Come What May (Alt scene for 7x13 Hero) [PG-13]

A/N: Please excuse the total random one-shot-ness of this thing, whatever it is. I should explain, I am currently watching Season 7 of Smallville on DVD, and suffering through the whole thing, but what can I say? Its like a traffic accident - don’t want to look at the carnage but just can’t help it. Anywho, you gotta live for the Chlex scenes, right? And the scene in Hero just inspired me. See in my head, things played out a little differently. Check it out... ;)
[Disclaimer: Other people that aren’t me own Smallville and all its characters]

Come What May

She hated that he could do this, that he could dig into her private documents, the files that held everything about her. He could be privy to the thoughts she wrote down, the secrets she kept from the world, whilst she struggled in vain to keep her understanding of a man she felt slipping away from her a little more each day.

Above all this, there was one thing Chloe Sullivan hated about Lex Luthor, and it was that despite all he did, he still held her heart, and he didn’t even seem to know it, much less care.

“You hacked into my computer and copied my files, Lex. I have rights” she told him, with the iciest stare she could muster and a bladed edge to her tone - it didn’t phase him, it never did.

“No. You don't have rights, you have responsibilities” he told her as he rose from his desk and strode towards her, “Owning the Daily Planet means everything within these walls and if you have a problem with the way I run this paper, Miss Sullivan, you’re free to find out if The Inquisitor offers a more considerate environment” he told her, so close she could feel his breath on her face and feel his eyes burning into her skin.

Too much pent up anger and frustration inside her, it was more than any young woman could bear. Chloe had held it together too long, hidden too much and fought with herself too often. Striking out at the man she had such a passion for was all she had left to do, a vain attempt to knock some sense into him, or perhaps some of the inhumanity out. Bringing back her hand, she struck him hard across the face, obviously shocking him.

The moment the action was done she regretted it. Her eyes met his and the steel in his gaze reminded her too much of times past, times when he was threatening and violent. She had certainly given him reason to be angry, she knew, and turned quickly towards the door.

Of course, there was no way for Lex to let her just walk away after such a moment. His hand shot out to grab her wrist, spinning her trembling form back towards him. Chloe collided with his chest, hardly able to breathe as she stared up at him, his own eyes searching her face for something, any reaction. She wasn’t so very afraid of him, if she were she’d have acted as her cousin would and lashed out again, or bolted faster like the old incarnation of Lana might have done.

Chloe had always been different, Lex knew that better than anyone. She had always been unique, special, and he hadn’t known quite how true that was until recently. Staying away from her, trying to make her an enemy, it had been almost impossible. Lana never compared to her, and no amount of other projects in his life ever sated his want and desire to know this woman, to be close to her. Each and every time they talked, sparring with words, their verbal judo that had become more lethal over the years, he wondered how he kept his distance, kept control.

In this moment, he could stand it no longer, and Lex surrendered to feelings he’d put too much energy in trying to conceal. The intensity of their fight was transferred immediately into an explosive kiss as he crushed his lips against her. Chloe’s initial reaction of shock lasted but a moment, before she began to return his kiss. Whilst he held on tight still to her arm, the other snaked up around his neck, holding him as close to her as she was to him, as they both revelled in a fiery moment of passion they’d waited too long for.

They suddenly parted when Chloe felt her brain kick in. She came to her senses somehow and pulled herself from his grasp in one swift movement that left Lex surprised at her escape from his grasp. Two steps back, Chloe breathed heavily as she put the back of her hand to her swollen lips. It was as if she meant to wipe every trace of the moment away, and yet she did not.

“Why?” she gasped out, unable to completely control her breathing yet or the way her heart was pounding loud enough in her chest to deafen anybody in a ten mile radius as far as she could tell, “After all we’ve been through, Lex, why would you do this now?” she asked him with a shake of her head that conveyed her true lack of understanding.

As a smart young woman she knew her question applied just as much o herself as to Lex, but she knew her own stupidity where her heart was concerned. She thought he was stronger than her, of more character in some ways, despite his fall from grace over the past months, even years. This was why she had to know his answer, any truth he could give her, and she would know if he was lying, Chloe always knew.

“Why after all we’ve been through...” he began to echo her question, “...would you choose to save my life, risking your own in the process?” he countered, surprising her only with the knowledge that he knew of such a secret.

Eyes wide and chest heaving still, Chloe could not take in the words she was hearing. Lex knew what she’d done. He knew she was the one to bring him back from the dead as Clark wandered inside his mind. It shouldn’t matter, after all, she could just as easily tell him the lie she told herself, both at the time of the event and each time since when she thought of it. She could say she did it to save Clark from being lost forever inside the labyrinth of his old friends psyche, but it would be untrue, and he would know it just as she did each time false words passed his lips.

“You know what I am” she said, a statement and not a question because she already knew it had to be true.

Perhaps the most shocking thing to Chloe was that Lex had done nothing with his knowledge of her so-called gift. She wasn’t in a lab or being shipped out to Belle Reve. Lex Luthor knew she was a meteor freak and yet here she stood, a free woman at least for now it would seem, and that made little sense to her.

“After all these years, Chloe” he smiled, a strange sight without the evil undertones she was used to, “I know exactly what you are” he told her, “And every day I have to fight against that woman...” he said, glancing away from her as he spoke as if she were two different people in his mind, “I have to fight because if I stopped even for a second, you would be the ruin of me”

His gaze returned to hers then, smile gone and intensity back full force as Chloe stared back at him and swallowed hard. Here was the man she had loved on some level since she was fifteen years old, telling her that above all other woman she might yet be the one to bring him down. What he felt for her had to be beyond anything she stood a chance of comprehending, though words of emotion had never left his lips and probably never would.

Chloe couldn’t blame him for things he’d said and done before, no matter how sorely she was tempted. Any other woman who had been through all she had, at his hands and the hands of others, would have crumbled, but not Miss Sullivan. Through it all, Chloe would hate herself before she could bring herself to hate this man, and so many times she had wanted to tell him, if only so she wouldn’t have to pretend anymore, live inside a lie where she must revile him, fight against him, watch him marry her best friend. Now here he stood before her, and had told her however cryptically that she was all he wanted and all he dare not have. He would be the end of her, her complete downfall if she let it happen.

“To hell with it” she muttered as she closed the gap between them in two strides, her hands shooting out to grab his head and pulled him to her, taking control of a situation that had controlled her too long as she kissed him like her life depended on it.

Lex knew he should know better than to let one more woman take over his life, but this was different. This was Chloe Sullivan, the one he’d been trying to replace this whole time, with everyone from Victoria to Kara, through Helen and Lana, and so many others along the way. It was always about Chloe, above and beyond all others, and he told her so without words as he held on tight to her now like a drowning man grasps at a rock as he kissed her til neither of them could breathe.

“Chloe” he gasped in air as they parted lips but nothing else right now.

“I don’t wanna hear it” she said with a light shake of her head as her eyes searched his, “Do you?”

Lex’s answer was happily non-verbal as he spun the two of them around, kissing her long and hard as he pushed her back into his desk. By design, she realised, one hand slid from her body to press a button that brought blinds down across all the windows through which colleagues might snoop, but in this moment, Chloe couldn’t have cared less if the whole world was watching. All she and Lex were really aware of were each other and the explosive feelings that had existed so long between them, fighting to be released as they would be now, consequences be damned, she told herself, as the world felt as if it shook around her.

An alliance was made and a destiny chosen, come what may.

- The End -


Edited To Add : If you like this fic, you may also enjoy my new Chlex vid at You Tube, which was inspired by the same scene as the above story - I Hate Myself For Loving You

Wow, powerfully written the line below: Yikes ! This was fantastic if onlt the show would do something so daring. Dagney

"I have to fight because if I stopped even for a second, you would be the ruin of me”

Fantastic one-shot, Ultra! This was just the thing I imagined when I saw Chloe barge into Lex´s office. The sparks were there... so tangible... the tension so palpable. If only the cowards- not Chloe and Lex;I´m talking about the damn writers and producers- had taken the bull by the horns and shown us what could happen with the fine line that separates hate from love.

Thanks for writing what it should have been.:blinkkiss

Wonderful One-Shot! The Chlex passion is jumping off the page!

:clapclap:

Awesome one shot!!! Why, oh why couldn't this happen on the show???

Nice short. All that sparring has to lead some where. :hankpank:

Wow! That was great! so much tension! it's been such a long time since I've read a Chlex fic! Honestly it think it's been months! But I'm back! Only problem is, last year, the channel that was supposed to play Smallville season 7 decided to put something else (I wanted to murder those SOBs) so I'm just starting to watch that season now on YTV. So I haven't seen that episode but it looks really interesting and I know when I do see it I'll just have to come back and read this wonderful fic again. Great job!

that was great i wish that would of really happened.

How in the hell did I miss this? :eek: That was friggin HOT!!! :drool2:

Great Story!!!