Elective Affinity (R) UPDATE 14th June 2009

I have stolen the title from a Goethe novel because I love it - Its perfect for Lex and Chloe I think. This story just came to me almost fully formed in my head... not much Lex and Chloe to begin with but it comes. It will be a little angsty and moody...

Hope you enjoy and feedback is always welcome!
Elective Affinity

Elective Affinity: a tendency to unite with certain things

Now

Flashlights momentarily blind Chloe as she enters the Metropolis Museum of Fine Art. She looks back, seeking the object of their fascination. A gleaming statuesque blond exits a limousine. Chloe turns back forward and makes her way in.

The building is all hard edges and shining glass. Completely at odds with what is housed inside it. She tries to spot a familiar face, maybe a politician she once knew something about, a former colleague from the Planet. Maybe Lois. She reaches for a drink. Or Clark. She gulps it down.

Earlier

“Cover this for me Sullivan.” Ed Jones had slapped the invitation down in her lap. She picked it up with the tips of her fingers and saw the words Metropolis. She dropped it back down.

“Find someone else” she said standing up and turning to exit

“No-one else wants it. It’s yours” Ed had already moved onto something else.

“I don’t want it. Get someone else” Chloe said, walking out.

“Who do you think you are? A star reporter?” She stopped at the sneer in his voice.

Sometimes she forgot who she now was.

Now

Fingering the sequins on her dress Chloe looks over to the bar. Tempting. Instead she watches the podium, waiting for the Mayor to speak. He is due to announce a new funding initiative for the arts – there is a reason no-one had wanted this job. Death by boredom is expected. She sees Senator Fay talking to a drug lawyer. In another life she would be interested. But here and now, she wants to stay unnoticed and leave as quietly as she came. Not difficult a voice inside her says, since nobody does actually notice you anymore. She sees the Mayor take to the podium. There is a polite ripple of applause and he starts speaking. He is just getting to the part about more museum visits for school children when a 6ft wide glittering green rock falls through the glass roof, sending transparent splinters flying across the room. A lifetime of escaping flying objects enables Chloe to move behind a pillar in the time it takes the collective gasp of the room to surface. She peers around, surveys the damage and then sees him, for the first time in 5 years. Clark, prostate on the floor.

Earlier

She was in her kitchen when she saw the Bat signal from her window. As a lowly business reporter, she didn’t have to worry about why the shadowy signal was hovering outside her kitchen. She wondered who would cover it from her paper, Felicity, or maybe Richard. She missed it sometimes if she was honest, running headlong towards the story. She got it sometimes with what she covered now but it did not have the same intensity. What she did not miss was the all consuming fear that came with fighting against her nature.

She lad left Metropolis when Superman became the story. The biggest story of the century and she could not write about it. Her editors had been at first baffled, angry and then resigned to the peculiarity of it all. She had been shifted from the news beat to business where she had remained for a year. But even she had her limits. She had found it difficult to write about a company merger when across town Superman had saved a burning building from collapsing. That was the story. The rest was just words to cover the empty news space. She couldn’t be in a city where she couldn’t cover the story. She couldn’t be in a city where she could only watch while others did. She had left to Gotham five years ago, and had been making her name as a tenacious business reporter when Batman appeared. Her history had a way of repeating itself.

Now

Before Chloe can move she sees Lois run over to Clark and try and help him up. They are lovers. The way Lois grabs him, not gently but with a firmness that comes from familiarity, she sees it.
She feels something in her clench. The kryptonite lying in the middle of the room is so large she knows that Clark must be in a kind of agony that he has never known. He looks up and sees her instantly, his beautiful face contorted in pain and confusion. In the time it takes Lois to follow his gaze she is beside them. People are beginning to crowd the exits and still no-one has done anything about the big green rock in the centre of the room.

“Chloe, what are you doing here?” Lois asks

“I’m covering the Mayor’s new arts programme” off her look, “yes, really”

“Let’s catch up later, now we need to move Clark”

Lois looks back confused. “You know what is wrong with him?”

You don’t Chloe realises in her mind. She slips into the familiar pattern of lying for Clark Kent.

“I just think it would be better to sort out whatever is wrong with him away from all this commotion”

Lois accepts this and they begin to move him. It’s difficult moving a man of steel and it takes them 15 minutes to get him 50 meters to the doorway. Chloe moves back into the room and orders a policeman to move the rock. Something in the tone of her voice must work, because he does. She looks back and sees Clark slowly recovering. Her phone is ringing. Her editor. Shit.

Earlier

Being in every hidden inch of her body a reporter and yet being unable to report kills Chloe. When Clark decided he wanted to be Superman he talked it over with her. There was no answer she could give that wasn’t a yes. She knew that he would become the most talked about thing on the planet, had warned him about it, and also that he would become the one thing she could never write about. Already there, she saw the warning signs.

Her career inversely followed Clark’s rise as Superman. The more comfortable he became roaming the skies, the further her career sunk down the toilet. It was a price she was willing to pay. Some days she thought it served her right. She had so desperately wanted to know his secret and now she did, it was ruining her.

When Lois got the job at the Daily Planet and started to write about Superman, she knew it was time to leave. To see her life being played out by her beloved cousin was too much. She wanted to continue to love Lois, which was impossible being so near and feeling so bitter.

She did not return to Metropolis. She couldn’t see Clark without resenting him and she did not want that. So she wrote her business exposés, avoided Batman and pretended that this was the life she had wanted. It didn’t really matter. It was the life she had got.

Now

“Hello Ed” she says into her phone

“Chloe, please tell me you were there. Write something about this.”

“There’s not much to write, someone dropped a rock into the building”

“Then find out who dropped the rock, what kind of rock it is. Anything! Find out if it has anything to do with Superman”

Chloe’s blood freezes.

“Why would it have anything to do with Superman?”

“I don’t know – it’s his town. Find out. I want something by midnight.”

He hangs up and Chloe felt her head pumping.

The rock is now removed, having been dragged outside and she sees Clark walking up to her.

“Chloe, it’s so great to see you”

“Clark, what happened?”

Clark looks at her and then looks away to one side. His jaw clenching.

“Lex” he answers.

Later

Her phone rings, and she sees its Ed. She ignores it and continues working. Her hotel phone rings, she picks it up,

“Its midnight and I have nothing” she hears Ed’s voice.

“I’m working on it”

“Work harder”

“I think Lex Luthor has something to do with what happened today”

“Juicy. Look into it. We can spare you for a couple of weeks. Try and get an interview with him.”

“Are you sure? Who will cover me at the paper?”

“Chloe. This is it. I’m giving you a chance at a headline story. Be eternally grateful.”

He hangs up before Chloe can respond that a headline story involving Superman, Lex Luthor and Kryptonite is the stuff of her nightmares.

This looks definitely interesting.Your description of Chloe´s feelings towards Lois and Clark, the way she´s been deprived of her dream life by choice, and how hurt she is by it is something that should have been tackled earlier on on the show. Devoting just a fleeting few moments to it in last week´s episode was pretty lame I believe. Thanks for giving this the importance it has in her life.

I´m already looking forward to the first Chlex meeting.:grin3:

This is a wonderful beginning!

Quote:

---

When Lois got the job at the Daily Planet and started to write about Superman, she knew it was time to leave. To see her life being played out by her beloved cousin was too much. She wanted to continue to love Lois, which was impossible being so near and feeling so bitter.

---

I have to tell you, this is one of the main reasons why I can't freakin' watch EDLois on SV these days. I am so bitter that this bimbo will eventually become The Lois Lane when Chloe is a better reporter, better friend and just all around better woman.

I think Chloe needs to forget about not reporting on SUperman, and show Lois, and the world, what a real hardnosed reporter looks like.

Please continue as fast as you possibly can:grin3:

I like and want more. :)

I really like this story!! I like how you describe that by being Superman Clark has ruined Chloe's dreams!! What I don't understand is why Clark didn't think she could write about it? Why would it be any different for her to write about Superman than Lois?!! He should have more confidence in Chloe to be able to keep his secret!! Can't wait for Lex to appear!! I wonder how his meeting with Chloe will go!! Does Lex know who Superman really is?!! Post more soon please!! I'm so happy to have a new Chlex story to read!! :)

You've got my attention. (I love the title by the way). I liked Chloe's reflections and I'm fascinated to know what's going on with Lex. Looking forward to an update.

Thank you for all the comments! This is a short update that completes the first part of the story. I hope to post the next part in a few days....



Now

When it comes to Clark, Lex knows he has a blind spot. This does not make him any less blind but it makes him aware of his weakness. Where he is usually ruled by logic and reason, with Clark his emotions take over. He had ordered the drop of kryptonite yesterday to prove a theory. Rationally, he knows there were ways to do this that did not involve smashing the glass ceiling of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, but when it comes to it, he wants to do something extravagant, wild and shocking.

He wants to punish him.

Earlier

It had taken him 3 years to discover the effect of kryptonite on Superman and then another 3 years to locate a supply. Where other people had the gym, rock climbing or just plain old stamp collecting to distract them from the daily grind, he had this. Punishing Superman.

A year ago Clark had floated down onto his balcony in the ridiculous costume. Standing there, legs astride, arms crossed.

“Clark, take a seat” Lex had motioned to the deck chair

“I’m not staying”

“So it’s just a flying visit then?”

“Stop it”

“Sorry, that was a bad pun”

“Stop the digging. Stop looking for it. You won’t find anything”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about… Superman”

“Do you hate me that much?”

No. Hate wasn’t the word.

Now

His phone rings. He presses the speaker button

“Mr Luthor you have a call from a reporter from the Gotham Daily News”

“Why are you bothering me with this? I pay you to keep reporters away”

“She was insistent”

“What’s her name?” Lex leans forward, curious.

“Chloe Sullivan”

“I’ll take it”

Earlier

The merger with Metro Investments last year had made him the most powerful man in Metropolis. He had stopped counting money years ago, there comes a point where you have enough. But power. You can never have enough of that. But with all the power in the world, he still couldn’t fly. Superman always remained just out of reach.

Now

“Chloe, what a surprise. It’s been a while”

“Not long enough” her voice is harder than he remembers.

“Still as charming as ever”

“I wanted to request a face to face interview. You probably know that I now cover business…”

“I didn’t” he interrupts. It is cruel, of course he knows but he wants her to feel unimportant.

“Right.” He can hear the pause and he knows he has hit his target. “ Of course not. Well, my editor wants me to take a look at the business community in Metropolis, do a comparative piece with Gotham.”

He doesn’t believe a word of it, “How does tomorrow late afternoon sound, around 6?”

“I’ll be there”

She hangs up before he can respond, not many people would dare. He smiles.

Later

In his study he looks at the clippings his secretary has prepared. Chloe’s writing style has changed; it’s more muted, mature. He can see that she has had some scoops in Gotham, a few deals that he was sure were meant to stay hidden. He wonders what she is doing back in Metropolis. Wonders whether all roads lead back to Clark for both of them.

He looks up and sees a whirl of red and blue in the distance, mingled with his reflection in the window.

He moves her clippings to one side and studies the prints on his desk. Everything seems to be theoretically in order. This means nothing of course, in theory so many things look good; A life without distractions, Most powerful man in the world, A man who can fly. In practice, they all fall a bit short of the glory. But this, a weapon that can defeat and protect them from Superman, this has to work in practice.

I am lovin me some real Superman / Chlex action. I know that many of the stories use Clark but I miss not working Superman in somewhere. The maturity of the characters knowing they have moved out of Hickville and on with theirs lives.

Looking forward to more.

Will Lex tell Chloe he knows Superman's identity?!! That would be an interesting conversation!! I'm mad at Clark for not letting Chloe know that Lex knows he's Superman!! It's interesting how both Lex and Chloe have matured but Clark still remains as self-obsessed as ever!! Excellent update!! Can't wait for more!! ;)

I am loving every minute of this fic. Please give me some more... :D