Anyone's Game (NC-17 Chloe/Lucas; Chloe/Lex UST/Angst) - 25 Nov 2004

Er - okay - really hesitant to be posting this here, but I was talked into it. If the mod or owners can't stand it because of the Chlex only being angst/ust, then feel free to delete it.

~*~*~*~

Title: Anyone’s Game
Author: scifichick774
Rating: NC-17
Category: Drama/Angst – really twisted any way you look at it
Spoilers: Everything through the spoilers for season 3 at Kryptonsite is fair game.
Summary: Chloe finds out that the hard way that Lionel isn’t the only Luthor not to be trusted. Chloe/Lex established relationship at the beginning and UST/Angst throughout, but it’s really a Chloe/Lucas fic.
Disclaimer: Obviously not mine. I’m just playing with the imaginary characters’ lives for fun and not for profit.
Feedback: Yes please.
Archival: Sure – just let me know where.
Author’s Note: Just know that I’m writing this *knowing* that it’s going to tear my heart into itty bitty pieces. Take that as a warning since very few fics do that to me, and none of them are my own.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chloe closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath. She hated lying to her father about where she was going that night, but she didn’t have a choice. She was sure that the truth of ‘I’m working for Lionel Luthor and he wants to talk about the information I’ve dug up on my best friend’ wouldn’t go over well.

The elevator slowly climbed to the top floor of the building, where the expensive Metropolis restaurant that Lionel chose to dine at for the evening sat. She could practically feel his eyes on her, measuring her inconspicuously through the corner of his gaze so that the elevator operator couldn’t sell the story to the tabloids the next day.

It was uncomfortable, but Chloe took comfort in the fact that she wouldn’t have to put up with it much longer. Lex had promised that she wouldn’t, and despite the fact that most people thought that he was as morally corrupt as his father, she had never known him to break a promise – especially not to her.

She had gathered enough courage to admit her mistake in joining forces with Lionel to Lex and put aside enough of her pride to ask for his help in getting out of it. He had agreed, but told her that it wouldn’t be something that could be accomplished overnight.

Over the next few weeks, he had started to subtly flirt with her, and as the weeks turned into months, he had eventually managed to worm his way into her heart.

Chloe hadn’t believed that it was happening at first. The entire idea that she had actually been able to let someone besides Clark into her heart, let alone the boy’s best friend, was almost surreal. But now, she found that the secret relationship was her only solace, her only place of peace in the entire messed up world that made up her life.

The action of Lionel placing his hand on the small of her back shook her from her thoughts and she began to walk forward, trying to ignore the questioning and accusatory looks that they were getting from the people in the restaurant’s waiting area.

At least she didn’t have to pretend they didn’t exist for long, as dining with the elder Luthor certainly had the benefit of not having to wait anywhere to be shown to a table.

They were shown to a private table near the back. It was next to one of the large windows but shielded from the other tables by a makeshift wall of a one-way mirror.

It was the perfect table as it gave them a view of the city if they were interested in that sort of thing, but more importantly, one that let them see almost anyone else who came into the restaurant without being themselves. And, as she was soon to find out, that had been Lionel’s intention from the very beginning.

“I don’t have anything new on him – or on anyone else,” Chloe started in a hushed tone after the waiter dropped off their menus and went to retrieve the bottle of wine that Lionel ordered without even glancing at the restaurant’s wine selection.

Lionel gave her a tight yet smug smirk, one that clearly projected that he knew something she didn’t; one that made her skin crawl and brought up buried homicidal feelings at the same time.

“You judge me too harshly, Chloe. Did you ever consider that I just wanted the pleasure of your company?” he asked. Chloe shot a small glare at him, but restrained herself from letting out a derisive snort. “Whatever my son has led you to believe, I assure you, I’m not your enemy.”

Chloe’s spine stiffened.

He knew.

‘Of course he knows,’ she mentally chided.

His relationship with Lex was barely better than the one he had with her, and Lex was his son. He probably had bugs covering every square inch of the castle, cameras recording every stolen kiss and passionate embrace.

Chloe’s stomach tied into a knot. She realized in that moment that she would never be able to get away from the man sitting across from her. If she tried, then he would not only destroy her father’s life, but hers, and probably even Lex’s as well as retribution for her defying him.

No matter what Lex had promised her, it wasn’t going to happen.

“What do you want?” she finally asked quietly, the bitter defeat evident in her voice.

Lionel didn’t react with the smug, victorious gloating that Chloe would have expected, but surprised her by seeming pensive and almost regretful.

“You’re an intelligent young woman, Chloe,” Lionel said. “It’s a shame you let yourself be ruled by your emotions instead of your mind.”

Chloe creased her brow questioningly and Lionel sighed before motioning silently with his head toward a couple who was being seated only a few tables away from the other side of the one-way mirror. Chloe twisted in her seat, her heart constricting painfully at the sight in front of her.

Lex whispered some sweet nothings into the tall, beautiful brunette woman’s ear, causing the female to giggle and kiss him. He smirked and tugged on her tiny waist to bring her closer to him, capturing her mouth in a kiss that was fiery and passionate compared to the peck she had just given him.

Chloe felt like throwing up and very well might have had she had any food on her stomach. Her eyes welled up with unshed tears at witnessing the betrayal, and though Lionel had no desire to cause a scene, he didn’t want Chloe to come up with a lie she could tell herself to explain away what she was seeing either.

“I’ve always been honest with you, Chloe; but I think you’ll agree that there are some things you need to see with your own eyes to believe,” he said. His eyes flit over to his son and his date again. “I don’t know everything he’s told you, but if tonight is any indication of his professed honesty and loyalty to you, then I suggest you reevaluate which side is the right side, *and* which one you’re going to be on.”

Chloe bit the inside of her bottom lip to keep the tears from sliding down her cheeks, looked down to avoid eye contact with Lionel, and pushed her chair away from the table. She grabbed her small clutch purse and turned on her heel to walk out of the restaurant as swiftly as she could without drawing too much attention to herself.

Lionel pursed his lips thoughtfully and waited for the elevator doors to close behind the petite blonde before rising from his seat. Chloe had just learned the truth and now that she was far enough away that Lex couldn’t pursue her, it was time for his son to find out that he could no longer count on Chloe Sullivan to be his unwitting double agent.

“Son,” he cooed as he approached Lex’s table. “What a surprise running into you here.”

Lex squared his jaw and then pushed a fake smile onto his face.

“Dad,” he returned, standing up to shake hands with his father.

The waiter who had been assigned to Lionel’s table started to come back with the bottle of wine that the elder Luthor ordered and two crystal goblets. Lionel waved him over to Lex’s table instead with only a faint motion of his fingers.

Lex arched a questioning eyebrow at him and Lionel grinned.

“Please,” he said, motioning to the wine with his hand. “It seems that Miss Sullivan had to leave early, and I’d hate for such a fine vintage to go to waste.”

Lex paled, but not so it was noticeable to anyone but his father. He pushed his chair away from the table, faking a grin for his dinner companion.

“Would you excuse us for a moment?” he asked, not waiting for a reply.

Lionel repressed the urge to snicker, the memory of Chloe’s pain still etched clearly in his mind. He shared a knowing glance with Lex’s date, but Lex was too wrapped up in his own angry thoughts to notice it as he drew his father aside and out of earshot.

“Hasn’t she been through enough? You didn’t have to do this to her,” he said, his voice hushed but full of venom.

“*I* didn’t do anything to her,” Lionel countered. “I believe you were the one who led her to believe that you were in a monogamous relationship with her when you were dating someone else the entire time; that you cared for her when you only cared about the information she could give you.” He paused for a second and gave his son a pointed look. “I am not the villain in this scenario, Lex – *you* are.”

Lex pulled back and narrowed his eyes at his father.

“You brought her here with the intent of breaking her heart again,” he said. “That hardly leaves you blameless.”

“What is it that they say?” Lionel began with false thoughtfulness. “Don’t shoot the messenger?” Lex’s nostrils flared as he struggled to keep his cool exterior. “Why are you acting so enraged? It’s not as if you had any real feelings for her.” Lionel’s lips curled upward in a smirk. “And now that she knows that as well, we can all get on with our lives.”

Pushing down the sudden rush of hurt he felt over what Chloe must be going through, the muscles in Lex’s jaw flexed and he glared at his father evenly. He couldn’t let the man know that even if he didn’t have romantic feelings for Chloe, he had come to value her as more than just a pawn. She had become a trusted friend.

It was too bad he couldn’t say the same about himself.

“Where is she?” Lex asked coolly.

Lionel’s smirk only seemed to grow.

“She has family in town if I remember correctly, but I doubt she’ll see you,” he answered.

Lex’s eyes flit over to his date, who seemed to be bored and irritated that he had left her alone for so long.

‘Shit,’ he thought to himself. He liked Amanda, he really did. He had even been thinking that he might be willing to get married again if she was clean once all the background checks came in.

But Chloe was…Chloe. She was smart, funny, and pretty, though he had never looked at her in that way. At first he thought of her as Clark’s friend, then as someone who might be able to help bring down his father, and finally as a friend on her own merits. And he had lied to her time and again, and now, because of his father’s undoubtedly impeccable timing, he had broken her heart.

If nothing else, he needed to apologize and explain himself before the situation got too far out of hand; before the grudge against him could be built up into something that was much worse than it would be if he took care of it right away.

He strode past his father and gave Amanda an apologetic look.

“You’re not leaving,” she said, folding her arms across her chest in an effort to draw his attention to her bosom and away from whatever it was currently on. “You do this to me almost every time we go out.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Lex pointed out. “And you knew I was a busy man when we first started dating.”

“But we’re not just ‘dating’ anymore, Lex,” she argued. “We’re a couple. Couples spend time together. That’s what they do.”

Lex sighed and rubbed his temple on one side. Amanda was beautiful and smart, but she was also co-dependent and entirely too needy for someone whom he had only been dating for a few months. Then there were times, like now, that she reminded him of Helen. Argumentative, defensive, and altogether bitchy if she didn’t just get her way right away.

It was disconcerting, and a small part of Lex hoped that she *was* working for his dad, just so he would know he wasn’t attracting those kind of women on his own. But, he wouldn’t find out until next week when his private detectives promised they would have a full report.

Lex leaned down and kissed her forehead. He would make his apologies to her later. Right now he had a different woman to say he was sorry to and he had to find her before she did something that one or both of them would end up regretting.

~*~*~*~

Chapter 2

~*~*~*~

Chloe’s hand went up to wipe away the tears that she had been crying for the last hour, immediately thankful that the mascara she wore was waterproof so unless the people passing her by on the street took a good look at her, they wouldn’t be able to tell that she was currently in any emotional torment.

And they never did. As with most big cities, the majority of the people in Metropolis were oblivious to anything going on around their circle of friends unless they were directly confronted with it. Watching the news made the citizens feel that they knew what was going on in the underbelly of their city, but they didn’t see what was right in front of them, and that was the second thing that Chloe was grateful for.

It was enough that the emotional pain of betrayal was reducing her to tears yet again, but she didn’t need someone to call her on it.

Which was exactly the reason that she had steered away from the family and friends that she had in the city. Once she got desperate and resigned herself to confronting Lionel again, she could get a ride home; or at least that’s what she figured the elder Luthor was expecting.

Damned if she was going to be played by anyone else again though, let alone a Luthor. She would just wait until morning and take the train home. The commuting trip was relatively inexpensive and she had more than enough money with her to cover it. The problem now was that she didn’t have anyplace to stay the night.

Not unless she wanted to approach one of her cousins or friends, places where she would not only get the third degree on why she was crying, but also where Lionel or Lex could track her down easily.

She scoffed with a twisted moment of amusement. As if Lex would actually come looking for her. As if Lionel would either.

No.

The entire night had been set up to show her how foolish she had been in giving her heart away yet again; to try and wound her enough to want to be on Lionel’s side to get back at Lex. But if Lionel really thought she was that gullible, then he had another thing coming.

In fact, the only way she could see through the hurt that she was in, was to get even with both of them. She wasn’t sure how exactly, but with that singular thought in mind, her feet led her to an address that she had only ever seen on paper when she was snooping through Lex’s things.

The beginning of their working relationship found Chloe filled with apprehension and mistrust and she dug into everything she could find to see if Lex’s offer was indeed genuine or not or if he was actually working for his father’s behalf to see if she could be trusted.

She had come across the address of where his half-brother Lucas was currently staying, and though she had always meant to check it out on her previous visits to Metropolis, she had never had time.

Now she had nothing but time and the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach that thirst for revenge.

Chloe sucked in a shaky breath and then made her way into the apartment building’s lobby. Walking briskly to avoid any sort of confrontation with the security guard on patrol, she went to the entrance to the stairs instead of the elevator doors; reasoning that the combination of the physical exertion it would take to climb them and the additional time it would take would somehow steel her nerves, so she didn’t just break down in front of the young man that she was about to confront with a proposition that she was almost entirely certain he would refuse.

To her surprise, the security guard simply took in her appearance and gave her a sympathetic grin before opening the door to the stairs for her.

Obviously he was new and didn’t know all the tenants in the building yet, and as it seemed that fate was in favor of her bizarre quest for revenge, she took advantage of it.

“Thanks,” she muttered in a choked voice.

The guard nodded once and then the sympathetic grin turned into an expression that Chloe knew only too well, as her dad gave it to her on several occasions. The lecture without being a lecture look. Chloe hated it, but managed to quell down the urge to slap it off his face.

“Sometimes life is hard,” he said. “But it gets better. Always does.”

Not trusting her ability to speak without spewing a curse at the man for not knowing anything about her life and trying to act as her therapist anyway, Chloe simply nodded a couple of times and faked an uneasy upward twitch of the corners of her mouth.

She slipped past him and heard the door close behind her, inwardly groaning when she took in how many stairs she would actually have to climb.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as she ascended floor after floor of stairs, her hand gripping onto the railing with every step to make sure that she didn’t lose her nerve and simply turn around and run out of the building as quickly as she could.

Finally she came to the floor where Lucas’s apartment sat, but she found herself in a moment of hesitation. She had never even met the young man in question and she was about to offer herself to him on a silver platter with the condition that he would officially break things off between her and Lex for her.

Her hand was on the handle that would allow her access to the floor, but her head flopped forward against the heavy door as indecision swept through her.

She had never slept with anyone before and though it seemed like a childishly romantic notion, she had always held out the hope that her first time would be with someone she loved. A sour feeling bit at her with the thought.

Clark had been her first love. He hadn’t loved her back, but there was no denying that what she had felt for him was love. Of course, seeing as how the boy was too prude to even make a move on the girl he liked unless he was doped up on meteor rocks, he wasn’t a possibility in the remotest sense of the word.

Then there was Lex. She hadn’t loved him as she had loved Clark, but she had loved him – or had at least convinced herself that she did. Now she could see that everything with him had been a lie and it hurt more than she ever thought it would.

The flickering moments of passion that never went any further than making out because he said he didn’t think she was emotionally ready for more than that; keeping their relationship secret so she didn’t get hurt when it was really because he was seeing someone else – someone he actually cared about – at the same time.

She mentally berated herself for not sticking with her initial instinct of not trusting him and took a step back so she could swing the door open to pass through it.

‘512…514…516,’ she thought, stopping in front of the last one.

She had to admit, it was a good hiding place from Lionel – for both of them. The elder Luthor would never suspect that Lucas was staying in an apartment building that appeared to cater to the upper middle class, and he would certainly never suspect Chloe of turning to a man that she didn’t even know.

With a renewed sense of vigor, she wiped away any evidence that she had been crying and then pulled back her fist to knock on the door.

~*~*~*~

Lucas rolled his head in a circle and then yawned. His arms reached into the air, stretching out the muscles that he had just worked out and were now tense and sore.

The sound of someone suddenly knocking on his door made him arch a curious eyebrow. Lex wasn’t due to see him until tomorrow afternoon and nobody else besides his neighbors, who were far too busy with their lives to bother him, knew that he lived there.

A sinking feeling hit his gut that his father finally found out where he was and he grabbed a sword off of its pedestal before making his way to look out the peephole. Not the most modest of weapons, but if anyone did visit his home, they would reason that it was purely decorative, giving him the distinct advantage.

Holding the sword to his side, he pressed his face against the door to peer through the peephole, his curiosity only growing when he saw the blonde woman on the other side.

The view that the glass gave was distorted at best, but he could still make out that she was beautiful and curvy, making him all the more suspicious about why she would be knocking on his door.

She raised her knuckles to rap against the door again, but stopped when she heard Lucas unlocking the deadbolt that sealed the door closed.

He opened the door and leaned against the frame, his eyes grazing over her body unabashedly. Normally it might have been something that bothered her, but as it was, Lucas was much better looking that the video surveillance cameras at Lex’s house suggested, and it was nice to know that someone looked at her as a woman.

They stood there in silence, summing each other up for a good couple of minutes before either one of them made a move to speak.

Lucas kept a keen eye on the young woman in front of him. She didn’t seem to be armed or pose any direct threat to him, but appearances could be deceiving.

Chloe drew in a breath and then looked off to her side.

“This was a bad idea,” she murmured.

“I love bad ideas,” Lucas retorted in a light tone, the smirk evident in his voice. He gave Chloe an upward nod of his head when she turned to face him again. “Do I know you?”

“Seeing as how you have a photographic memory, it kind of seems like you should know the answer to that already,” Chloe said wryly.

A lopsided smile spread across Lucas’s lips and he relaxed the arm with the sword in it. The only person he had told the lie about having a photographic memory to was Lex, which meant that the blonde in front of him probably wasn’t there to kill him. At least he hoped she wasn’t.

“You know Lex,” he observed. “Did he send you?”

“Not in the way you think,” Chloe replied.

“What’s your name?”

“Chloe.”

“Chloe,” Lucas repeated, rolling the name off of his tongue and then smirking suggestively at her. “I like it. So, what can I do for you, Chloe?” ‘Or *to* you,’ he thought. ‘Either way.’

“I have a proposition for you.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow at her; a gesture that reminded Chloe only too much of Lex and almost made her eyes well up with tears again. She pushed the feeling down, forcing it to mix with the pain she felt so she could concentrate on her anger rather than on her heartbreak.

“So?” she asked expectantly when Lucas said nothing.

Lucas rested his tongue in the pocket of his cheek and then nodded once; stepping aside and pulling the door open a little wider as an unspoken invitation for Chloe to enter the apartment.

‘This ought to be good.’

~*~*~*~

“Look, I already told you, I haven’t heard from her. I have no idea where she is.”

Lex ran a hand over his face in frustration. He let out a sigh and then responded to the person on the other end of the phone.

“Right. Thank you anyway.”

He pressed the button to disconnect the call, and then, after a moment’s thought, turned the power off of his cell phone altogether.

He had called every relative and friend of Chloe’s in Metropolis that he knew about and nobody had heard from her. Either that or they were lying to him, and if that was the case, then he was shit out of luck.

Lex growled and kicked a parking meter. He could practically see his father smirking victoriously at him. Unfortunately, the image quickly transformed into a disappointed look – the same one that Lionel had actually given him for a millisecond back at the restaurant.

He was used to his father being disappointed in him, but not being disappointed in himself.

Most likely, Chloe would have agreed to be a double agent for him without him having to engage her in a false romantic relationship, but he had wanted to make certain of where her loyalties laid and felt that making her fall for him was the best way possible.

He should have known better and he cursed himself for now not only hurting and losing a friend, but for doing it almost knowingly.

Chloe had forgiven Clark and they were mending their broken friendship, but Lex sincerely doubted that the same could ever be said in the future about his own relationship with Chloe.

She wouldn’t forgive him.

She had no reason to.

And that not only made Lex sad, but it made him worried. If Chloe was able to turn her grief into anger like she had with Clark, then she could be very dangerous.

Shit.

Why hadn’t he thought of that before he seduced her into liking him?

Chapter 3

~*~*~*~

Lucas was torn between letting his jaw drop open in shock and laughing maniacally.

Over the course of the last hour and a half, Chloe had told him everything that had transpired between Lex, Lionel, and herself. Every last detail had been covered from start to finish – or so he thought.

He listened pensively as she began to tell him of the events that had taken place that evening and what she described as the strange, twisted plot that her mind had hatched up in order to get even.

They sleep together on the condition that he breaks up with Lex for her, enabling Lex to feel the sting of rejection twice.

The only coherent thought that came to his mind was that his brother was a fucking moron for not just recognizing a good thing when he had it.

Not that he was complaining.

After all, Lex’s lapse into idiocy had led Chloe to his doorstep, and within moments, to his bed; all because his brother was more interested in playing twisted mind games with their father than playing…better games…with the curvy blonde in front of him.

“So,” Chloe said and then paused, taking a deep breath to try and calm down the hammering in her chest. “I know this puts you in an awkward position, and I totally understand if you turn me down…”

‘Yeah. Cuz’ I’m an idiot,’ Lucas thought sarcastically.

“But if you help me, I can help you.”

Lucas smiled and leaned forward, resting his forearms against his thighs.

“You’re already helping me. I haven’t been able to go out on a date since Lex started ‘protecting’ me.”

Despite the situation, Chloe let a half-smile grace her features, and Lucas felt his breath hitch. She was beautiful when she was upset and rambling, but when she smiled, she was…stunning.

Her demeanor seemed to change and he watched as Chloe ran her teeth over her lower lip nervously.

“I know where your mom is,” she said. “And I can help you try to get her out.”

Lucas pulled back and stiffened his posture.

“My mom is dead.”

Chloe let out a long breath and then looked at him pointedly.

“Who told you that?” she asked.

“Le-- bastard,” Lucas hissed, jumping up from his seat to pace on one small area of the floor. He huffed through his nose a couple of times and then focused his angry gaze on Chloe. “She’s not dead?”

Chloe shook her head.

“She was placed in the Summerholt Psychiatric Hospital after she tried to kill Lex when your dad wouldn’t tell her what he had done with you,” she said.

Lucas’s mind was in a flurry. His mother was alive? And she had been looking for him? He shook his head a little to try and clear his jumbled thoughts and emotions.

“If she tried to kill Lex, how are we going to get her out?” he finally asked.

“There’s the thing,” Chloe said. “She was never charged for the crime. She was just put in there to cover up the whole incident so it wouldn’t make it to the papers. And if anyone *did* find out about it…”

“…They would just be told she was some crazy lady who didn’t know what she was talking about,” Lucas finished for her. Chloe nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

Lucas ducked his head and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. When he looked at Chloe again, she could see the pain etched in every crevice and shadow of his features.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” she said for the second time that night and began to rise from her seat.

He reached out and gripped her upper arm as she tried to pass by him, swinging her back into his arms, flush against his body, and slamming his mouth down against hers.

His hand wove into the back of her hair and fisted to keep her mouth pressed against his, his lips parting as he tipped his head to the side to deepen the kiss. It was brutal and punishing as all of the pent up emotions the two felt about everything came to the surface through the physical act.

They pulled apart with panted breaths, but Lucas still retained his hold on her. A second of unspoken silence was all it took to cement the deal between them. Lucas and Chloe would sleep together, he would officially break things off with Lex for her, and she would help try to release his mother from the mental facility she was being held in.

He brought his mouth to hers again, this time a little softer as his already half-parted lips brushed against hers and he darted his tongue out to taste her.

Chloe welcomed his warm tongue sliding against her own. The feeling distracted her from her anger and hurt, and before she knew it her body was completely taking over, digging her nails into his well-muscled back and shoulders as allowing Lucas to move them toward what she presumed was the bedroom.

Lucas’s hands crawled up her back, settling when his fingers clasped the zipper on her dress and started to pull it down. The material pooled around Chloe’s high heels and she quickly stepped out of it, using the tips of her toes to push the shoes off her feet immediately afterward.

The next few minutes seemed to go by in a blur. Chloe could only vaguely remember the feeling of Lucas’s deft fingers unfastening her bra, her own frantic hands pushing the waistband of his worn workout shorts down to his hips only to discover that he wore nothing underneath, and the small trail of clothing and kisses they left in their wake; so it barely seemed possible that she now found herself lying naked beneath Lucas’s muscular form.

Her heart was hammering hard in her chest. There was a very real possibility that Lex wouldn’t even care that she had slept with Lucas and that she’d be throwing her virginity away on an ill-thought out plan that would only bring about consequences for her and for no one else. And though she supposed she could back out, she didn’t want to.

The feeling of Lucas’s mouth on her neck and his skin underneath her fingertips was intoxicating enough to temporarily drown out the self pity she felt and she wasn’t about to relinquish that. Not now that she was so close to completely pushing every feeling she had aside and reveling in the emotional numbness that took over.

Her nails dug into his back and her legs crawled up his until they were clinging to his thighs. Within a second, he allowed her to roll them over so that she was on top. She teased his neck and chest with flicks of her tongue and teeth, covering a nipple with her lips until she swept her tongue against it and Lucas bucked his hips up against her.

Chloe hadn’t ever gone this far with anyone she’d dated, but with every flex of his taut muscles beneath her, every murmured moan that escaped their throats, and every jolt of arousal that sparked through her, she found that she not only wanted this to happen, but that she *needed* it to.

Lucas flipped her over again and abruptly pulled away from her, reaching across the bed to the small end table that housed some condoms that he purchased but hadn’t gotten a chance to use since it was ‘too dangerous’ for him to go out and meet anybody. He would have simply called an escort service, but even if he had been able to set his ego aside, there was still Lex’s paranoia and he couldn’t afford to leave any sort of paper trail.

And now that he found himself with a beautiful, willing woman underneath him, he couldn’t think of anything except for the feral rage that was coursing through him. His brother had betrayed him; had outright lied to him and told him that the mother he had wanted to be reunited with for so long was dead.

If it had just been that information…well, he still would have been pissed, but he could have dealt with it. After all, he had been essentially treated as a pawn in the ongoing battle between Lex and Lionel, and had sadly gotten used to it.

But to know that they had done the same thing to the woman below him, that they had hurt someone else so badly that hadn’t even led a bad life from what he could tell, that had no serious sins to atone for…it pushed him over the edge.

He rolled the condom onto his cock and positioned himself between her legs, slowly pushing into her a little bit before pulling back and thrusting and sheathing himself to the hilt. He didn’t notice that he broke through her maidenhead, but he did notice how tight she was, how her moist heat was gripping around him, and it sent a shudder of pleasure through him.

Lucas began to pump in and out of her, grinding his hips down against her as his rhythm grew faster so he could hit her clit with each thrust. He basked in the feeling that her closed eyes and drawn out sounds of ecstasy spurred in him; the feeling that even if Lex couldn’t care less about what they had done, it had been worth it just for the experience.

Chloe’s fingers dug into his skin as she rocked her hips to meet his rhythm, pushing him deeper inside of her and forcing the pain that had been there when he initially entered her to resurface. She needed that pain; that reminder that she was doing this for a reason; that Lex might have hurt her emotionally, but he could never hurt her physically – at least not in the way that she had thought about sacrificing to him.

Her inner muscles started to twitch, and then they started to tighten. The orgasm that came over her seemed to ripple through every fiber of her being and she could barely make out the passionate sounds spilling from Lucas’s throat because her own cries were so loud and disjointed in her ears.

Lucas collapsed on top of her, nuzzling the crook of her neck before rolling to his side and lazily wrapping an arm over her body in a silent invitation for her to stay the night.

Chloe couldn’t say she wasn’t tempted. It had been a long day and every part of her being was screaming out in pained exhaustion. Her breathing slowed down and she finally put the days’ events behind her and let the heaviness of her eyelids get the best of her as she drifted off to sleep.

~*~*~*~

When Lucas awoke in the morning, Chloe was gone. He couldn’t say that he wasn’t expecting it, but if she was true to her word, then she should have left a note or something with contact information on it.

He grunted when he saw a slim stack of papers sitting on the countertop in his kitchen and began to tiredly shuffle over toward them. The corners of his mouth turned down when he saw a bracelet sitting on top of the pile.

The delicate weave of platinum held a four-leaf clover charm on it with the leaves represented by what looked like emerald stones, but seemed to have a strange iridescent glow about them.

He fingered the bracelet and glanced down at the hand-written note that was lying on top of the rest of the papers.

Lucas –

Sorry to leave, but…well, you know.

I have a feeling that Lex might not just take your word for it, and probably won’t care if he does, but return this bracelet to him when you tell him. It should be all the proof you need.

Hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed your computer this morning. I knew I recognized the woman that Lex was with last night, but I had to break into your dad’s computer to remember.

She works for your dad, though I don’t know in what capacity. I highly doubt that Lex knows, so here are some printouts if you need more ammunition.

My phone number is on the back. Good luck and thank you again.

Chloe

Lucas flipped the page over to make sure that Chloe had indeed given him her number and then looked down at the pictures of a brunette woman talking to his father. He flipped through the printed pages, the photographs of the two people growing more and more seemly with every paper.

He grimaced at first, as the sight of Lionel with anyone in that context was unsettling for him, but then a smirk lifted one side of his mouth. Lex had not only thrown away what could have been his one real chance at being with someone who didn’t want him for his money, but he had done it for yet another woman who was in league with their father.

His head turned at the sound of the doorbell ringing and he moved to grab the pair of sweatpants that had been discarded on the floor the night before. Quickly stepping into them and pulling them up, he made his way over to the door, where the doorbell had just rung again.

“Yeah, yeah, hold on,” Lucas muttered.

A quick look through the peephole brought mixed emotions speeding through his veins. Lex. One part of him, a major part, just wanted to open the door and beat the shit out of his brother. The more rational side cooled him down enough to think that Chloe’s plan had a chance at working even better than she thought it would – especially now that he had proof that they had slept together and that Lex’s other girlfriend wasn’t who she appeared to be.

And when it came down to a battle between emotional pain or physical pain, the simple fact was that emotional pain hurt more and left worse scarring.

He unlocked the tiny lock on the doorknob and opened the door.

It was time to leave some marks.

~*~*~*~

Chapter 4

~*~*~*~

Lucas smirked at his brother’s appearance. Although impeccably dressed as always, Lex’s face was haggard and his eyes were bloodshot. Lucas reasoned that there could be two possibilities as to the cause of it.

Either his brother had a late night with the woman in the photographs on his counter…or he cared more about what had happened to Chloe than he probably ever thought he would or would ever admit.

‘Good,’ Lucas thought. ‘That’ll make it hurt more.’ He stepped aside and Lex walked into the apartment. “You’re dragging this morning. Rough night?”

He couldn’t see Lex wince because he was shutting and locking the door, but he knew it had happened. He could practically feel that it had happened. Smiling sadistically to himself, he wasn’t prepared for Lex’s response.

“Seems to be going around,” Lex said, motioning to the love bites that adorned Lucas’s neck and chest.

“Yeah – but mine was the good kind of rough,” Lucas retorted.

“How could you be so stupid? I thought you knew better than to bring a woman back here, Lucas. You know dad has spies everywhere.”

Lucas half-ignored Lex’s lecture and strolled over to the countertop. He picked up the pictures that Chloe had printed out and allowed himself another smirk before shoving them at Lex.

“Seems to me that you haven’t learned that lesson either.”

Lex flipped through the pages, the sting of betrayal and the hurt that came with anger flooding every part of his being.

Lucas shook his head lightly and walked over to the refrigerator to grab something to drink as he waited for Lex to erupt.

“These are fakes,” Lex spat in denial.

Lucas scoffed.

“You wish,” he said.

“Where did you get them?” Lex demanded.

Lucas motioned to the papers with his head.

“You can read the fine print as well as I can.”

Lex’s heart started beating faster with the sight of his father’s company name listed on the page addresses. Lucas was smart, but he never would have known what to look for, which led him back to his initial question.

“Where did you get them?” he asked again.

Lucas shrugged nonchalantly and took a pull on the carton of orange juice that he now held in his hand.

“Chloe,” he said after he swallowed.

Lex stared at him blankly, the pieces of the puzzle all there, but not fitting together because of his clouded emotions.

“Chloe,” he repeated.

Lucas pointed to the largest hickey he knew of – the one on the right side of his neck where Chloe had almost drawn blood because she had bitten and sucked so hard.

‘I’m really going to have to call her,’ he thought absently. “*Chloe*,” he said to his brother again with a smug, self-satisfied grin. “By the way, you two are totally over now,” he continued, setting the orange juice down and picking up the bracelet Chloe left so he could toss it at his brother. “But, I’m thinking you already knew that.”

Lex stared down at the bracelet and his heart constricted, but he said nothing in response to his brother’s taunting. There was nothing he could say. Finally, he steadied himself and looked at Lucas through narrowed eyes.

“Are you trying to infer that you slept with my girlfriend?”

“Noooo,” Lucas strung out as if Lex was an idiot. “I slept with *Chloe*. Chloe is *not* your girlfriend – that chick who works for dad is. And after Chloe found that out, she was basically a free woman. Of course, I guess technically she always had been and she just didn’t know it.”

“I don’t believe you,” Lex said. “You’ve gone behind my back and you’re working with dad. That’s what this is about. That’s how you got the bracelet.”

Lucas smirked again and folded his arms across his chest.

“I’m not. But out of curiosity, what is it that hurts more right now? The fact that your real girlfriend – if you can call her that – is working for and sleeping with dad? Or that you just lost the only woman who probably ever loved you for you and not for your money because of your own stupidity?” Lex glared at him, shooting daggers at him with his eyes, but Lucas’s smirk only grew wider. “That’s what I thought. Man, it must suck to be you.”

Lex squared his jaw.

“Tell the truth. How did you get the bracelet?”

“Chloe left it here so I could give it back to you for her. You know – since she never wants to see you again and everything.”

“God damn it, Lucas! Just tell me the truth!”

Lucas raised his hands up in front of him in mock surrender.

“Hey – the used condoms are still in the bedroom trashcan if you don’t believe me. Go get one and have it checked for her DNA.” He paused and lifted a mocking eyebrow. “There’s enough blood on the first couple of them for you to get a decent sample.”

Lex glared at him again and turned to storm into the bedroom.

The smell of sex still permeated the air, and although it was a little stale, it was enough to make his stomach threaten to evict the contents of his breakfast as it tied into a knot.

He didn’t need to check the garbage to verify that his brother was telling the truth; he knew the truth. But he still needed to have one question answered.

“Why?” he asked as he stepped back into Lucas’s earshot, his voice lined with the kind of pain that only betrayal could bring. “Why would you do this to me?”

“You did it to yourself.”

Lex shook his head.

“But you’re my brother,” he argued. “I protected you from getting hurt.”

“Like you said you’d protect Chloe?” Lucas threw back at him.

Lex opened and closed his mouth, his normal witty retorts all lodged in the back of his brain and denying him access because of the severity of the emotions he was feeling.

“You told me my mother was dead,” Lucas finally said.

Lex’s eyes snapped to Lucas’s.

“She ---”

“She’s locked up in a loony bin, Lex,” Lucas interrupted with a growl.

“I was protecting you,” Lex said, feeding his brother the same excuse he had fed himself so many times before. “She’s unstable…homicidal…she tried to kill me.”

“But she’s *alive*,” Lucas said. “I had a right to know the truth and you lied to me – just like you lied to Chloe.” He moved toward his brother and menacingly invaded his personal space. “You want to know why I slept with her? Apart from the *obvious* fact that she’s hot? Because she told me the truth. She told me fucking everything, Lex. My mom, our dad, Clark Kent - *everything*. And when a beautiful woman spills her guts like that and then asks you to sleep with her to get even with the prick that was lying to both of you? You do it.”

Lex wasn’t sure what to say, or whether he should say anything at all. Words spoken in anger could wound them both, but seeing as how Lucas didn’t seem to care about it, then he could easily allow himself not to care either.

“That’s the way you want it?” he asked threateningly. “Fine. Consider yourself cut off from ever having to deal with me – or my money – again.”

With that, he walked to the door and unlocked it, slamming it a little on his way out.

Lucas let out a breath.

He was disappointed in his brother’s final statement, but he couldn’t say that he hadn’t been expecting it. Luckily for him, he had been paranoid enough to squirrel away enough money from each of the monthly allowances that Lex had given him to sustain him for at least four months – considerably more if he moved out of the expensive apartment he was living in and into cheaper accommodations.

He shook off the line of thought. His financial and living situations were something that could be dealt with later. Right now he had a phone call to make.

~*~*~*~

Chloe groaned at the sound of her cell phone ringing entirely too close to her ear, and therefore waking her up.

She had been fortunate enough to arrive home in the small space of time where her father was still asleep but Lana had already left to get ready to open the Talon. She could always tell her dad a little white lie about how she got home after he had gone to bed and Lana wouldn’t be there to contradict her. It was a beautiful thing.

But unfortunately, it seemed that her luck wasn’t holding if the incessant ringing of her cell phone was any indication.

Flopping an arm over the side of her bed to the small nightstand beside her, she grabbed the cell phone and held it up so she could read the caller ID display.

She didn’t recognize the number, but she recognized the name.

She clicked on the phone and held it up to her ear.

“I thought guys weren’t supposed to call the next day,” she mumbled tiredly into the phone, just quietly enough so her father wouldn’t be able to make out what she was saying if he happened to be passing by in the hall.

She blinked and pushed herself up to a sitting position on the bed. She wasn’t sure where the stray thought had come from, but she reminded herself that she lived in their new house now, not their old one, and that she could probably talk even in a voice that was louder than normal and still not have her dad hear what she was saying.

“After last night?” Lucas responded teasingly.

Chloe sighed, sensing the reason that he was calling so soon.

“You talked to Lex,” she said with an observational tone.

“Yeah,” Lucas said, suddenly somber.

“And you’re regretting ---”

“No,” Lucas interrupted.

“Okay,” Chloe said with mild confusion. She was about to ask why he was bothering to call her so early after the previous night then, but she refrained because he began to speak again.

“He was pretty upset.”

Oh.

Chloe drew in a long breath and then slowly released it.

“That happens when you find out you’ve fallen for another whore who was working for your dad all along,” she said somewhat callously.

She could have sugar-coated it, but she honestly hadn’t had enough sleep to not be a bitch about the situation. She was still hurting herself – she didn’t have time to be concerned about Lex’s so-called feelings.

Lucas raised his eyebrows in surprise and let out a startled half-chuckle in response.

“True,” he conceded.

“So, are you calling about your mom? Because I haven’t gotten a chance to look up anything yet.”

“No. I just wanted to tell you how it went, let you revel in the salt in the wound and all that.”

“I’d rather not,” Chloe said honestly. “I just want to forget it ever happened.”

“Oh.”

“Not --- you know,” Chloe quickly corrected. “I meant my lie of a relationship with Lex. I just want to purge him from my mind.”

“Ah. Okay, well there was another reason I was calling. You have a pen?”

“Yeah – hold on,” she said. Chloe tipped her body and dug through the nightstand’s drawer until she found a pen and an old envelope to write on. “Okay.”

“I wanted to give you my cell phone number so you could get in touch with me.”

“I thought you said you were always at your apartment?”

“Yeah, but like I said – he was pretty upset. Decided to cut me off for sleeping with you.”

“Oh, my God,” Chloe replied, horrified. “This is my fault. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even consider ---”

“You weren’t the only one in the bed, Chloe.”

“But it was my idea.”

“And I agreed to it,” Lucas pointed out. “Look, don’t worry or anything. I have enough money saved to live comfortably for a while – just not in this spendy apartment.”

Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but it snapped shut again as she waited for the words to form correctly in her mind.

“You’re not going to like what I’m going to say, but you could move here,” she said.

Lucas arched an eyebrow.

“Pretty sure your dad wouldn’t be happy about that,” he said.

“Not my house – Smallville,” Chloe corrected. “Your mom bought a house in your name. You’ll probably owe some back taxes, but she paid for it outright.”

“Whoa.”

“I’m guessing that Lex didn’t tell you that either, then?”

“No.”

“Okay – something to think about at least.”

“Do you know where it is?” Lucas asked.

“Uh…yeah,” Chloe said after she thought about it for a moment. “It’s pretty close to where I live now actually.”

“Perfect.”




TBC...

Kris if it has no Chlex in the end of the story then this is the right place for it.



Hope :cool:

Stupid Lex! He can't see when good things are in front of him!
I love Lucas. he's so cute! :wub:

You made a great job. Now I'm waiting for an update. :yay2: :yay2:

Ooooo….a new Chlucas fic! And brought to us with four whole chapters to boot! http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/emotic...g_Emoticon.gif What with this fic and the updates to ‘Killing Moon’ I am seriously girl-crushing right now. http://www.angelfire.com/emo2/emotic.../smiley911.gif And really, how big of an ass has Lex turned out to be? Hmpf…the Chlucas serves him right.

Quote:

---

Author’s Note: Just know that I’m writing this *knowing* that it’s going to tear my heart into itty bitty pieces. Take that as a warning since very few fics do that to me, and none of them are my own.

---

Is that because there’s unresolved Chlex or is it because something unfortunate is going to happen with the Chlucas? :unsure: I just wanna be prepared.

This is a great fic. Can't wait to find out what happens next. Soon I hope.
Nickie

Oh, this is wonderful:applause: You have totally started me to crush on Lucas. I hope Lex suffers long and painful for what he did. Asshole. :tease: I hope Chloe cusses his ass out. He is such a dumbass! Damn!
Ok I'm finished bitchin'. Please, please update soon :crygreen: .As you can see I'm not above begging. This is the place where I usually put a Chlex sign, but Lex is being such a jackass, mutherfucker, Son of a bitch, a dumb little shit....
Sorry, sorry! Ok now i'm finished.

I'm glad that Lex feels bad! He should after what he did to Chloe! Even though I like Chlex better than Chloe and Lucas, I really like this story!! Please let Lex realize how much he wants Chloe, now that it is too late!! I'm really glad you decided to post this story here!! ;)

I too prefer Lex and Chloe but if I can't have them then I'll take Lucas and Chloe. Great story! Hope you update soon.

Nickie

This was great. I love Chloe/Lucus just as much as I love Chlex. Please update soon :worship2:

i love chlex but i will 2 say it's a great story and i am happy that Chloe got even with him for doing what he did to her and I hope he get's to see Lucas and Chloe together, that would be great :devil:

:yay: Could you please add "Behind the Mask" to this forum also!! I really love that story and would like to see it here!! Please! :biggrin: You're the best!! :yay2:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by autumngold@Dec 6 2003, 12:13 AM
:yay: Could you please add "Behind the Mask" to this forum also!! I really love that story and would like to see it here!! Please! :biggrin: You're the best!! :yay2:

---

Aww, thanks. I would, but...well, that fic really is listed as Chloe/Bruce with just a tiny amount of Chlex UST. Plus, the ending --- damn. You almost had me giving you spoilers. *shakes head*

I wouldn't be able to post it anyway, because the new rule for this forum is no new fics - it's only for completed old ones from other categories that don't end up Chlex. They're only letting me finish posting AG here because I started it before the rule was posted - and I have a feeling that it'll end up getting deleted soon. Sorry.

Wow, I am loving this story.

Please finish or post where we can find the finished story when you are done.

Angel

Interesting, please continue soon.
J

What is taking so looooooooooong?????
i'm on the verge of insanity here....
do you really want that on your consience???
anyway...hope you update soon....
like really soon as in the next 24 hours...scratch that...
the next 2 hours...
anyway that should be sufficant time to complete a new chapter...

I demand an update! Like.... now! C'mon, I know you got it! Gimme! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_2_203.gif

I'll give you anything you want, okay? EVERYTHING!! Just please update http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4_2_3.gif





......





I'll give you a cookie.... http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_13_6.gif

Chloe pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. It had been three days since she found out the truth; three days since she had her heart broken yet again. And though the tears had finally subsided, she was still left with a lump in her throat and an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach.

No matter how strong she pretended to be in front of others, she had reached her breaking point and was crumbling inside. In testament to that fact, she was at home alone in the middle of the morning on a school day and thankful for it. She didn’t seem to know how to act around people anymore, how to live.

It hadn’t been difficult to convince her father and Lana that she was far too sick to go to school, as the blood that drained from her face when she witnessed Lex’s betrayal had yet to return and the healthy appetite she had before the weekend was now completely gone.

So, Chloe sat on her bed and stared at the wall, trying to stay off sleep for fear that the nightmarish visions and emotions of being broken again would come quickly once she closed her eyes.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she vaguely registered the sound of her cell phone ringing and absently unwrapped one of her arms from her self embrace to reach for it. She picked it up and glanced at the small caller ID box before setting it back down on the bed unanswered.

It was Lex’s number that showed on the display – again – and she had no desire to listen to what she could only assume were the pathetic excuses or apologies he had been able to come up with.

No.

He could leave yet another message on her voice mail, like he had been doing for the last two days; and she would delete it without listening to it, like she had been doing for the last two days.

Truth be told, she was tempted just to turn her cell phone off; the promise that she made to Lucas being the only thing that kept her from pressing the power button and ending the persistent reminders that she had once again managed to fuck up her emotional well being by falling in love with a man who would never love her back.

Chloe pushed past the sour thought and once again focused on the reason she was leaving the slim cell phone’s power intact.

Lucas.

She frowned.

Like she needed another thing to feel bad about.

But the fact remained that what Lucas told her during their first phone conversation was true. She wasn’t the only one in the bed, and since he didn’t seem to have any regrets over what they had done, why should she?

‘Because I started it,’ she thought, closing her eyes so water wouldn’t once again be able to well up in them.

In one night, she had not only realized that she had messed up her own life by being in love with Lex – a man she should have known would never be interested in her - but had managed to mess up someone’s else’s life as well. Lucas now had no allowance, no family that he had always dreamt of, and was currently tying up all the loose ends he needed to in order to move to Smallville.

‘*Smallville*,’ Chloe thought morbidly. She had taken everything that Lucas had struggled so long for and repaid him by suggesting that he move out into the middle of nowhere to be surrounded by people he either hated or cared nothing about. ‘Way to go, Sullivan.’

The only redemption that she could see was that it looked like it was going to be fairly easy to get Rachel Dunleavy released from the asylum she was being housed in. Between bouts of severe depression and sobbing, she had dug up as much information as she could and even been able to get in touch with the doctors at the Summerholt Institute that were treating Lucas’s mom.

They told her that although Rachel seemed panicked and rambled frequently about things that were obviously hallucinations when she first came in, that she was perfectly stable now and they didn’t see any harm in reintroducing her to the outside community. Her primary doctor had even gone so far as to let it slip that he had actually presented the idea to Lionel Luthor, but that the man had promptly dismissed it and demanded that she stay locked up for several more years, until he was convinced that Lex was no longer in any danger.

He, of course, noticed his mistake and promptly ended the phone call, but Chloe had gotten all the information she needed to get Lucas’s mother out of the institute. Now it was just a matter of waiting for Lucas to come to Smallville so DNA tests could be run and he could be given Power of Attorney status over Rachel’s concerns.

No matter what kind of pull Lionel had, it wasn’t enough to keep a non-family member locked up in a private mental health facility when there was a family member available to take care of her and the institution’s own doctors recommended her release. It was a good plan, even if it was going to take a month or two to actually happen.

The sound of her loud home phone ringing jerked Chloe from her thoughts and she unraveled her body from the semi-fetal position she had been in to move toward it. Letting out a small breath when she saw her father’s cell phone number displayed, she numbly picked up the receiver and cradled it against the side of her head.

“Hello?” she answered, pure exhaustion evident in her voice.

“Hey sweetheart. Just calling to check up on you. How are you feeling?”

“About the same.”

“Sorry,” Gabe said sympathetically. He sighed audibly into the phone and Chloe instinctually knew that she was in trouble. “I know you’re not too fond of doctors, but this has been going on for a few days now. Maybe you should make an appointment.”

“I’ll be fine, Dad,” Chloe said dismissively, not even bothering to say them with conviction since she knew that her dad wouldn’t believe her anyway.

“Chloe,” Gabe started with parental concern. “You’re not eating, you’re not sleeping, you *look* awful…”

“Thanks,” Chloe interrupted sarcastically.

“You know what I mean.”

“Dad – I’m *sick*,” she said defensively.

“And therein lies the reason you should see a doctor.”

Chloe sighed tiredly.

“I don’t suppose we could argue about this later so I can go back to sleep?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Gabe half-grumbled into the phone. “But if you’re not better by tomorrow, I want you to promise me that you’ll call up Dr. Keeghan and schedule an appointment to have him check you out.”

Chloe frowned. Her father’s ultimatum gave her considerably less self-pity time than she actually needed.

“Okay,” she finally said in defeat, resigning herself that she would have to pull off a ‘miraculous recovery’ and face the dredges of school and her friends before she was feeling up to it.

“Good --- damn. Chloe, I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you again later, okay?” Gabe clicked off his phone and flashed an apologetic grin at his boss, who had just showed up. “Sorry, Lex. Just calling to check in on my daughter.”

Lex nodded once.

“I ran into Lana at the Talon yesterday. She mentioned that Chloe hasn’t been feeling well,” he responded as conversationally as he could, hoping that it wouldn’t look like he was prodding for more information.

“Miserable’s more like it,” Gabe confirmed. “She’s so stubborn though. She refuses to go see the doctor. Not like there’s a lot they can do other than tell her to get fluids and rest, I guess, but still…”

“What’s wrong with her?” Lex asked, interrupting Gabe’s ramble; his heart pounding in his chest as he awaited his answer.

If his blowout with Amanda had taught him anything, it was that he hadn’t cared for her as deeply as he thought he did; since the situation with Chloe was still the thing that was weighing heaviest in his mind throughout Amanda’s ‘deer caught in the headlights’ babbling excuses.

Chloe wanted to hurt him so badly that she slept with his brother to make him get even, to make him feel as pained as she did. Whereas, any other woman would have tried to hurt him financially – not emotionally. To Lex, it was a proven fact from the few other women that he had actually gotten serious about. All they saw was his money and him as an extension of it.

It hurt, but what Chloe had done had managed to hurt more. Not because of how she originally intended the act, but because of the conclusion that he had reached after hours of contemplation about it.

Chloe Sullivan loved him.

Not his money or his power, but him.

And he had destroyed her.

His guilt consumed him and he called Chloe’s cell phone number every chance he got, but she never answered. Not that he expected her to.

Lex broke down and purposefully went to the Talon the previous day as it was the only real possibility of ‘accidentally’ bumping into her and it not appearing suspicious to any onlookers.

He carefully constructed a reason to inquire about Chloe, namely a possible interview, and then he approached Lana; who sadly informed him that her friend was very sick and barely even leaving her room, let alone the house. She said that she’d tell Chloe, but not to expect a response for a while.

Lex thought Chloe was lying. Faking sick because even after sleeping with Lucas, she still loved him. People didn’t get over real love that quickly and she was probably hurting and not wanting to risk running into him.

But now…

Gabe shook his head.

“I’m not sure exactly,” he admitted. “She hasn’t been eating or sleeping, but…” he paused and gave Lex a hint of a grin. “I’m just being the typical dad and overreacting. It’s probably just the flu.”

Lex had no response as he had never had a father who cared whether he was ill or not, and he certainly couldn’t bring up his now reawakened suspicion that Chloe was going through some sort of depression because of their breakup.

‘Only one way to confirm it though,’ he thought to himself, forcing back a smirk at the realization that with Gabe at work and Lana at school, he could easily go to her house to confront her about it and convince her to forgive him. “I’ll let you get back to work. I just wanted to make sure we were going to make quota for the Petersen contract.”

Gabe gave him a half-grin.

“Not an issue.”

“Good. I’m – um – going to have to be out of the office for the majority of the afternoon,” Lex said, glancing at his watch. “But if you need to contact me, just page me.”

~*~*~*~

Chloe grabbed a cold bottle of filtered water and then closed the refrigerator door. Her intention on going to the kitchen had originally been to eat something, to prove to her dad that she was feeling better and that there was no need to go to the doctor, but the second she saw the leftover takeout boxes and microwave dinners, she had lost the small appetite that she had forced upon herself.

The doorbell rang and she frowned. Nobody should be visiting that time of day; at least not anyone she wanted to greet dressed in a spaghetti-strapped shelf bra tank top and baggy pajama pants that rested low on her hips.

She shook herself from her thoughts and waited for another ring of the bell. If it was UPS or something, then they would just ring the bell once and then leave the package by the door like they always did. If not, then she would check to see who it was and likely simply pretend that they weren’t on the other side of the door, as she could always write it off later to being contagious and not wanting them to catch whatever she had.

The doorbell rang again, a few more times in quick succession, and Chloe padded over to the front door to look through the peephole. Her eyes grew wide and she unlocked the deadbolt and the lock on the doorknob.

She opened the door and her visitor leaned against the doorframe with a smug grin on his lips.

“Miss me?” he asked.

“Lucas,” she greeted. “What are you doing here?”

Lucas arched an eyebrow.

“I told you I was coming after I got things squared away,” he returned with a hint of confusion.

Chloe’s mouth opened and closed once before she pushed an apologetic look onto her face.

“I guess I wasn’t expecting you to get done so soon,” she said.

Lucas shrugged dismissively with one shoulder.

“Not a lot to take care of,” he replied. “The apartment came furnished except for the bed, and the back taxes on the house were less than a month’s rent. Got the keys and I’m good to go.”

“So, you’ve been to the house?”

“Not yet,” Lucas said, his mouth falling into a pensive frown. His eyes raked over her body and he cocked his head to the side as he met her gaze. “Why are you still in pajamas?”

Chloe sighed and ran a hand through her hair, inadvertently drawing Lucas’s attention to her breasts.

“I’ve been playing sick so I don’t have to go to school, but really I’ve just been brooding,” she admitted with the tiniest of embarrassed smiles.

Lucas’s eyebrows rose.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“What kind of ice cream you get?” Lucas asked with teasing interest.

The corners of Chloe’s lips twitched further upward.

“None. I’ve pretty much been living off of bottled water.”

Lucas made a face.

“Yum,” he said sarcastically. “You sure you’re not really sick? Because that doesn’t seem normal…” he trailed off with a chuckle when Chloe stepped forward and swatted back handed swat onto his chest. “So, I assume this is about Lex?”

Chloe frowned.

“I don’t want it to be, but ---” her voice cracked and she closed her eyes as part of an inward sigh. Suddenly she felt Lucas’s strong arms surrounding her and she stiffened. “What are you doing?” she asked, hoping that he hadn’t gotten any ideas about them continuing a physical relationship.

Not that the night they spent together hadn’t been amazing and exhausting, but even if she thought of him in that sense and hadn’t just broken up with his brother, she didn’t have the energy to get involved with another man who would never love her.

“I’m comforting you,” Lucas replied almost snidely.

“Oh.”

“I’m not good with the emotional stuff,” he said almost apologetically as he pulled back slightly. “The only thing I could think of was that or offering to get you drunk - and it’s a little early to get plastered.”

Surprising even herself, Chloe laughed and shook her head before resting it against Lucas’s chest.

“Thanks,” she mumbled against his tight t-shirt. “I needed that.”

~*~*~*~

Lex watched with narrowed eyes at the sight in front of him; Chloe and Lucas standing in her doorway, in what appeared to be an emotionally intimate moment. To his knowledge, they hadn’t even talked since they slept together, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

He pursed his lips and watched as Lucas grinned down at Chloe and then kissed the top of her head. His brother was clearly interested in the young blonde woman – though it was difficult to tell if he wanted her for sex or a real relationship. His heart constricted as he saw Chloe smile back up at his brother, the same smile that he believed she used to reserve for him, and before him, Clark.

Lex frowned as his heart constricted. True, he hadn’t ever thought about Chloe in that way, but seeing her with his brother after the false scenario he had developed in his mind about the two of them getting back together and him actually making an effort to try and see her as a woman instead of as a pawn…it caused something inside of Lex to snap.

A surge of jealousy swept through him and he clenched his jaw.

Chloe Sullivan loved *him*, not Lucas.

And he’d make sure she knew it.



TBC…

Thank you so much for updating!! :biggrin: I'm so glad that Lex is jealous!! It's about time that he felt something for Chloe!! :applause: Now he just needs to show Chloe how he feels!! :worship2: :clap: :worship2: Great update!! :chlexsign3:

love where this is going! great story! please update again, lol. not to sound greedy tho

Serves that big idiot right! Lex is soo damn stupid! Oh well...more Chloe for Lucas. In in my books...that's all good! :biggrin:

Fantastic update Kris. Can I convince you to ...you know....break rotation and work on AG again?

Fee

:applause: I love you for updating. This was a good chapter. :applause:
A jealous Lex is so good!
Poor Lucas!

As much as I love Chlex, I think Chloe and Lucas are cute too! Especially in your story- seeing as Lex has been a complete jerk and idiot to Chloe. Lucas is sweet though. :) I liked when he tried to comfort her

Quote:

---

“I’m not good with the emotional stuff,” he said almost apologetically as he pulled back slightly. “The only thing I could think of was that or offering to get you drunk - and it’s a little early to get plastered.”

---

I loved that! :) The chemistry between Chloe and Lucas is GREAT! I hope you update soon!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by ElizabethV@Jan 3 2004, 11:19 PM
The chemistry between Chloe and Lucas is GREAT! I hope you update soon!

---

*dances*
ain't it?
hee! :)

You know what would be good is if his dad liked Chloe and Lucas together that would piss Lex off :devil: . Great chapter Up-date soon

Okay how could i not know about this fic? Chlucas's biggest shipper here! :ohmy:

OMG @ the Chlucas nookie, like wow!

I totally LOVE all your fics, I didn't realise it was yours till I clicked on the 1 page and saw the title next to ya name... and I just knew it was going to be brilliant, and it tis!

You haven't updated in AGES!

Please please don't forget about this fic!

Jen x

Okay I made that last post like a week ago? :ohmy:

Hopefully you'll spot this little bumpy in the fanfiction section, so you'll remember this fic!

*shrinks away*

Sorry. This last eppy pretty much destroyed my muse. Everything I've tried to write on, I've only been able to get a few pages worth out, and that's not enough for a chapter. I will finish all my fics, but it might take a little more time than anticipated. :(

(A ha! My plan worked!)

It's okay, as long as ya haven't forgotten about this fic... I'm willing to wait a little longer, this fic is so totally worth the wait.

And okay, I may be sounding totally stupid right now, but what is a muse? Cause everyone keeps talking about their muse, and like... it's sorta freaking me out now :huh: :biggrin:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Jen1388@Jan 25 2004, 03:14 AM

And okay, I may be sounding totally stupid right now, but what is a muse? Cause everyone keeps talking about their muse, and like... it's sorta freaking me out now :huh: :biggrin:

---

not stupid at all.... the muses are characters from the greek mythology they have the "gift" of inspiration and the humans needs them so they can have ideas :biggrin: and the authors needs them to write their stories
:chlexsign3:

p.d. I LOVE THIS FIC..UPDATE SOON

Oh right! Okay well I won't bother to explain what I thought it was, lol. Thanks;)

P. S. Still waiting fer an update here... :devil: :cool:

Chapter 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Okay – go get dressed and I’ll take you to the doctor.”

Startled, Chloe’s eyebrows rose and she pulled away from him to shoot him a questioning look.

“Excuse me?” she asked, but turning to go back into the house just the same.

Lucas followed her and closed the door behind him.

“Come on. How much longer do you think your dad’s going to let you stay home from school without a doctor’s note?”

“I don’t know, but --- hey, wait a second. Why did you even come over here if you thought I was going to be at school?” Chloe asked pointedly.

Lucas shrugged.

“Stopped by the school first,” he said.

“You didn’t.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know you were ditching?” Lucas retorted. “And speaking of my visit to good old Smallville High, I kind of had to think on my feet, so remind me to pick up your homework from the office this afternoon.”

Chloe’s eyes grew wide.

“What?!”

Lucas grinned.

“The conversation with the crypt keeper in the office went much like this: ‘Chloe Sullivan?’ ‘She’s not here today.’ ‘Oh…yeah – I know. I’m here to pick up her homework for her.’ At which point your principal came out and grilled me on who I was and what I was doing on school grounds since I wasn’t a student there.”

Chloe frowned.

“How’d that go?” she asked.

Lucas’s grin only seemed to grow.

“Good. He seemed to be impressed that you had a boyfriend who was willing to come get your assignments for you.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t tell him your real last name then.”

“No. Why?”

“Principal Reynolds hates Lex and your dad.”

Lucas raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Yeah?” he asked with a thoughtful expression.

“Yep.”

“Good for him.”

Chloe snickered, but her mirth quickly dissipated as the rest of Lucas’s words sunk in.

“You told him you were my boyfriend?!”

“Had to tell him something,” Lucas replied nonchalantly. Seeing Chloe’s discomfort, he shook his head and eased his grin into a comforting expression. “Will you relax?”

“Lucas ---”

“Look at it this way – just because we know we’re not together doesn’t mean they need to know it,” he said. “It can only work to your advantage in getting back at Lex if he hears through the small town grapevine that your boyfriend showed up at your school today – even more so when he finds out it was me. Right?”

Chloe opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before finally settling on a spark of a smile.

“Besides,” Lucas continued, “If we pretend to be involved, then you’ll finally have an excuse for all those times you had to lie to your dad when you were actually seeing Lex. You can just say you were seeing me and you didn’t want to tell him about it because you weren’t sure it was going anywhere since I lived in Metropolis.”

Chloe blinked.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “That’s putting a lot on you.”

“I think I can handle it,” Lucas said with a smirk. “Now go get dressed so I can take you to the doctor.”

Chloe sighed and shook her head.

“I’m not really sick – remember? The only thing a doctor is going to do is confirm it.”

Lucas made a scoffing sound and rested his hands on her bare shoulders.

“Chloe, Chloe, Chloe,” he teasingly scorned. “Has our short time together taught you nothing?” Chloe arched an eyebrow and Lucas rolled his eyes. “Just tell the truth.”

“That I’m pathetic because I still have feelings for your brother even though he treated me like crap?”

“Noooo,” Lucas strung out. “That you’ve been feeling sick ever since you went to dinner on Friday night.”

Realization dawned on her and a grin slowly started to crawl across Chloe’s lips.

“He’ll think it’s food poisoning.”

“Yes,” Lucas said, dropping his hands from her shoulders. *And* he’ll give you a note that will enable you to have the next couple of days off so you can help me shop for my new house. Woman’s touch and all that crap,” he said with a wink.

Chloe’s grin spread into a smile.

“Nice to know what your real motives are,” she quipped.

~*~*~*~

Dr. Keeghan frowned as he pulled back from looking in Chloe’s ear. He took a few steps and jotted down something on the chart that lay on the counter.

“Well, from everything you’ve told me, it sounds like food poisoning,” he said as he wrote. “But given the circumstances…” he paused and his eyes darted somewhat disapprovingly over at Lucas, “I’d like to run a pregnancy test as well.”

Chloe blanched.

“What?” she asked.

Lucas squirmed where he stood, trying to hide his discomfort by folding his arms across his chest.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said.

“Well, you’re not the doctor,” Dr. Keeghan retorted smugly and then flashed a small smile over at Chloe. “I’ll have a nurse bring it in.”

Chloe nodded absently and barely registered Keeghan leaving the room, the sound of the door closing the only thing that jerked her out of her thoughts.

Lucas turned his head to look at her, a fixed wince on his face as he struggled with the words he wanted to say.

“You’re…you know…not…are you?”

Chloe scoffed.

“Not to my knowledge,” she said, sighing when he didn’t seem placated by her answer. “We used a condom every time – remember? Don’t worry about it.”

‘Yeah, but condoms can break,’ Lucas thought, smart enough to keep the comment to himself and not voice the concern aloud.

The last thing Chloe needed was the possibility of a pregnancy on top of already being in what he considered to be severe depression over the loss of her relationship with his brother. No. Just the worry over the chance of it would be enough to send her over the edge and close to suicide. He wouldn’t do that to her; not when she was probably right about not being pregnant anyway.

The door opened and an older woman with mousy brown hair shuffled into the room. Unfamiliar with Chloe’s age or the circumstances that brought her there, she smiled and handed her a small plastic cup.

“Pee at least up to this line,” she said, pointing to a faint red line on the cup. “Then put it on the counter and call me in so we can run the test.” She glanced back and forth between Chloe and Lucas and then crinkled her nose as her face screwed up in delight. “Ooh, you’ll have cute kids.”

She turned and left the room, leaving a stunned Chloe and Lucas in her wake.

~*~*~*~

That evening…

Gabe yawned as he entered the house through the door that connected to the garage. Every day at work since he had been hired back from his short period of being laid off seemed like a long day, and the concern for his daughter had only served to make the hours drag by slower.

He hadn’t taken more than a few steps inside before he was suddenly hit with the overwhelming aroma of…

‘Freshly baked bread?’ he thought, furrowing his brow in confusion. “Chloe?” he called out. “I’m home!”

“Hey Dad! We’re in the living room!”

A tiny grin twitched at the corners of Gabe’s mouth. Chloe was certainly sounding better. Maybe all of his worrying had been for naught. Maybe all she needed was a couple of days of rest and ---

His line of thought stopped abruptly at the sight of Chloe sitting on the couch with a handsome boy that he didn’t recognize; the coffee table littered with takeout containers and bags.

“Chloe?” he asked, a suspicious tone lining his voice. “What’s going on?”

Chloe turned and grinned at him.

“Lucas made me go to the doctor. He gave me some meds for my nausea, but he said I have to take them with food, so…” she stopped and motioned to the pile of food next to where she sat.

“Lucas?” Gabe asked.

Lucas gave him an upward nod of his head and partially rose from his seat to extend his hand to him over the back of the couch.

“Hey,” he greeted. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Sullivan.”

“Uh…yeah,” Gabe said, shaking Lucas’s hand. “You too.”

Lucas smiled with a practiced knowing look.

“Chloe hasn’t mentioned me at all, has she?” he asked, humor in his voice to help Gabe relax a little, which he did – visibly.

“No,” Gabe replied with a small smile of his own, shooting a look at Chloe out of the corner of his eye before turning his attention back to Lucas. “Sorry.”

Chloe let out a nervous half-chuckle and then cleared her throat before standing up.

“Thirsty?” she asked Lucas, who raised a taunting eyebrow at her in response.

“Sure,” he answered, barely resisting the urge to smirk at how uncomfortable she was.

But then, she had the right he supposed. In the span of half a week, she found out her boyfriend wasn’t really her boyfriend, given her virginity to a virtual stranger, caused damage to her health by not eating or sleeping, run the risk of a pregnancy scare (which, although negative, had proved nerve-wracking for both of them), and essentially agreed to pretend to be his girlfriend to keep up appearances. He had been in high stress situations, but they were nothing compared to what he imagined Chloe must be going through.

“Sooo,” Gabe strung out after Chloe left the room to go to the kitchen. “I guess we should talk.”

Lucas grinned at him and then sifted through the food that was laid out on the coffee table.

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

Gabe blinked at the amount of the young man’s confidence. When he was younger, he would have been decidedly more nervous about meeting a girlfriend’s father for the first time. Still, Lucas seemed friendly enough – and he *had* forced Chloe to go to the doctor against her will. If he cared that much about her well-being, then perhaps he deserved to be given a chance.

He walked around the couch and sat down on the oversized recliner on the other side of the coffee table, reaching forward to see what kind of food Chloe and Lucas had brought home.

“How long have you been seeing my daughter?” he asked.

“Since June,” Lucas answered without hesitation.

It was when Chloe had entered into the deal with his father and they decided that would be the date they’d give anybody if asked so it would explain her time away to friends and family.

“June?” Gabe asked in surprise. “That’s…a long time.”

“Yeah.”

“So, why didn’t she tell me about you before?”

Lucas shrugged nonchalantly.

“I’ve been living in Metropolis and she probably didn’t think we were going to be seeing each other that long because of that.”

“Ah,” Gabe said, reasonably appeased by Lucas’s answer. Then he focused on the first part of what Lucas had said. “What do you mean ‘been living’? You’re not living there anymore?”

Lord help him if Chloe had brought another one of her friends home to stay with them on a semi-permanent basis, let alone her boyfriend.

Lucas smiled.

“I just got a house here,” he informed him, inserting a proud tone into his voice.

“Yeah? Why’d your parents decide to move?”

“They didn’t.”

Gabe looked up in shock from where he was reaching for a bag of food.

“What?”

“*I* got a house,” Lucas said. “I sort of came into an inheritance and ---”

“You got a house,” Gabe repeated in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

“Uh…sorry. Guess you caught me off guard there. How much older than Chloe are you?”

“Two years.”

Gabe shook his head and grinned pleasantly at Lucas. Chloe’s boyfriend had used whatever inheritance money he had come into and applied it toward a house instead of spending it on frivolous things that he was sure her other male friends like Clark and Pete would have done. That one action alone added up to several positive points in Lucas’s favor.

“So, what kind of interest rate did you get?” Gabe asked conversationally. Lucas furrowed his brow. “On the mortgage,” Gabe clarified.

“Oh,” Lucas said in surprise, pushing a charming smile onto his face in hopes that he could get out of the conversation without mentioning who it was that he was related to. “No mortgage. It’s paid in full.”

Gabe knew his mouth had dropped open, but as he was in shock, he saw no immediate cure for the malady. It was either sit there with his mouth agape or stand up to hug the boy, and he sincerely doubted that Lucas would appreciate the latter.

Chloe had finally gotten over Clark and had picked a boyfriend with redeeming qualities.

For the moment, life was good.




TBC

Lucas is such a good guy. He made a great impression on Gabe and ME!!! I love Lucas. :wub:

I want more. Please update soon. :worship2: :yay: :worship2:

*urge to hug Lucas!* Great update! I was actually kinda sceptical about him in the beginning, but he's really sounding sweet! lovely lovely lovely....

Lucas is just so sweet!! He made Chloe cheer up enough to eat and made a good first impression on Gabe!! What a great chapter!! It's nice to see Chloe get a little happiness!! :biggrin: But, what is going to happen next? I don't think Lex is going to like their little relationship fibs?!! Great update!! :chlexsign3:

Gabe's reactions to Lucas were great- he was like 'Hmmm... I like him!' :)

Quote:

---

Chloe had finally gotten over Clark and had picked a boyfriend with redeeming qualities.

For the moment, life was good.

---

I loved that! And Lucas is so sweet! I liked how he pretended to be her boyfriend at the school and is now taking her homework back to her. That was cute. I also loved the part w/ the doctor (although I'm definitely glad that Chloe's not pregnant):) It was greatness! :biggrin: Anyway, I hope you'll update soon!

I LOVE IT! i love it. i love it. i love it! ....I LOVE IT! :biggrin:

Oh my! Oh my [dances around happily]! You update. I love this story and this final chapter was great. I liked the fluffyness to it. I am soooooo happy that Lucas is racking in all this brownie points from Gabe, because the moment he finds out Lucas is a Luthor... he is going to need to cash them in.

This chapter was wonderful. I was worried that Chloe would end up pregnant. I'm glad she's not. She doesn't need more bad news... at least until things get a little better for her.

Again great chapter... you've made my night! :yay: :chlexsign3: :yay:

Kris, great as always :biggrin: :biggrin:

Still not sure how I feel personally about having sex with someone you don't know for revenge...but it fits with the story line. And although sex might not be a big deal to Lex, he knows Chloe well enough to know that it means something to her--especially her first time.

Look forward to more, of course. It's actually nice to see Lex not getting his own way for a change :)

RoseAnn

I just found this fic yesterday and have already read it twice. I love Lex but Lucas is my favorite guest character and you do such a good job at portraying him. I can't wait for more.

Please, please, please update soon!
Pretty please w/ sugar on top? :blush:

Soooooooo sorry I haven't posted yet, I read the update ages ago, but I had to go out just after and didn't have time to post, and it slipped my mind afterwards ( :ohmy: I know, how could I?!)

Anywayssssssssssssss

Perfect update as always.

Chloe and Lucas pretending to be bf/gf... well it's a start ain't it? ;)

I can't wait to see Lex's reaction.

Okay I'm gonna have to re-read it from the start again... yes I'm sad like that, I like to read things till I basically know them off by heart.

Please update soon!

Jen x

Kris,

This is going to sound strange, but I like this fic because you have their roles reversed. Usually Lex is the one attracted to Chloe from the onset of the story, and then Chloe realizes she likes him too. In this one, Chloe loves Lex but he doesn't feel the same--YET.

I also like Lucas and Chloe--he is very sweet to her :biggrin:

WELL DONE!

I'm glad that Lex is trying to change the way he views Chloe. :) It's a start, right? And I love how Lucas is just sooo sweet to Chloe! Making sure she's eating and such. It's great! Anyway, can't wait 'til Clark tells Lex. Hope you update soon!

Beautiful - as always.

I just dunno what to say anymore Sci! Cause I keep saying it after the last update, there just ain't words to describe how much I LOVE this fic!

I really really like caring Lucas btw:p Just wanted to slip that in;)

I am awaiting your next update, and am willing to wait awhile cause this is so worth waiting for... but don't forget about us... pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee.

*p.s I'm re-reading Beloved, it's like the fic I always have in the background, and I always end up forgetting about everything else I'm doing, and read it:p

Love Lucas, love this story.

It's been said, but I'll say it again: Updates are wonderful. Take your time and write us a nice one. ;)

Lionel rested his jaw on his bent palm, his index finger straight up against his cheek in a pensive position. True, he knew Chloe wouldn’t take the news of Lex’s betrayal well, but he thought she would have given into her thirst for vengeance and called him by now.

Instead, he hadn’t heard word one from her. And surveillance reports only added to the sinking feeling that now sat in his gut. His investigators said that she had holed herself up in her home, only venturing out for menial errands like going to the doctor, grocery shopping, helping a friend pick out furniture for a new house, and most recently returning to school.

The reports also said that she wasn’t driving and wasn’t going anywhere alone; she was always accompanied by her father or one of her other meddlesome friends, most often the slightly older boy whom she helped pick out furniture with. As frustrating as it was, Lionel was informed that the initial photos of the two friends were blotchy and that a new set in which he could actually see the young man’s face would be taken and given to him soon. He suspected there was more to it than that, but it wasn’t as if he could force them to be honest with him.

Lionel couldn’t help thinking that the situation wouldn’t do at all. Chloe was supposed to have been alienated from the rest of her support structure; not so much that she couldn’t gather information on Clark for him, but enough to make her feel like she had nowhere left to turn except to him and now he was being left in the dark.

The knowledge that she not only still had good friends, let alone was spending every ounce of her time with them, was not only bothersome, but completely unacceptable. He’d never get the information he needed on Clark Kent if Chloe didn’t start speaking to him again.

His stomach twisted and inwardly he sighed. In retrospect, perhaps he should have arranged another way for Chloe to stumble across Lex and Amanda; one that didn’t betray that he knew everything about the other relationship and hadn’t said anything to her about it before.

He was certain that was part of the problem now. She clearly blamed him as much as Lex, and the anger and hurt that she felt weren’t likely to go away anytime soon. Not unless he…pushed things along.

Letting out an almost silent grunt, he reached for the phone. Arrangements would need to be made if he was going to visit Smallville for an undetermined amount of time.

~*~*~*~

Chloe nervously raked her teeth over her lower lip. Setting up an initial visit for Lucas with his mom with Lionel being none the wiser had been more complicated than she’d hoped, but she had managed to pull it off.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t expected Lucas to practically insist on her coming with him and had been incredibly reluctant in indulging the request. Behind the scenes stuff she could handle; personal, private things were substantially more difficult.

Lucas was being reunited with a mother he hadn’t seen since his birth and Chloe couldn’t help feeling like she was intruding by being there. That feeling of misplacement companied with Chloe’s buried maternal abandonment issues, settled in her stomach, and made her feel more and more apprehensive with every step she and Lucas took down one of the Summerholt Institute’s many long and winding corridors.

Chloe counted three security gates (that were there to prevent patients from escaping) that they had to pass through before they were finally led into a sparsely furnished room on the fourth floor.

The orderly who guided them there motioned to one of the two couches that were facing each other in the center of the room.

“Feel free to have a seat. They’ll bring her in a minute.”

With that, he turned and left the room, leaving an anxious Lucas and a jittery Chloe in his wake. Chloe frowned at Lucas.

“Are you sure you want me here? I mean, I could always go wait…somewhere else,” she said, murmuring the last part of her suggestion under her breath, her gaze darting to the door as she did so.

Lucas smirked knowingly.

“It’s not a regular hospital, Chloe,” he reminded her in a teasing tone.

Chloe sighed, part of her anxiety fading with Lucas’s words and tone, but her body still tense despite the breath she released.

“I know,” she said tersely. “And I know we’re not here for me, but…some phobias are hard to kick.”

Lucas’s smirk faded into a comforting grin.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And with everything you’ve been through, I can’t say I blame you.” He stepped toward her and enveloped her in his embrace. “But this isn’t Smallville. Nobody’s going to hurt you here.”

The rest of his statement went unspoken, but the implication came through just the same. No one was going to hurt her there or elsewhere; and if they so much as tried to, then there would be hell to pay. Lucas would make sure of it.

Her physical reaction was inaudible, but Chloe felt her breath hitch and her heartbeat quicken. A large part of her knew she shouldn’t be responding – even in the slightest – to his soft, reassuring words; to his warm, muscular body holding her to him.

She couldn’t afford to let him in, couldn’t afford to let herself believe that their relationship was more than the farce of a romance they’d concocted or the budding friendship it had become.

She couldn’t allow herself to be hurt again.

Not ever.

Still, a small part of her damaged heart was clinging to Lucas. He may be a far reach from being a white knight; but after being left behind, lied to, and betrayed too many times by too many people, a piece of her wanted to just seek solace in Lucas’s arms and be done with it. She wanted to relish in being treated like the fragile creature she’d become and tried so desperately to hide – even if it was only for a short while.

“L-Lucas?” a small, wary voice called from the doorway. “Is it really you?”

Lucas and Chloe steadily pulled away from each other and Lucas blinked a couple of times as the reality of the situation finally struck him.

“Mom?” he asked. He stood there half in a daze even after he spoke and Chloe gave Rachel Dunleavy a weak smile before nudging Lucas forward by pushing on his back with one hand.

He glanced at her and her smile grew as she motioned to his mother with her head.

“Go,” she ordered in a soft voice.

He grinned gratefully at her and then he and Rachel started to walk toward one another. They clasped their arms tightly around each other and Chloe ducked her head, turning away from them when she was suddenly overcome with emotion from watching the scene unfold in front of her.

Oddly enough, the feeling coursing through her wasn’t the self-pity she had been expecting, but a mixture of pride and happiness.

She had done this.

Regardless of everything she’d had to endure up to that point, she had met and enabled Lucas to be reunited with the woman who’d been desperately searching for him since she had been forced against her will to give him up for adoption. That moment in time was worth everything Chloe went through and nobody would be able to take the memory away from her.

“Chloe,” Lucas called, holding a hand straight out in front of him in a silent gesture for her to come over.

Chloe took a breath, pushed aside her reservations, and walked over to them confidently. She grinned when she saw Rachel hastily sweeping shed tears off of her cheeks.

“Mom,” Lucas started, pausing for a split second when he realized the endearment had slipped from his mouth so easily. “This is Chloe. She’s the one who found me and told me you weren’t really dead.”

Rachel beamed a smile at the blonde-haired girl. Chloe lifted her hand to shake the other woman’s, but Rachel took her by surprise and wrapped her arms around her in a thankful hug. Chloe let out a small, startled chortle and then unsurely returned the embrace, patting Rachel on the back to wordlessly tell her that she could let go of her now. Rachel didn’t take the hint however, and to Chloe’s shock, squeezed even tighter.

“Thank you,” Rachel whispered. “Thank you so much.”

Chloe nodded and Rachel finally released her. Chloe gave her a flustered smile.

“I --- I wanted to say I was sorry,” she said after choosing her words in her head.

“For what?”

“You only came to Smallville because of the information I posted on Clark and…”

Rachel’s mouth dropped open ever so slightly in sudden understanding.

“You’re that Chloe?” she asked.

Chloe grimaced. Whenever people put ‘that’ in front of her name, it generally wasn’t in a good context. She stiffened her posture to get prepared for a verbal lashing and then nodded in affirmation. Maybe she could get in her side of the story before she listened to Rachel rant at her.

“I ---”

“You hunted down my real baby even after everything that happened?” Rachel asked in disbelief.

“Uh…well…not exactly,” Chloe admitted. “Lex is really the one who found him. I just told him the truth after Lex told him you were dead.”

“I suppose Lex felt I deserved that since I tried to kill him,” Rachel said sadly.

“Who hasn’t?” Lucas scoffed and shot her a cocky, lopsided grin.

Chloe bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing, but a snicker escaped her mouth just the same. Rachel looked back and forth between them expectantly, wanting a further explanation, but none was offered. Lucas quickly evaded having to answer the unspoken question by suggesting that they sit down.

After positioning themselves on the couches, with Chloe and Lucas on one and Rachel on the other, Rachel stared silently at her son, making him squirm a little.

“What?” he half-barked when her appraisal of him made him feel entirely too uneasy.

Chloe placed her hand on his leg and squeezed softly. The last thing she needed was to get caught in the middle of an oncoming battle, and if Lucas could reign in his insecurity issues for a little longer, then she wouldn’t have to.

Rachel smiled and shook her head.

“I’ve dreamt of this moment; planned all the things I was going to tell you if I ever got the chance…but now that you’re here, I can’t remember any of it,” she said. “It sounds so clichéd, but it’s the truth.”

Chloe grinned back at her after she felt Lucas relax beside her.

“Clichés exist for a reason,” she said comfortingly; raising the corners of her lips just a little bit higher when Rachel smiled at her.

Unfortunately, she still couldn’t relax completely. Lucas’s mom seemed to like her - or she was certainly giving that impression – and she wondered if Lucas would be willing to leave out some – if not all – of the details regarding her respective past dealings with Lex and Lionel.

She wasn’t used to people appreciating her or things she said and did and she wasn’t terribly anxious to tarnish the image that Rachel apparently had of her. Lucas would understand that…wouldn’t he?

“So…” Rachel started, stalling for effect as she took in Lucas and Chloe’s body language. They were sitting close to each other and Lucas had one arm draped lazily over the back of the section of couch where Chloe was seated. “How long have you two been seeing each other?”

Lucas caught the blush that rose to Chloe’s cheeks out of the corner of his eye and he smirked. Much to Chloe’s dismay and Rachel’s surprise, he launched into an entirely honest, yet highly summarized version of everything that had happened up to that point. When he was finished, Rachel was wide-eyed and her mouth opened and closed a few times before finally settling on what her verbal response should be.

“Oh.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?” he repeated somewhat tauntingly.

“I…it’s just…it’s not what I expected to hear,” Rachel stammered. Drawing in a deep breath, she steeled her gaze on the two of them, choosing to focus on Chloe rather than Lucas since she seemed to empathize with her a little more. “I want in.”

Lucas and Chloe exchanged a look and Rachel glanced over to the door before looking back at them and leaning forward.

“I know you’re planning some kind of revenge on Lionel and probably Lex too – you’ve got to be – so don’t even try to deny it,” she said in an extremely hushed voice. “So whatever it is that you’re planning, I want in.”




TBC...

WOW~!!

You updated~!!

Thank you sooooo much...have you any idea how many times I have been checking this board to see if you updated this story and now that you have...All I can say is WOW~!!

Bringing Rachel in for revenge is a nice touch...

And the fact that she can see the chemistry between Lucas and Chloe just emphasises that they are perfect...After all, mother knows best...

Hope you update quicker next time though...*hint hint*

Not a new reader, just a silent reader... Really love this story! I hope that you can update more and sooner! LOL! I know I'm being a li'l bit demanding.. but I can't help it! I'm a Chlucas shipper also and There're not so many Chlucas stories out there!


hippiez

I was just thinking of the fic the other day and was so happy to see that it was updated. And with a great part. I can't wait to see what the addition of Rachel will bring into the plot.

:worship2: I love your new update and Lucas reunion with his mother!! I love the fact that Rachel accepts Chloe and wants to help her and Lucas in their fight against Lex and Lionel!! I'm also glad that Lionel realizes that what he did to Chloe was wrong, even though not for the right reasons!! Thank you so much for the update!! This is the best story, even if it's not Chlex!! :worship2:

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH UPDATE! Please. I love this story and am amazed that I am kinda rooting for Lucas and for Lex. (What can I say, the Chlex in me will never die)

More soon
Shay

Lovely update.

Rachel seems to have stablized, at least to the point where she's coherent and calm. I can't wait to see what she adds to the mix.

And I love the easy comfort between Lucas and Chloe. While I am primarily a Chlex shipper, there will always be a special place for Chlucas in my heart. I am hoping this continues to develop that way. :D

Great job!

Aw! I love how Rachel even noticed how great they are together. :) And Lucas' insistence that Chloe go w/ him to meet his mom. They're just so great together! I really hope you can update soon- and hopefully Rachel can be a help to them.

They had slipped into a comfortable routine around each other; slightly more than companionable when around others, but truly becoming friends when they were alone. So when Lucas gave Chloe a ride back to his house on his motorcycle after visiting his mother, the last thing she’d been expecting was to him to be running a nervous hand through his hair and lacking the enormous amount of self confidence that he usually possessed around her – or around anyone else for that matter.

“I…” he paused and darted his eyes toward the street. Chloe wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not since he could be one of the most paranoid people she’d ever met; and knowing who his father was, he certainly had a right to be. He brought his eyes gaze back to hers after a moment and let out a breath before he spoke. “I wanted to say thank you.”

She arched an eyebrow. That’s it? That’s why he was acting so strange? He had trouble saying thank you?

Seeing her look of skepticism, he gave her a tight grin. “I have trouble with the emotional stuff – remember?”

“Actually, I’d forgotten,” Chloe admitted with a bright smile that made his heart beat a little bit faster. “Of course, you’re a good actor. Too good. Sometimes, when we’re around my dad or my friends, I have to remind myself that we’re not really going out.” She shook her head lightly as if shaking off the comment as well and was taken aback by the entirely too pensive expression that lined Lucas’s features. “What?”

“Nothing,” Lucas said, quickly writing whatever he had been thinking about off – or at least negating the possibility of telling Chloe what it was.

Well, she couldn’t have that. What kind of investigative reporter would she be if she let things slide that easily? Then again, the young man standing just inches away from her had fast become her best friend and she didn’t want to risk losing him because of her over-abundant curiosity. So, she held her tongue by biting her lip and then gave him a weak grin.

“I guess I should get going,” she said, suddenly thankful that she had driven over to his house that morning rather than walked to get exercise like she’d been doing. Their visit to see Lucas’s mom had been tiring, both emotionally and mentally. And because a drain on one sense was like a drain on the others, she doubted she had the energy to start running if some meteor freak began to chase her on her walk home. Or dodge whatever other sick joke the gods of Smallville decided to throw at her. “Bye.”

She hadn’t taken two full steps away from him before Lucas finally decided to speak again.

“Chloe?”

She turned and looked at him questioningly, but didn’t offer a verbal response. Likely it would be something along the lines of ‘Huh?’, ‘What?’, or ‘Yeah?’, so why bother with something that a look could just as easily convey? That was her rationalization later anyway. But the real reason she said nothing was because she had turned around and immediately made eye contact with him, the sight she saw knocking the breath, or at least the words, right out of her.

His normally brown eyes seemed a zillion shades darker, and though Chloe may not have had the experience that Lana had with guys lusting after her so much that they put her up on a pedestal rather than simply trying to get to know her, she recognized the desire that lay beneath his expression well enough.

If it was his eyes that knocked the wind out of her, it was the statement he made next that made her come painfully crashing back to reality.

“Maybe we should stop pretending.”

Oh. Right. Of course. Obviously she just wasn’t as good about reading people’s language as she thought she’d become. She opened her mouth to speak, to say it was alright, that she had given him the ‘get out of jail free card’ at their very first meeting for a reason, when she looked up from the cemented front-door stoop that she hadn’t even realized she’d been staring at to find that Lucas had moved measurably closer to her and was lowering his lips to hers.

The kiss was soft, testing rather than passionate, and Chloe could have sworn her knees were threatening to buckle. If not for the strong hand he’d placed on the small of her back and the one he was weaving into her hair, she was fairly certain she’d collapse. She spread her lips further apart and lightly licked against the partially open crease of his mouth, her heart pounding forcefully in her chest as their embrace deepened and her tongue entwined with Lucas’s.

She pushed aside the traitorous thought that she shouldn’t be doing this because she had been severely hurt recently and might be again if she gave into what her body wanted. She may not love Lucas – not yet – but damned if the boy didn’t know how to kiss. Damned if he didn’t know how to do everything else after that either.

Lucas made quick work of opening the front door and within moments slammed Chloe back against a wall and pressed his mouth to hers in a kiss so full of pent up desire that it could only be described as feral.

Her eyelids had lost any battle they may have been fighting to stay open, even as that little voice in the back of her head protested against what she was doing. Lucas deserved to know that she didn’t love him; especially when her body was sending the mixed signal that yes, she very much did like to be touched by him. Her body may have been melting no matter how slight the caress, but the truth was that she was slowly but surely getting over just having her heart ripped to pieces – again – and that didn’t leave a lot to work with in the emotional attachment department.

What it did leave was the part that tossed the little voice to the back of her brain and took control of the situation, pushing her body back against Lucas’s; sliding her tongue around his in small circular movements that made her skin feel like it was on fire. It left an empty, broken space that needed to be filled.

She needed to be wanted and desired; even if it was only physically, she needed an outlet to rid herself of the pain that still had her waking up in the middle of the night sobbing for no logical reason. And this, this tangle of tongues and limbs, this delicious feeling of Lucas’s muscular body against hers, was ready and willing to be that outlet.

She didn’t remember being lifted up and wrapping her legs around his waist, but God, she was glad she had. She unconsciously rocked against him as they kissed, as he attacked her neck with his tongue and teeth, as he peeled her shirt up over her bra and then over her head and threw it onto the floor.

She could do this. It may not be sweet or loving, or flowers and chocolate hearts, but it was real and it appealed to that primal part of her that she kept so well-buried most of the time.

Lucas moaned in pleasure against her lips, beginning to speak but kissing her between his staggered words as if he were remiss to have to say anything at all. “Bedroom.” *kiss* “Have to…” *kiss* “…condom.”

Condom. Right. Yes. Good. At least one of them was thinking straight.

In a move so similar to their first encounter, Chloe tightened her legs around Lucas’s waist and kissed him again with a fury as he grabbed her ass to help support her and led both of them down the hall and into his bedroom.

~*~*~*~

Lex lifted a hand to rub his eyes. He was tired and if the action happened to partially hide the fact that his eyelids were heavy and threatening to remain closed until he got a good night’s sleep, then all the better. He couldn’t show his weaknesses; even if they were the same ones that every human had, he just couldn’t. Not now.

Work had been surrealistically busy considering his company’s main focus was fertilizer. Yes, their labs were branching out into other areas and had been for a while, but none of the ongoing research had amounted to a marketable product yet, which meant Lex’s overtime was due to increased orders for manure-based fertilizers and never-ending meetings with both old and new distributors.

It was dull and exhausting, but it helped keep his mind off of other things, and therefore his sometimes volatile emotions in check. So, when he heard his father’s voice greet him as he walked into his office at home, he felt little more than the small surge of loathing and contempt that always swept through him when the man was near.

“Dad,” he returned, heading toward the bar built into the wall’s shelving rather than trying to go over and physically kick his father out of his chair like he was tempted to do.

He set his steel briefcase down and poured himself a drink. Generally, he would have reached for a bottle of TyNant water out of the mini-refrigerator, but if his dad had made the trek from Metropolis to Smallville without any warning, then something serious was about to happen; something that he would undoubtedly need to numb himself for so he didn’t outwardly react to it. Barrel-aged scotch was just the anesthesia he needed.

“That’s it?” Lionel asked, his tone full of mocking amusement. “You’re not wondering why I’m here?”

Lex too a swig of the scotch and let it burn its way down his throat before answering. “I’m sure you have your reasons.”

Lionel pursed his lips in pensive frustration. His son was difficult to deal with when he slipped into one of his somber, morose moods and he could tell almost immediately that he wasn’t going to be able to get any sort of reaction out of him, regardless of how much provocation and innuendo he bombarded him with. He would need to go with another tactic.

He pulled his face into an expression that was entirely too practiced to be genuine and leaned forward in his chair, pressing his fingertips together as he did so.

“I wanted to apologize. I realize now, regardless of my good intentions to help her, I shouldn’t have interfered in your…relationship…with Chloe.”

Lex scoffed and finished off the remaining liquor in his short glass. “She’s ignoring you too then, I take it.”

“She’s upset. She’ll get over it,” Lionel sloughed off with a flip of his hand in the air.

“No. She won’t.”

Lionel smirked. It was shark-like and would have made a lesser man quiver, but Lex was in no state of mind that allowed him the luxury of fear – or any emotion other than self-pity for that matter.

“She will,” Lionel said confidently. “I heard you broke up with Amanda.” He paused but Lex offered him no reaction, so he pressed forward. “Chloe doesn’t need to know why; she just needs to know that you did.”

“Chloe already knows why,” Lex responded sourly, pouring himself another drink. It would take a lot more than a couple of drinks before he was inebriated and he needed every ounce of resistance against his father’s pushing that he could muster – even if it came from an artificial source like the alcohol. “How did you think I found out about Amanda?”

Lionel’s self-assured mask faltered, but he was able to school it into something placid and seemingly void of emotion. “I see,” he finally said after a moment’s silence.

Fuck. Chloe somehow found out about Amanda, had informed Lex despite what he’d done to her, and now wasn’t speaking to either one of them. Lionel knew only too well how much damage an emotionally wounded woman could incur; it was why he’d set Chloe up to find out that Lex was cheating on her to begin with – to destroy the allegiance they had that threatened his.

But now Chloe wasn’t on either side. She’d become a wild card in their ongoing game and because of her level of intelligence and stubborn personality, could very well end up destroying both of them if that’s what she set her mind to. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He would speak to her first, of course, but if she didn’t heed reason, then she’d need to be taken care of.

“No, Dad,” Lex said, breaking through Lionel’s thoughts and then downing the second splash of scotch he’d poured in one pull. “You don’t.”

Lionel raised an eyebrow and waited for his son to elaborate. No further explanation came of Lex’s own accord and he leaned back in his seat to project the image that he didn’t care one way or another. He suspected that he knew what this was about, but a well-placed comment was often essential, even when Lex wasn’t in one of his moods.

“Is this about the boy she’s started seeing?”

Lex clenched his jaw and gripped his glass a little tighter; setting it down before he did something foolish like squeezed it too hard and broke his skin or threw it at his father’s head. The latter was still awfully tempting.

“You know?” he gritted out.

“I’ve seen pictures,” Lionel said. “Nothing of his face, but whoever it is – I’m sure he’s just the ‘rebound-guy’. You shouldn’t have any trouble winning her back if that’s what you really want.” He stopped and let out a dramatic sigh. “All I wanted was for us to truly work together, Lex. You have to know that.” Lex once again said nothing and Lionel had to fight the urge to raise his voice like he had when his son was a child. “Chloe is a very intelligent young woman. I have a feeling that we can get past all of these betrayals and all work together toward our common goal. If you want Chloe, I won’t stand in your way this time.”

Lex’s nostrils flared and he felt his weak grasp on controlling his temper start to slide through his fingertips.

“Lucas will.”

Lionel blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“Lucas. Will,” Lex growled.

“Why would you think…?”

And in a moment of clarity, it all came to him. Lionel knew he had recognized the boy’s general shape, even with the blurry face on the photos; and now he knew why. Chloe had gone to Lucas, the one person who could possibly help her enact revenge on both him and Lex. It wasn’t a rebound relationship she was in; she wasn’t drowning her sorrows; she had been hurt and she was retaliating. She was preparing for the kill.

It was strange. Lionel knew he should have been angry, but the emotion that tweaked his senses was pride. How very Luthor-like of her…

Maybe this situation wasn't so unsalvageable after all.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!



*stops squeeling*

Ok, fantastic!!!! Loved the Chloe/Lucas heat here. Great visual - Lucas can grab my ass any day... ;)

Lionel feeling proud of Chloe... "how very luthor like of her"

AMAZING!!!

Can't wait for more...

Yay! Another update! Loved the chole and Lucas interaction. Can't wait to read more. Hopefully very soon.

Nickie

This is such a riveting fic. I love the Chlucas action here. Lucas is so endearing. Lex deserves all the hurt he got. Lionel's introspection on Chloe's retaliation was so in character.

Please update...this is such a wondafu story! :yay:

Kris, I adore this story, but I feel bad for Lucas. He's falling for Chloe but she is still too hurt by Lex to see him. But Lex realizes that Lucas could have genuine feelings for Chloe.

EXCELLENT :biggrin:

More soon!

HELLO...........is there anbody there? Where the hell did ya go? It's been like three weeks since your last update and I'm going into withdrawal here!

Seriously though, this is a great fic so please don't abandon it.

Update soon 'k?

Kezz......x.x.x.

...!!!! Another update!!! Where have I BEEN?!?!?

Great, great job. Love the Lex/Lionel interaction. Love that Lionel is feeling "pride" when it comes to Chloe now. And of course I love love LOVE that they've stopped "pretending."

At least for a little while, anyway.

Three Weeks Later…

The first week he could understand. He’d even allowed her more time after he found out that Lucas moved to town and was pursuing a relationship with her. But a month? One month of complete avoidance; one month of not only pretending that they’d never dated, but of pretending that he didn’t exist at all. He’d been more than lenient, but now he realized that he’d let Chloe’s post breakup tantrum go on far too long.

The deception to get into the Torch office to see her had been relatively easy to concoct; ‘thinking about donating money to the school, would like an article done on it if he decided to go through with it, etc.’ It was remarkable how very little it took to gain the school officials’ full support in winning Chloe back.

Of course, they didn’t know that’s what they were doing, but that fact was currently irrelevant in Lex’s mind. The only thing that mattered now was getting to talk to Chloe again without his brother’s interference. He knew he could talk some sense into her if only he could get her alone.

The bell rang, signaling the end of class, and Lex smirked to himself. Chloe would stop at her locker after leaving her math class and then she would come to the Torch office. The design was perfect in every way. Now he just had to wait.

~*~*~

The problem with living in a small town was, Chloe realized, just that. It was small. Gossipy and closed-minded, most of the citizens of Smallville lacked any sort of ability to hold a decent conversation. She actually considered herself lucky on that count. Many citizens of Smallville had too many deep, dark secrets of their own to be stupid enough to go blabbing about anyone else’s.

Unfortunately, the intellectual capacity of the people residing in the same town she did didn’t disqualify them for living there, and she was faced with running into almost each and every single one of those people on a regular basis just because of their relative proximity to one another.

Looking at it that way, Chloe was surprised she hadn’t crossed paths with Lex before now. She owed Lucas for that. Shockingly ever thoughtful, he’d purchased a high-end espresso machine for his house so she could feed her caffeine addiction without either one of them having to step foot in the Talon again.

Since the Talon was the only place – publicly – that Chloe risked running into Lex, she’d enjoyed blissful isolation from him, which helped do wonders in her effort to forget everything that had happened.

It was a shame that one glimpse of the back of his head brought her memories back into her head and her heart all at once. She took a breath and pushed her shoulders back to straighten her posture. She could do this.

“What are you doing here?”

“Chloe,” Lex returned. “It’s good to see you. It’s been a while.”

“Not long enough,” Chloe said curtly. “What are you doing here, Lex?”

Lex shrugged and gave her a lazy grin, turning so he could continue facing her as she irritably swept past him and toward the computer on her desk. She wasn’t unaffected by his presence. That was a good sign. Now all he needed to do was use it to his advantage.

“LuthorCorp just donated some money to help your school out of its budget crisis. Principal Reynolds thought ---”

“I don’t care about your cover story,” Chloe interrupted. “What are you really doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“I beg to differ,” Lex said. “You weren’t returning my calls and then you went and got your cell phone number changed. Add that to the fact that you’re never in the Talon anymore and some people might think you were avoiding me.”

“Some people should have taken the hint and left me alone by now.”

“Chloe…”

She cringed, but hid it well. She hated it when he said her name like that. It wasn’t quite as strung out and whiney like Clark’s got when he began to reprimand her for something, but the simultaneous pleading yet contrary sharp edge to his tone was unmistakable.

Releasing a breath that was close to a sigh, she forced herself to make eye contact with him. “Don’t,” she warned him. “I have every right to be mad and stay mad at being made into a pawn in you and your father’s dysfunctional little power games. So, whatever you think you have to say – don’t.”

Lex glanced down at the floor and then slowly raised his head so he could look at her from underneath his eyelashes. She was right, of course. She had every right to never speak to him again if she didn’t want to; but he’d realized that he might very well be in love with her, so he wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

In a way, he was sorry to see it come to this because he wanted to be the man she used to think he was, the still dependable knight in tarnished armor. But he had no choice. He was a Luthor, which meant the only way he knew how to get what he wanted was to go after it with little to no regard for anyone else. He knew Chloe’s weaknesses and how to exploit them, and if that’s what it took to get her back then he wasn’t above doing so.

The fact that she had come into the Torch office alone and not accompanied by Clark or Pete or even Lana was a fortuitous twist of fate indeed. It would make things that much easier, and at this point, Lex acknowledged that he needed all the help he could get.

“I miss you,” he said quietly.

‘You do?’ was Chloe’s initial reaction; the hopeful voice inside her head bursting with a gush of glee. But the reaction was quelled almost immediately because the bitter darkness that so often consumed her nowadays was the emotion in charge and it wasn’t about to let her forget the reason why. “What am I supposed to say to that, Lex?”

“Chloe…I made a mistake. I know I hurt you and I want to make up for it if you’ll let me.”

He moved closer to her, but she seemed further away than ever. She refused to look at him, refused to try and his facial expressions and intonations to decide whether he was being sincere or not. It was painfully obvious that she’d already made that decision and something inside Lex’s soul broke because of it.

The hurt caused him to give voice to the first petty, jealous thought that entered his mind and even as the words slipped off his tongue, he knew he’d regret them. “You forgave Clark. Why not me?”

“Because you knew what you were doing,” Chloe replied.

Hushed but succinct, her sentence was spoken with a cool cruelty that Lex had never heard her use before. He’d seen her become emotional, lose her temper, and raise her voice when she was passionately arguing a point, but this was something altogether different and it scared him.

“I think you should leave now.”

Lex frowned and slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks, cocking his head a little to the side to observe her. He’d treated Chloe horribly and he was paying for it, and though he acknowledged that, his stubbornness overruled it. She may have been able to neatly pushed aside the first weakness he brought up, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have more weapons in his arsenal. Feigning greater hurt than he felt with her dismissal, he looked away from her and absently fixed his gaze on something outside the window.

“I broke up with Amanda.”

“I assumed.”

“I want to try again, Chloe.” He twisted his head just enough to glance at her and gauge her reaction. She was looking at the door. “I want to give our relationship a second chance.”

“You never gave it a first chance, Lex,” Chloe said, trying to keep the bitterness she felt from coming out in her voice and failing. “Call me crazy, but I want more than that. I deserve more than that.”

“And you think Lucas can give it to you?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer, forging full steam ahead into the rant he’d wanted to let out since Lucas first told him that he’d slept with her. “Are you honestly naïve enough to believe that he loves you? After everything you’ve been through?”

A distinct stabbing pain knotted up at the bottom of Chloe’s throat as the lump of emotion swelled and made her unable to speak. Lex had shot right at the core of all of her insecurities and it had been a direct hit.

I never loved you, Clark never loved you; your own mother never loved you. No one has ever loved you. No one *will* ever love you.

“Open your eyes, Chloe. He’s just using you to get back at me and our father.”

‘That makes two of us,’ Chloe thought sardonically. She clenched her jaw and then mustered the courage to glare at him with fire in her eyes. It was his own fault that he kept pushing. He really should have known better. “Are you talking about you or Lucas?”

Lex bristled at her comment, primarily because it was true. He hadn’t needed to seduce Chloe to gain her allegiance, but he’d wanted to be sure – and now he had nothing. His heart stopped for a second and he had to force himself back to his original train of thought before he let Chloe derail it completely.

“Chloe…”

“No,” Chloe said after pausing for a moment to get her voice in check. It was starting to shake like the rest of her body and she didn’t know how much longer she could handle being in the same room with him without giving into her mixed emotions one way or the other. She would kiss him or she would hit him; it was a draw, and the only other option was to step away from both. “Just get out. I don’t have anything else to say to you – or your dad.”

~*~*~*~

She felt pathetic. Worse than pathetic if that was possible. She couldn’t believe she’d let Lex get to her like that. And now she found herself on Lucas’s front stoop, literally wiping her tears away in an effort not to look like as much of a loser as she apparently was.

She hoped he was home. Scratch that, she thought, mentally amending the wish to be that he was not only home but not with anyone. Aside from Lucas’s comment about ‘not pretending anymore’, they’d never really discussed whether or not they were in a monogamous relationship; and from her limited previous experiences, even if they had talked about it, it didn’t necessarily mean anything.

She took a breath and wiped at her eyes again. She may not love Lucas, but she didn’t have anyone else to talk to about this particular subject, and she knew she would end up hurting more if she didn’t let the pain out. She heard the deadbolt click open from the other side and the door pulled inward.

“Chloe,” Lucas greeted in surprise, knowing that she was supposed to still be at school. His pleasant demeanor rapidly evaporated when he saw the look on her face and he narrowed his eyes in suspicious anger. “What happened?” Chloe shook her head to push back a fresh batch of tears and Lucas moved forward to embrace her. “Lex?”

Chloe nodded against his shoulder, which she just barely reached. “He came to the Torch.” Lucas growled and tightened his grip on her. “I…” She sighed. “I didn’t handle it well.”

~~“You’re an intelligent young woman, Chloe… It’s a shame you let yourself be ruled by your emotions instead of your mind.”~~

She closed her eyes as Lionel’s words echoed in her head. The problem was he was right and she knew it. But not anymore, she inwardly resolved. If she wanted the Luthors out of her life for good, she was going to need to do what they kept doing to her. She was going to need to strike back and hurt them.

She pulled away from Lucas just enough to let him guide her into the house with his arm around her back. “I feel bad for bringing this up, but do you think your mom was serious when she offered to help get even with Lex and your dad?”

“More than serious” Lucas answered. “Why? Did you come up with something besides my ‘grizzly deaths in a car accident’ idea?”

“Yeah, I think so. It doesn’t involve murder ---”

“Damn.”

“But it is illegal and I don’t want to get you or your mom in trouble.”

Lucas scoffed with a short laugh and pulled her to him again, resting his hands on her waist. “What’d you have in mind?”

~*~*~*~

One Month Later…

Internet café’s could be so useful, she thought with a wry smirk. If her online activities were tracked, the authorities would be led to a T-1 connection at Cyber Bytes in scenic downtown Middleton, Kansas. The four hour drive would definitely be worth the anonymity she’d gain for what she was about to pull off.

She’d needed help getting to that point, of course. After the court papers finalizing Lucas as Rachel’s power of attorney, she had moved into one of the bedrooms at her son’s house and proceeded to help them put the finishing touches on the rough outline of a plan that Chloe had come up with.

Find out which banks Lionel kept the bulk of his money hidden in, break into said banks’ computer systems to obtain pass-keys, and meet up with the contacts Rachel made when she was trying to start over after she had Lucas and Lionel mercilessly stole him away and dumped her to develop a disposable identity. The end result would hopefully be that they could use Lex and Lionel’s already instable relationship to turn them against each other and dole out the compensation for mistreatment that she, Lucas, and Rachel all readily deserved.

So now, as far as anyone in Middleton knew, she was Amy Miller; a woman with shoulder length brown hair and a rental car in the café’s parking lot. Two hundred dollars had been a small price to pay for the fake identity and when everything was said and done, she’d be reimbursed several times over.

Her hand lifted off the computer mouse and reached for her sadly lukewarm cup of coffee. She’d take the paper cup with her when she left so a DNA sample couldn’t be obtained from it should anyone catch onto her giant leap over the line of legality.

This was the fourth and last transaction. The other bank transfers had gone smoothly with the pass keys Lucas managed to obtain, but this one was going far too slow for comfort. Unfortunately, she’d suspected that might be the case. The offshore financial institution in the Caribbean was the best protected and they’d had to jump through several hoops to just find out the personnel could override and establish new transactions without the customers’ specific say-so.

She took a breath and then took another sip of coffee, making sure she kept her face down and her posture somewhat slouched so the video surveillance cameras wouldn’t see anything but her wig and the briefest glimpse of her profile like Lucas had recommended.

‘Come on, come on,’ she silently chanted, waiting for the transaction to finish.

The longer it took, the better her chances were of getting tracked and caught. Panic started to make her palms sweat and her heart-rate speed up. Her eyes darted over to the door, but there was no one there. No barrage of police cars with their lights and sirens blaring, no FBI or FTC agents storming the place…she was safe for now. But for how much longer?

Then the growing small blue bar on the monitor reached the end of its box and the computer’s speaker pinged, signaling the end of the transaction. She let out a breath of relief. They’d done it. They’d actually done it.

She closed out the window and pressed the eject button on the cd-rom, removing the disc that contained all of the pass key information and everything that corresponded with them. Closing the disc drive again, she slipped the cd into her purse and slung the bag over her shoulder, remembering to grab her drink as she rose from her seat.

Sunglasses in hand, she put them on and offered a tiny grin to the waiter who told her to have a nice day, and then she left the establishment. She’d done well, but she knew she couldn’t let herself become overconfident. One wrong move and she would be going to prison for a very long time. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see if she’d made that misstep she didn’t know about.

In the meantime, however, watching Lionel go ballistic because Lex had emptied out several of his hidden accounts could prove to be quite entertaining.



TBC

Nice chapter! Thanks so much for updating, I really like this fic. Looking forward to more of the revenge plot, and seeing how it plays out.

:biggrin:

woa! great! the plot thickens! even if lex is a bastard an dchlexy goodness is out of this story: DAMN i love it! lol More please!

xoxolaLa

I adore this story!

Chloe is so freakin' brilliant--Lex and Lionel won't know what hit them :biggrin:

GO CHLOE :cool:

Go Chloe!! It broke my heart though when Lex approached her!! Poor baby!! Thanks for the update!! Can't wait for more!! :worship2: :chlexsign4: :worship2:

Poor Chloe. Revenge...ain't it sweet. ;) Great story, I can't wait for the next chapter so hurry up please.

please up-date

*gentle nudge*

:puppyeyes:

Is it wrong that I like Lucas better in this story, and that Lex is getting what he deserves? Please update again soon... I need to know what happens!

:chlexsign2:

everyday I check the board to see if you have updated this story but nothing.
I love this story so much. please update soon.

I agree

Give us an update............ please :biggrin:


D

I love this story...always been a sucker for Lucas. I'm joining the band wagon and begging for an update!

Star14

:chlexsign4:

Love this fic, wish it was going to be updated at some point, but I won't hold my breath. :( Please? Pretty please. It's such a great Chloe/Lucas fic.

Dude, update soon! I really like this fic. Surprisingly enough, I'm really liking the Chlucas too.

i love lucas in this fic

Oh Gosh, this story is just so amazing! Please update really really really soon!
Thanks

No more? *whimper*