GREAT start. Very interesting.
I look foward to reading future chapters.
Diana
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GREAT start. Very interesting.
I look foward to reading future chapters.
Diana
Really interesting start... I want more! :biggrin:
Julie ;)
Very cool. It's always fun to see Lex trying to deal with his past. Update soon?
Amazing start! I'm really interested in seeing more insight into Lex's childhood. And I can't wait to see how Chloe will fit into all this.
Please update soon!
Okay I was just about to depart to beddy byes, then I saw your name beside this fic and thought... OMG MUST READ!
And I'm soooooooo glad I did! What a superb start!
This line: "His breath now coming in heavy pants" My eyes kinda skimmed across it, and it seemed really rude... I actually had to read that 3 times to finally get it.
I know... my sick twisted little mind is perverted!
Great chapter!
Pleaseeeeeeeeee update soon! (... I am willing to wait a little longer for Anyone's Game, if ya update this :ohmy: ) I didn't just say that! :devil:
Okay maybe not that fic, cause it's my favourite... but well... you get my drift, please give us more! :chlexsign1: ;)
How come I'm only finding it now? That was great, loved the whole lab thing, can't wait for more!
Moultipass :chlexsign4:
Please, please update this story!! I love how you give us the chance to know more about Lex and his past!! Very intense and sad!! I can't wait for you to include Chloe's story!! I'm sorry that I'm so impatient since this story must be very hard to write!! :worship2: Can't wait for your next chapter!! :yay2: :chlexsign4: :yay2:
A/N: When reading this, please keep in mind that I stopped watching the show before any of the new eppies started. From what my friends have told me, this subject has now been touched on, so just ignore the show since the canon obviously won't be the same.
~*~*~*~*~
“Why would I be upset with you, Dad? Just because you drove my mother into insanity, practically forcing her to kill my brother so he wouldn’t be raised like I was ---”
“What are you rambling on about?” Lionel asked; intoning just the right amount of confusion in his voice to make Lex wonder whether what he had remembered was the truth or not. However, the look of guarded contempt in his father’s eyes told him that it was.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he said through gritted teeth. “For years I didn’t remember what really happened; I let you convince me that I was responsible. How could you do that to your own son?”
Lionel squared his jaw, but stood his ground. He lifted a freshly poured glass of scotch to his lips and then steeled his gaze at his son.
“Because you were responsible, Lex. If not directly, then certainly indirectly. Perhaps things could have been different if you had been a little braver and not cowered in fear every time I spoke to you; maybe then…”
Lex let out a short, sharp, sardonic bark. How very like his father to turn things around when he brought something up that he didn’t want to deal with.
“Maybe if you hadn’t continually reminded me of my ‘inadequacies’ every second you actually paid attention to me then I wouldn’t have been so scared of you,” Lex said, taking a menacing step toward Lionel. The action was clear, even if the underlying sentiment remained unspoken. ‘Have been…’ Past tense.
Lionel stalked a few steps closer to him, his spine stiff and straight to show his full height in the defensive posture.
“I was trying to make you strong – make you a Luthor. At the time I had no way of knowing that you had inherited too many of your mother’s genes for that to ever happen.”
Lex squared his shoulders. Screw patience and self-control. His head was throbbing and his father’s visit was unwelcome before he started openly insulting him and his mother.
“Well, thank God for that,” he seethed. “Because I’d rather have Julian’s fate than ever end up like you. Tell me Dad, how does it feel to have no one be able to tolerate being around you for anything more than business meetings?”
Lionel’s nostrils flared.
“You’re treading on very dangerous ground, Lex. Be careful you don’t lose your footing.”
“I could say the same for you,” Lex retorted coolly. “But since I’m in a generous mood, I think I’ll settle for: this is my house. If you ever speak like that about mom here again, I’ll have you shot for trespassing.”
Lionel let out a derisive scoff.
“You’re acting a bit melodramatic, don’t you think?”
Lex gave him a tight grin.
“What I think is that you’ve overstayed your non-existent welcome. I suggest you leave now.”
~*~*~*~
Two Days Later…Late at Night…
A surprised, yet entirely delighted gasp released from Chloe’s throat. Had she finally come across the missing pieces of evidence she needed against Lionel Luthor? It certainly appeared so. Lionel was nothing short of spectacular in covering the tracks of his indiscretions, but apparently it wasn’t good enough since she had just hit the motherload.
Amazing what things were forgotten in the Metropolis Police Department’s old files warehouses. Sure, she had broken the law to get in there, but it had paid off. The long-buried file on the arson incident that killed Lionel’s parents had all of the missing links she hadn’t been able to find elsewhere.
Copies of the original insurance reports and the investigating officer’s personal notes, combined with the bank records she had hacked into and the cover-up file that was public record would give the FBI a hell of a case against Lionel for the murder of his parents in addition to the ongoing investigations into his considerably less-than-legal business practices.
Using her digital camera, she took as many close-up shots of the evidence as she could, also documenting the location where she found the dusty box in the warehouse, and then removed the memory card from the camera and replaced it with a clean one. She had learned her lesson well enough from her other dealings with Lionel and she wasn’t about to lose her proof this time.
Chloe was on a high from finally finding the missing pieces in the Lionel Luthor mystery, and knew she had to tell Lex as soon as possible.
But wait.
He didn’t even remember her theory that Lionel killed his own parents for the insurance money, and that the sum he received was what set up the beginnings of Luthor Corp; that his entire life, his entire inheritance had been built on the blood of his grandparents.
Well, crap.
There wasn’t exactly an easy way to break it to him either, was there? She had been nervous enough the first time around and his increasingly unpredictable mood swings weren’t doing much to make her anymore comfortable in telling him now.
Still…he had a right to know. Lionel had been as much of a jerk, if not more than, to him as to anyone. If Lex could never get his father’s love, then he at least deserved vengeance for the torment the man had put him through.
She ducked around a corner to avoid being seen by one of the warehouse’s many security officers. At least the Metropolis P.D. had been overly confident in their opinion that nobody but them would want to go digging through old boxes of closed cases and not installed security cameras because of it. When the coast was clear, she took off in a sprint; heading for the back door she had broken in through.
She needed to get back to Smallville and she needed to do it now.
~*~*~*~
Lex felt miserable. After complaining to Garner about the side effects of his latest treatment, he had been given a shot of some dark blue liquid and told to stay in bed no matter what for the next few days. He wasn’t told what the medicine was, nor did he especially want to know. He just wanted it to work.
But, seeing as how he was now technically on day two of his prescribed bed rest and didn’t feel any better, he decided that some activity – however minimal – might help his condition; overriding the traitorous thought that he just wanted to get out of bed.
His decision couldn’t have been worse.
Halfway down the hall, the chemicals in the medication began to mix with the small amount of natural endorphins that his body released because of the physical movement, causing an unexpected effect. He fell against the wall as his mind was overcome with things that were long forgotten; things that should have stayed that way.
Falling off a horse when he was six…demons that haunted his nightmares when he was three…walking in on his father fucking his mistress after visiting his mother in the hospital…losing control of his car and hitting Clark before driving off the bridge and being immersed in icy water…finding a teenage boy tied up like a scarecrow in the middle of a filed…seeing the sky start to fall…dreaming his mom never died and reveling in the happiness he felt when she divorced his dad…the room where he kept every piece of information on his obsession with what Clark really was…toasting with Helen over their new life together…being tortured and hung up like a slab of meat by someone trying to avenge their sister’s suicide…telling Chloe he would protect her from his father…barely resisting the urge to kill Adam when he saw him sneaking longing glances at the blonde reporter…being beat to a pulp on a regular basis in boarding school…giving Clark Lana’s necklace and wondering at the sick expression on the boy’s face when he opened the box it was in…making love to Chloe in his bed…Clark throwing him against a car and realizing that his best friend wasn’t human…
Lex crumpled to the ground, no longer able to support his own weight because of the sick feeling that wracked his body. How many of the jumbled images he had just been forced to endure had been real and how many had merely been forgotten dreams?
His mother being alive had obviously been a fabrication concocted by his broken heart, and he was fairly certain he had never seen real demons – though after everything he’d witnessed in Smallville, he wasn’t completely ruling it out.
All of the stuff about Clark, no matter how fantastic and surreal, seemed genuine. Genuine enough for him to know better than to openly confront the young man a second time. No. He’d have to be secure in the knowledge that he knew, even if Clark didn’t admit to it.
Then there were the images of Chloe. He hadn’t remembered being anything more than friendly acquaintances with the young woman when he suggested they join forces to find information to use against his father. But now… God. Had he slept with her? Were they involved before the electro-shock therapy erased seven weeks’ worth of his memories?
He closed his eyes and cringed in pain as he futilely tried to remember. His mind was unwilling to focus on her or any specific memories regarding her though and he found himself clutching at his twisting stomach. He would have thrown up had he ingested any food in the last few hours.
Lex pulled himself up to a sitting position and leaned the back of his smooth head against the cold wall. His breath slowed to short, shallow draws of air as he tried to force the queasiness from his system. The flashes of Chloe’s face seemed so very far away now; headached fatigue slowly lulling his body into slumber.
He may not remember whether his memories of Chloe were fact or fiction, but he recalled with painful detail of how they made him feel. Confused, angry, disgusted with himself…warm, loved…protected. He sighed. He’d have to confront her about it and risk making an ass out of himself if the images had only been dreams. There was no other way. With that last thought, his breath evened out and his head slipped down to the floor as he fell asleep.
“I'll protect you, Chloe. You have my word. But in order to do that, I need to know what you found out about my father.”
“Have you ever heard of a man named Morgan Edge?” Chloe asked, sliding a file across to him.
“Before he was killed, he was the biggest crime lord in Metropolis,” Lex answered, opening the file and seeing a newspaper article with a picture of the man in question. He read the headline silently to himself. ‘Morgan Edge – Metropolis Crime Lord Missing, Believed Dead.’
Chloe nodded.
“He was also your father’s closest childhood friend.”
Lex’s head began to swim. The implications were more than a little disturbing and definitely reason for his father to come after Chloe if she knew some truth that Lionel had paid a lot of money into burying permanently.
He stood up and walked over to her. She was going to leave; he could practically feel it. He had to stop her. He needed her allegiance more than she needed his. He needed *her*. Suddenly thankful for the fact that she never backed away when he invaded her personal space, he stepped closer to her and somewhat hesitantly palmed her cheek.
He leaned down, brushing his lips against hers and no longer caring about the consequences of his actions when he felt her warm breath hitch against his skin. But, she wasn’t pushing him away. Quite the opposite in fact, as she began to reciprocate the kiss, her hands resting on his chest until the embrace deepened and his skin prickled with the sensation of her fingers caressing his bare scalp.
Lex’s eyes jolted open; his heart racing and his breathing coming out as fast and shallow pants for air. Had it been a dream or a repressed memory? Or perhaps a little of both? Either way, it left him with a feeling unlike anything he could remember experiencing before.
He knew then that he loved Chloe – or at least he had. So why hadn’t she said anything about their previous relationship in all the time they’d been working together? Was it all in his mind? Had he never really acted on his feelings for her? It seemed improbable given his tendency to rush into intimacy, but he couldn’t say for sure since his mind was still heavily clouded; especially when he tried to remember specifics.
He was shaken from his pondering by a darkening in his peripheral vision. He glanced up, twisting his side a little so he could look straight on at the figure looming over him to his side.
His butler. It could have been worse, he thought to himself. It could have been his father, come to make his life hell once again; or Clark, stopping by to brood about his complicated love life and carefully evading topics of discussion that were actually important. Or worse yet, it could have been the butler that Lionel originally hired for the castle. That man would have reported Lex’s odd behavior to his true employer in a heartbeat.
As it was though, his butler kept any judgments or inquiries he might have to himself; his expression totally impassive as he took in the sight of Lex Luthor waking up after sleeping on a hallway floor in royal purple silk pajamas covered by a long, thin, black robe.
“I know that it’s…early,” he started.
Lex said nothing. Perhaps there was a chance that the butler thought he had simply been sleep walking.
“What time is it?” he asked, his voice coarse and tired.
“A little after two, sir.”
Oh.
“Miss Sullivan is here to see you,” the butler continued. “I told her that you were asleep, but I’m afraid she was rather…insistent.”
Lex took in the information without betraying any emotions he felt and then nodded once.
“Give me ten minutes and then show her to my office.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lex watched as the butler turned and began to walk away, shakily pushing himself up to a standing position after the man was out of view.
His feet felt like lead under his weak legs, but he had to get changed to meet Chloe. For whatever reason, she had sought him out in the middle of the night. And regardless of what kind of shape his body and mind were in, he was determined to finally get some answers.
TBC…
ooohhhhhhh!!!
I love I love I love it!!!
well I love all your fics, you know that!!
Update, now, yes go, go update!!
Thank you so much for updating this story!! Your latest chapter is brilliant!! You are such an excellent author!! :worship2: Your cliff hangers are evil though!! :biggrin: Please update soon!! I can't wait to see what their meeting is like, whether Lex will mention any of his dreams to her!! I love this story!! :heart: :chlexsign4: :love: