I could help analyze some of…”

“You know as much as you need to.”

“Well, there’s one thing you don’t know. I have reason to believe Tess has the orb.”

Lex frowned. “I haven’t seen it.”

“But you said it was months before you got the feed on Tess. I think her team may have recovered it along with the crystal.”

“Then why didn’t she have Groll…”

“I don’t think she trusts Groll. Sir, I’m not even sure you should trust Groll.”

“You know, your annoying habit of distrusting everyone I choose to work with is getting a little tiresome. Groll’s fine.” Even if he wasn’t, Lex wasn’t likely to find someone else to do what Groll could. On that note, Lex moved to the fridge. Groll had him on some concoction to lower his white blood cell count, realizing the constant healing was interfering with the skin grafts. An initial test didn’t work out, his skin rejecting any invasion as if it were an infection -- as if he needed to be reminded he was a freak.

He should have known this might be an issue. He’d once looked into hair implants and nothing would take. Why would this be any different? But he needed the suit. He needed something to even the field when he faced Clark again. He needed to be armed with power as well as knowledge. If it would just fucking work!

Based on Groll’s last little home-visit, the snake oil he'd been choking down wasn’t having a lasting effect. He was upped to three vials a day in the hopes he’d be ready for the suit when it was completed. He hoped this worked, otherwise, Otis would be poking him with a needle soon enough. Failing that, infusions might be necessary. Failing even that, he’d have to resort to the ridiculous first prototype, which amounted to encasing himself inside a bulky robotic skin. He hoped it didn’t come to any of that.

Lex downed half the noxious stuff and turned to Regan. He had to get rid of him again. It was hard enough to concentrate with Otis talking his ear off. He didn’t need to put up with Regan nosing into everything he was doing on top of it. Besides that, he still needed things Otis couldn’t be sent to do with his air of blue-collar breeding. The suit wasn’t the only protection available to him and a portly man in a sloppy suit may be good enough at blending in, but people didn’t exactly jump to do Otis Bergman’s bidding.

“I don’t need you to think about Groll. I need you to go back to Smallville.”

Regan tilted his head. “Not Metropolis?”

“I need you to go anywhere you can get at least a seven or eight millimeter chunk of green meteor rock. Then I need you to have something made for me…”

Smallville, October 17th, 2008, 10:02 am

Chloe smiled, watching Lois hug a very confused Jimmy, thinking of what she’d said earlier. Not the drunken rant of a toast the other night. She’d apologized for that and Chloe was ready to consider it forgotten. But just now…

Just knowing that I had everything that I wanted right in front of me... and having it slip away. I just didn't want to see you have that kind of heartache.

Lois was a bit too late to stop that. She’d been there with Lex, at the point of boarding a plane to some deserted island for him until he showed his true colors. Then again, she’d always known his true colors. She’d just been stupidly infatuated last spring, thinking what she'd convinced herself was love could change him.

More than that, she’d had her heart broken to one degree or another, by every man she’d ever looked at with the exception of Jimmy. When she said she knew in her heart that Jimmy was the one, she meant it. Jimmy would never break her heart. So many people said some variation of “marry a man that loves you more than you love him,” that it would even out in the end. She was sure and safe in how he felt about her and she… she was getting there with him. Maybe it would take a few years, but she knew she could get there.

“Congratulations, Jimmy,” Lois said before leaving.

Jimmy smiled, still looking confused. “What was that all about?”

“You and me, oddly enough,” Chloe said on a laugh. “Speaking of which, I have something you need to see.” She pulled him into Isis’ control room, picking up a remote, letting the pictures on the screens flash around them. “After the Spanish Inquisition, I was thinking we deserve an extra-long honeymoon. So, maybe Bora Bora, Saint-Tropez…”

“Chloe,” Jimmy cut in, “before you start booking anything, there's something you need to know. As insane as that guy was, he made a great point. If we're gonna make it, we can't have any secrets from each other,” he finished soberly.

Did he know somehow? He couldn’t know. No one knew but her and Lex and no one else would even suspect. There was no way. Calm down. Chloe held her smile with some effort. “Yeah, but if the last twelve hours have proven anything, it's that we don't have much left to hide.”

“Yeah. There is.”

Her eyes widened. He knew something, maybe not what, but something. Was he going to wait for her to say it? Maybe it was time to finally…

“I'm not who you think I am,” he finally said.

So he didn’t know. She wasn’t exactly relieved. “The sudden knot in my stomach tells me this isn't you embracing your inner Nietzsche.” She attempted to smile, but couldn’t get the damned grimace off her face.

Jimmy ambled around the console, looking anywhere but at her. “My parents aren't coming to the wedding. They, uh… well, they actually don't exist. Well, I mean, they do. Of course they do. They exist. It's just that... my dad's not an investment banker in Manhattan.” He finally turned to her. “He's a part-time mechanic and full-time alcoholic in Oklahoma City. I never even really met my mom.”

“Why would you keep something like this from me?” she asked, even over the irony. As far as Jimmy knew, her father was working overseas and was impossible to contact and she hadn’t seen her mother since she was eight. But it was different for her to have secrets. They were tied up with a dangerous life that Jimmy needed to be kept safe from. He wasn’t supposed to have secrets. He was supposed to be a sweet, safe, blessedly normal open book.

“This city -- it's huge. It's the top of the world coming from where I come from. And the only way I could fit in was to... be someone else.”

Chloe shook her head. “Why didn't you trust me?”

“I know. I'm sorry. I'm... so sorry. I screwed up big-time. And I totally understand if you need some time or even if -- if you want out.”

She wasn’t sure if she would go that far. Did this change anything? Wasn’t he still safe and normal? Drunk father, absent mother. These were very normal problems, nothing to the darkness she’d seen.

“A guy like me... doesn't get a girl like you, Chloe. Life, it doesn't work like that.”

Poor Jimmy. How could she hold this against him? This really was nothing compared to her lies. “Yeah, it does,” she finally said, leaning in to meet his lips, then hold him, frowning over his shoulder.

Maybe she owed him some truth in exchange. She could never share Clark’s secret, but maybe just one of her own. Maybe she could tell him the truth about her father, her mother.

No. It was too tied up in Clark and in her dangerous life. But Lex… she could find a way to tell him that left Clark out of it. Just a little...

No. She wouldn’t. What good would it do? Clearing her conscience weighed nothing against how much it would hurt Jimmy. Telling him about Lex was tantamount to a break up. It would be over because he couldn’t handle it. There was no way anyone who knew her could. Even those that loved her most would look at her differently from then on.

“So is now a good or bad time,” Jimmy began still hugging her tight, “to tell you my name’s technically, legally Henry?”

She pulled away. “Henry?”

“You’ll see it on the license.” He sighed. “It was my father’s name.”

They talked until dusk, then. About how his father had treated him, treated his mother, according to the stories, how she left when he was too young to remember, just after giving birth to his brother. She could understand why he’d lied, built a different life for himself, refused to call himself by his father’s name. He’d only stayed till he was eighteen, then he helped his grandparents get custody of little James and he never looked back.

Maybe that meant they were right for each other. She knew something about growing up a motherless latchkey kid, though never abused. If anything, her father’s biggest crime was indifference these days.

She didn’t tell him that, but she held him and told him they were like orphans who found each other. She told him that, but she didn’t tell him anything else, even after they promised, again, they wouldn’t keep secrets.

He gave her everything he'd been holding back and she wasn’t returning the favor. But he loved her. He loved her so much that marrying him would be enough. She could give him everything but the truth and it would even out in the end.

It had to.

TBC

Back in less than a month. I swear!

Also adding this lovely alternate banner Chleansmile made for me:

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/apeyg...126880_600.jpg

Haha! Less than a month? I'll be counting! You know I remember reading your last chapter just when the last season of TrueBlood started and telling you how happy I was about the two things. Now I actually own that last season on DVD!!! and you just updated. Yeah, long wait...
but I hope this time we will have to wait less:)):

I still have troubles with understanding season 8. I mean undestanding Jimmy's story. He tells Chloe about his absent mother and drunk father in the show and he doesn't mention his brother and then there's the funeral in the finale and there's suddenly his whole family! It was weird... Stupid, stupid writers. they screw up big times just like they did back in season 6. Lana says she's pregnant, Lex is shocked and happy and then it turns out he faked that pregnancy... Unloess he's delusional, big mistake!

Really interesting
I'm loving 'hearing' all Lex thoughts and his jealousy lol
Can't wait for more
Tks for sharing

Oh, and I think you forgot to update your blog, because I haven't gotten any notification yet.

Have some replies for you guys, but first:

Does anyone know which moderators are active these days? I PMed two last Tuesday about getting this fic out of the graveyard and was just thinking maybe those were both Mods that were no longer active. Also, I really want to ask someone about the posting and editing issues. Whenever I hit edit on a post, my post is deleted in the editor as if it never happened. I've found ways around it, posting the draft from another forum every time, but it's a real headache as the forum rules state you have to edit the first post every time you post a chapter to reflect the update. I'm wondering if that's a rule that can be changed in light of posts disappearing every time you go in to edit them.

Has anyone else had that issue? Let me know.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TrinityR

Haha! Less than a month? I'll be counting! You know I remember reading your last chapter just when the last season of TrueBlood started and telling you how happy I was about the two things. Now I actually own that last season on DVD!!! and you just updated. Yeah, long wait...

---

The shame, she is deep! I really do try to make more writing time, but my job has been busy from about May till... now. But I swear to you that, come January, I will be out of gigs and with nothing to do but sit home and write. I am going to use that time well!

Quote:

---

I still have troubles with understanding season 8. I mean understanding Jimmy's story. He tells Chloe about his absent mother and drunk father in the show and he doesn't mention his brother and then there's the funeral in the finale and there's suddenly his whole family!

---

The personal fanwank I used in this fic, I've used for about two others before it and it only took a few lines each time. How hard would it have been for Smallville to add something to foreshadow so we weren't so blindsided by the Jimmy/Henry thing? It would have been simple and didn't even have to give the twist away if, indeed, this was something they planned. IMO, the show was either lazy or pulled it out of their asses. I always land on a mix of the two.

Quote:

---

Lana says she's pregnant, Lex is shocked and happy and then it turns out he faked that pregnancy... Unloess he's delusional, big mistake!

---

preaching to the choir. I still get so annoyed at the Lexana discrepancies in season 6. I usually fanwank them into Lex having implanted her with her own clone (as a baby carrier to prevent the Lexmas death) as at least that is more purposeful than Lex making her fake-pregnant to force a marriage.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by malugargula

Really interesting
I'm loving 'hearing' all Lex thoughts and his jealousy lol
Can't wait for more
Tks for sharing

---

Glad you enjoyed. He's definitely having trouble absorbing that Chimmy is getting to the point of freakin marriage. Me and you both, Lex!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TrinityR

Oh, and I think you forgot to update your blog, because I haven't gotten any notification yet.

---

I haven't forgotten. I just haven't had time. I'll get to it today or tomorrow, for sure. :)

I really will get back here before Jan 16. No matter what!

Have you tried Julie, the moderator? Or Lexie? Although I'm not sure if she's one.
As far is the empty edited posts are concerned... boy, I had troubles with that, too and there's nothing you can actually do. I know it can be troubling.

Haha, don;t worry. I know how life can get in the way of writing and I was just teasing:D:D

So, so excited you're back writing this fic! I read this whole thing a couple months back and loved it. I'm so happy you are committed to finishing it. You've written a heck of a story and although it's sometimes difficult to read (I either want to throttle Chloe or Lex), it is totally engrossing. Please update soon!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TrinityR

Have you tried Julie, the moderator? Or Lexie? Although I'm not sure if she's one.

---

Lexie must have emailed Julie for me because I'm out of the graveyard now! I LIIIIIVVVE!!!

Quote:

---

As far is the empty edited posts are concerned... boy, I had troubles with that, too and there's nothing you can actually do. I know it can be troubling.

---

I've tried various things to work with that. Thanks goodness Ksite uses the same code or I'd have lost it all by now.

Quote:

---

Haha, don;t worry. I know how life can get in the way of writing and I was just teasing:D:D

---

I am trying to make more time for this and other writing efforts in my day, though. I'm hoping the new year will be much more productive for me!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ree

So, so excited you're back writing this fic! I read this whole thing a couple months back and loved it. I'm so happy you are committed to finishing it. You've written a heck of a story and although it's sometimes difficult to read (I either want to throttle Chloe or Lex), it is totally engrossing. Please update soon!

---

Thanks so much! It's tough, working with canon (especially seasons 6-8 when both Chloe and Lex were pod people whose actions were waffly, depending on what the plot demanded that week. Super annoying!), but I kind of like the challenge.

I vow I will never (except in the event of untimely death) leave my fic unfinished.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheAmazingApe

Lexie must have emailed Julie for me because I'm out of the graveyard now! I LIIIIIVVVE!!!

---

Yes, I emailed her on Sunday afternoon. I'm glad she was able to fix it so fast.

As regards the posts that vanish out of the blue, I'm afraid it's due to some residual bug from the time the boards were hacked. I suppose finishing the clean-up is extremely time-consuming and Julie's already got a lot on her plate in RL.

The forums keep acting in a weird way whenever one posts or replies; I continuously get notices warning me I have to wait thirty seconds to post again even when it's the first try.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lexie

Yes, I emailed her on Sunday afternoon. I'm glad she was able to fix it so fast.

As regards the posts that vanish out of the blue, I'm afraid it's due to some residual bug from the time the boards were hacked. I suppose finishing the clean-up is extremely time-consuming and Julie's already got a lot on her plate in RL.

---

Thanks so much! And I totally get it, real life taking over. It's tough to find time for fandom and fic sometimes.

I've found ways to work around the board issues, thank goodness. I hope they're fixed at some point, but I'll live if they aren't. :)

Quote:

---

The forums keep acting in a weird way whenever one posts or replies; I continuously get notices warning me I have to wait thirty seconds to post again even when it's the first try.

---

I get the same thing! I just open the thread in a new tab and be sure it was posted, then go along my merry way. It sucks that the forum was compromised, though.

This is really intriguing! I've wanted for a long time to read a story that touches upon the Lex-Tess dynamic without sanctifying or demonizing either one of the them, and while they haven't interacted yet in this fic, I'm finding Lex's thoughts about Tess to be a fascinating read (even though him violating her like that is just... in any other fictional universe I'd say he was irredeemable, but given that this is Smallville where Lionel was given a free pass for equally grievous transgressions, I'm not going to write Lex off yet. But unless this is going to be a darker kind of story, he needs one hell of a redemption arc after a crime of this magniutude.)

I find it interesting that in this story Lex does not know that Tess is his sister. I like it better than the show writers' decision to have him having known who she was all along. I wonder if you're planning to delve into Tess' background a bit and maybe make something coherent out of the mess that her backstory on the show turned out to be. How will Lex find out who she truly is? What will his reaction be when he learns who her mother is? (Considering that Pamela Jenkins called herself Lillian's close friend and all, I think Lex's feelings with regards to her having been yet another one of Lionel's mistresses are going to be quite... complex.) I don't know if you're planning on going this deep into the whole Lex-Tess thing, but in any case, I find this side of the story fascinating and am looking forward to seeing to how it all is going to unfold, no matter how you choose to go about it.

Otis is cute and funny. I only know him from those several issues of Smallville's comics that I read a couple of years ago, so... well, he's pretty much an original character to me. But I like his dynamic with Lex. I barely remember who Regan is, but "fucking Regan" makes me giggle every time.:)

The Chloe side of the story, as I understand, follows season 8 pretty closely. I watched it years ago, so I don't remember most of it, but I do remember the Chloe/Jimmy romance to be rather tepid, just like the rest of Smallville romantic subplots. I understand why Chloe, after everything she's gone through, wants to cling to the illusion of normalcy, but it's still frustrating. Both Chloe and Jimmy deserve better than this. Nice explanation of "Henry James", by the way! It is plausible and makes Jimmy a bit more 3-dimensional.

Quote:

---

“Fuck you,” Lex growled.

Otis sniffed. “Well, I was only…”

“Not you!”

---

This made me chuckle out loud. Otis is simply precious!

Looking forward to the next chapter! Thank you for sharing your talent with us! (and maybe by the time the next chapter is out I'll remember how to review properly.:()

you seem to follow season 8 close with the romance of chloe & jimmy.i like the explaination of henry james because it is plausible.

Just checking in for an update. This story is epic and needs to be finished (preferably with a hea but it doesn't need to be sappy). Please!!

Thanks to all waiting patiently for an update to this. I kind of made an across-the board decision to give fic a rest while I was going through some family and work issues -- some good some bad, but all settling down a bit now. I just have to update two other fics where the readers have been waiting longer and then I hope to have an update to this before Sunday. Thanks again for the patience.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheAmazingApe

Thanks to all waiting patiently for an update to this. I kind of made an across-the board decision to give fic a rest while I was going through some family and work issues -- some good some bad, but all settling down a bit now. I just have to update two other fics where the readers have been waiting longer and then I hope to have an update to this before Sunday. Thanks again for the patience.

---

Sorry to hear about the tough times. Glad to hear things are settling down. Selfishly happy to hear that you do plan on continuing! Take care!

sorry to hear that the difficult times you had.but glad to hear things are getting better.can't wait to see what happens next

Also sorry to hear about bad times, hope things continue to improve, can't wait for more chlex.

Friendly bump.
Oh, how much I would like to see this story to its end:( You will finish, won't you?

Just letting you all know that I am writing on this and you should have an update in a week or less.

Wee hee!!!!

Huzzah! :D

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzz8kuJ51a1r04hv1.gif

Every time I get on here, I check to see if this story has been updated. Please!!!! ������

Sad to see this is unfinished. Maybe some pleading will get it going. But life does take 1st place to fanfic.

Just letting you know I have not forgotten this or my other fics. I'm working on each unfinished fic in order of how close it is to done. I'm archiving/rereading each, then completing them in order. Here's the order, so you know where this stands. Back when I was trying to give each a turn, I think I was just overloading my brain. I'm hoping this will work better for me so I can get them all done and NEVER do more than a fic at a time ever again.

1. Restless Nights (Chlark) - by the end of this week
2. Subtraction Time (Chlollie) - by the end of September
3. A Day Late (Chlark) - by the end of October
4. Out of the Depths (THIS ONE) - complete sometime in mid-December.
5. A short fic TBD as a very late gift to kitmerlot - by the end of December

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheAmazingApe

Just letting you know I have not forgotten this or my other fics. I'm working on each unfinished fic in order of how close it is to done. I'm archiving/rereading each, then completing them in order. Here's the order, so you know where this stands. Back when I was trying to give each a turn, I think I was just overloading my brain. I'm hoping this will work better for me so I can get them all done and NEVER do more than a fic at a time ever again.

1. Restless Nights (Chlark) - by the end of this week
2. Subtraction Time (Chlollie) - by the end of September
3. A Day Late (Chlark) - by the end of October
4. Out of the Depths (THIS ONE) - complete sometime in mid-December.
5. A short fic TBD as a very late gift to kitmerlot - by the end of December

---

Good to hear your updating this. I look forward to reading more of this.

April, honey, will you finish this story? I have read everything you wrote and I made my peace with Chlark remaining unfinished. I think I'm over that, but I would love to see the end to this. Is this even possible?:(

good luck

This epic story needs an ending! please

I've enjoyed this story. I hope to read a continuation or ending to it at some point.