Accident Prone (R) - Sequel to Accidents Happen
Title: Accident Prone
Author: scifichick774
Rating: strong R
Category: Romance/Humor/Smut/Supernatural (sort of)/really minimal Angst
Spoilers: Anything through the end of season 2 is fair game; and you’ll need to read the first fic ‘Accidents Happen’ if you haven’t already, otherwise you won’t know what’s going on.
Summary: Sequel to ‘Accidents Happen’. An overzealous wedding planner, Chloe is taken, and Gabe finds out that Lex has stopped the research into a cure for his and Chloe’s condition. Don’t worry; it’s better than it sounds.
Disclaimer: Not mine, no infringement intended, please don’t sue.
Feedback: YES!! REVIEW!! I’m serious. I really need a feedback fix.
Archival: Sure – just let me know where.
Author’s Note: After much begging, I’m finally getting around to writing this. I don’t know if it will end up being anywhere near as long as AH was, but here it is. This takes place a year or so after AH left off.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex leaned back in his chair as he listened to Jacob Lansing, son to Thomas Lansing, president of The Lansing Foundation; drone on about how pleased he was with his personal shares in LexCorp rising so high since Chloe’s article on Lionel came out.
‘Well of course profits are up,’ Lex thought. ‘That’s what happens when you take over another company.’
‘Not always,’ Chloe interrupted.
‘Allow me to rephrase,’ Lex thought, a grin now lining his lips. ‘Whenever *I* take over another company.’
Chloe snickered.
‘You’re a very good businessman, dear,’ she thought in a snide tone, causing Lex to almost lose it and start laughing.
‘Oh – he’s talking about you.’
‘Great,’ she thought sarcastically. ‘Just what I need. Another idiot thinking he can buy me off to come and work for his company.’
“Any chance I could steal her away from you, Luthor?”
Lex’s attention snapped to Jacob and he shot him a feral, warning glare. In any other situation, Lex may have considered it just a joke, which was probably how it was intended, but Jacob had a bit of a reputation and every rumor Lex had heard included the young man across from him being involved with a blonde.
“No.”
‘Uh-oh,’ Chloe thought, knowing the tone that Lex used only too well. Of course, the growl that had accompanied it would have tipped her off even if she hadn’t been paying attention. ‘What’d he say?’
‘He wants to steal you away from me.’
‘Ah. You know, he probably didn’t mean it the way it sounded.’
‘It doesn’t matter how he meant it.’
‘So, are you going to push the button to release the trap door and send him falling to his death?’
‘I don’t have one of those,’ Lex thought and then inwardly smiled. ‘Always wanted one though.’
Chloe started laughing, ignoring the strange looks from the other people in her college newsroom.
‘I’ll remember that when your birthday rolls around,’ she thought.
Only hearing Lex’s animalistic ‘no’, Jacob immediately raised his hands in front of him, adopting a defensive stance.
“Not like that,” he insisted. “You know, just to work for me.”
Lex blinked at him, too wrapped up in his conversation to remember that Jacob was even still in the room.
“No,” he repeated.
“Come on,” Jacob said with a smile, relaxing his demeanor now that Lex’s angry tone was gone and not knowing well enough to leave the subject alone. “She’s gonna get sick of seeing you at home *and* working with you. Let her come work for me and ---”
“No,” Lex said sternly and pushed himself out of his chair, making it a point to look at the clock on the wall. “And I believe our meeting is over.” Jacob rolled his eyes.
“Are you at least gonna let me kiss her at the wedding?”
Lex gave him a tight grin and slapped his hand onto the back of his shoulder to aid in getting the young man out of his office.
“If you think about it *really* hard, I have confidence that you can come up with the answer to that,” Lex ribbed. “Especially when you consider that you’re not invited to the wedding.” Jacob gave him a tight, forced grin and barely resisted rolling his eyes again.
“You know, you should seriously think about giving up that possessive streak of yours,” Jacob said. “Chlo doesn’t strike me as a woman who’s going to put up with that for long.”
‘If I tell you what he just said, will you help me kill him?’ Lex thought.
‘No – you have minions to do that for you,’ Chloe retorted.
‘Ahh, yes, but I think you’ll want to give this one the personal touch.’
‘Why? Did he comment on how much he wanted to ---’
‘Hey, hey, hey,’ Lex cut in, ‘watch it. I don’t need that imagery in my head - *ever*.’
‘Ooh, testy,’ Chloe thought. ‘You’re kind of in a mood today. What’s going on?’
‘You’re changing the subject.’
‘What was the subject?’
‘What Jacob Lansing just said,’ Lex reminded her. Chloe made a sound of disgust that Lex grinned at.
‘Asshole,’ she thought.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Him, not you,’ she corrected.
‘Thanks for the clarification.’
‘No problem. So, what did he say?’
‘Something about me needing to get over my possessive streak.’
Chloe rolled her eyes. Despite the fact that her last treatment had been successful, Lex’s specialists had still been unsuccessful in coming up with another cure for them and Lex still suffered through periods of extreme jealousy and testosterone-charged behavior - but, it wasn’t as if they could just tell people that.
‘Okay, not nice, but it doesn’t really make me want to aid you in killing the guy,’ she thought.
‘Oh, it gets better,’ Lex thought.
‘I’m not going to want to hear this, am I?’
‘He referred to you as ‘Chlo’.’
Lex watched Jacob walk to the elevators before turning around and going back into his office, closing the door behind him.
‘Ugh. I don’t even like that when Clark and Pete do it. What makes him think *he* can get away with it?’
‘When do you get out of class?’
‘In a few minutes,’ she answered. ‘But I’m supposed to be meeting up with Clark, remember?’
‘Ye-ah,’ he strung out. ‘Why is that again?’
‘Something about Lana. He was kind of vague.’
‘Of course he was.’
‘Hey, you can’t blame the guy for not wanting me to shoot the messenger.’
‘Especially when *he’s* the messenger,’ Lex added.
‘Exactly.’
‘So, what do you think it is this time?’
Chloe groaned, but it was covered up by the sound of the bell ringing.
‘I have no idea. Honestly, I thought we covered everything. I don’t know why ---’
“Chloe Sullivan?”
Chloe plastered a fake smile on her face for the woman she had just run into. She had never met her until now, but she recognized Penelope Faust, one of the newest reporters for The Daily Planet’s society section, right away.
‘Oh, God. Help me, help me, help me.’
“What’s wrong?” Lex asked aloud, his senses going on alert at Chloe’s desperate tone.
“Yes, that’s me,” Chloe said, her cheeks hurting from the fake smile.
“Fantastic,” Penelope chirped, covertly checking around to make sure there was nobody passing by.
Chloe was expecting a barrage of questions, not unlike all of the other ones she had been receiving from various reporters who cornered her, but she couldn’t have prepared herself for what came next.
Penelope lifted a small can of what looked like hairspray, but wasn’t, and sprayed it directly at Chloe’s nose and mouth. Chloe’s eyes lolled back in her head and she collapsed into the arms of the man she hadn’t even noticed standing behind her.
“Good,” Penelope said. “Let’s get her out of here before anyone shows up. The man nodded and lifted Chloe completely into his arms.
‘Chloe?’
Silence.
‘Chloe?!’ Lex panicked when he couldn’t hear her voice in his head.
Either she had just had a relapse after an entire year of being well, or her plea for help had been well warranted.
Lex had a bad feeling it was the latter.
TBC...
