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Resurrection (NC-17) Completed on 11th April 2013
Resurrection
Rating: NC-17 in later chapters
Disclaimer: I don’t own Smallville.
Spoilers: Up to S4.
Summary: Coming soon! Don’t want to ruin the first chapter.
*Chapter One*
It was a freezing cold January morning in Smallville, most of the landscape was differentiated only by the shade of white. The ground as covered in a thick blanket of glistening white snow, with only one set of footprints to mare it. Frost clung to the headstones hiding their names and histories. The few trees standing around were likewise afflicted, it seemed hard to believe that one day they would bloom again; they were now so shrivelled and weighed down. Even the expanse of sky above was a greyish white. The only spot of colour on the horizon came from the lone figure emblazoned against it.
The man was dressed all in black. His long dark coat floated slightly behind him as the wind whipped about him, but that was the only movement since he had climbed to the top of hill over an hour ago. He just stood looking at the newest headstone, his hands in his pockets and his face devoid of expression.
Even through the frost he could just about make out the name “Lionel Luthor”. It was not quite as reassuring as he had thought that it would be. He fingered a vile he had in his pocket. In that vile lay the real victory; what was left of his father’s ashes. Lex had insisted that he see his father’s corpse burned and discarded, keeping just enough to be a constant reminder.
What was in front of him was just an empty grave. It was as hollow as his final victory over his father. He wished that he could have been the one to deal the final blow, but he had not been the one to do it. He had thought of it but had always resisted as it was after all his father. Lionel had died alone in jail of a disease that Lex had not even known he had had. A few years ago, five to be exact, this would have bothered him, but now he felt numb. He turns his back on his father and walked away. The only moisture on his face was that left by the snowflakes.
Lex Luthor bent his head against the wind and made his way to the top of the cemetery where the two largest tombstones lay. As he looked at them there was a flicker of emotion that had not been present before. Lex’s gloved hands clawed at the snow which clung to the monuments until the names and dedications were visible.
“Gabe and Chloe Sullivan”, he finally spoke. He had come here almost every day since the explosion to look over the tombs, he had said her name every day and yet there was still the emotion present that he had tried to school himself out of. This sort of weakness was insufferable.
After the tragic explosion LuthorCorp had dedicated the tombs to their memory and Lex had made sure that they were the largest and the most ornate, as if honouring their memories would somehow bring them back. Lionel had been responsible and had spent the rest of his days in prison but it was not enough, nothing could be enough to compensate for Chloe’s loss. She had been so young, so pure, so good.
Even as he stood there he could remember the first time that he had met her. He had heard of Clark’s friend Chloe before of course, but he had imagined a tiny thing, pale with mousy brown hair with large glasses who hid behind her computer. That wasn’t Chloe at all. She had brilliant short blonde hair, and a smile and enthusiasm which had immediately impressed him … not to mention a firm handshake.
She caused problems continuously. If there was trouble you could guarantee that Chloe would not only find it but stick her nose it in. Several instances always stayed with him. He had never allowed anyone to get an interview with him and the few people who had continued to try for one normally flattered and pandered to him, promising to ask him only questions that would make him look good. Chloe had not only been bold enough to get the interview but had asked him the questions he had hoped that no one would ever ask.
Even now he could see her face as she had asked those questions, heard her exasperation with Clark for not being well enough prepared. He could still feel the energy in the room as they had their little round of verbal judo. Then she had been thrown through a window. Even then he put her in danger. They never had got to finish their sparing match.
He would give anything to see her again, even if it was as she had been that day when she had been goading him about his baldness. He supressed a groan; in the space of one year she had grown extremely sexy. He knew that she had been infected with a parasite at that time, but that didn’t change the way she looked – except for the dark streaks in her hair. He had almost been sad that she didn’t remember anything from that episode as he would have loved to have taken her to task
He sighed as he realised that he could have taken her to task about it anyway. He could have spoken to her every damned day. He could have seen her every day. He could have … he could have not wasted the time he had had with her.
Deep down he had always known how special she really was, but he had ignored it. Ignored her. He hadn’t paid her any attention until he had thought that he could get something out of her. Before that he had allowed her to be stressed, allowed her to worry about her father and her future. Still she had been so brave. She had taken on his father and won … almost.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, he could feel the familiar headache from too much work, not enough sleep and unadulterated remorse creeping up on him again. Her life had not been what it should have been. She had had so much potential wasted, more than anyone else he had ever known, and it had all been wasted.
She had missed out on so many things. She had only been to one or two dances and both of those had been disasters. She had only experienced a handful of kisses. There were so many articles left for her to write. Hell, she didn’t even get to graduate and stand in the sun with her friends or walk into the halls of a college.
Lex heard the crunch of snow underfoot behind him. “Hello Clark”, he greeted without turning around.
“I heard about your father”, the Clark said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. He had known that this was where he would find Lex and that he shouldn’t leave his friend alone at a time like this, but now that he was there he didn’t know what to say.
“He had it coming”, Lex shrugged, his eyes still fixed on Chloe’s grave. “If I had had the courage to do that years ago then Chloe would still be with us”.
“You can’t blame yourself. We all miss her but we have to get on with our lives”, Clark told him. This was not the first time that they had had this conversation. Ever since Chloe’s death Lex had been withdrawn. Everyone had been devastated by her death, but five years on the healing process had started for everyone except Lex. It was odd, Clark didn’t remember him having had that much contact with her before her death but after her death she consumed his thoughts.
“It was my fault, I promised that I would protect her”, Lex stated.
“You couldn’t have done anything”, Clark said, not knowing whether or not that was actually true. But he said it anyway because he knew that Chloe wouldn’t have wanted Lex’s world to have stopped with her death. He had never been exactly social but since the explosion and his father’s incarceration he was even more reserved.
Lex and LuthorCorp had merged and flourished under Lex’s sole control. They were developing into more fields every day; it was now the most successful company in the world. Clark knew that Lex had once thought of entering politics and whilst the thought had always scared him he had actually suggested it a few months back just to see if he would bring Lex out of himself, the richest man in the world had just laughed and said that there was no point now as he could just buy the White House with the change in his back pocket.
This statement had made Clark nervous. Lex had turned cold, hard and ruthless. The list of his conquests in both business and pleasure was longer than ever, Clark would have thought that he had lost his heart completely if he hadn’t seen him so often at Chloe’s grave and not realised the significance of his merged company being called C-Corp.
“Oh yes I could”, Lex whispered.
~*~
Lex paced back and forwards, he was encased in tons of concrete and surrounded by the best the US military had to offer; he should have felt safe but he had never been more scared in his life. Every few seconds he kept on glancing down at his watch. They should have arrived by now.
He started to doubt himself. He should never have included Chloe in his plans, he should have taken on his father himself. This plan should work, Chloe would enter the house with her father, they would get them into the tunnels and then set the explosion. But they should have arrived by now.
His pacing continued.
What if Lionel had already got to her? What is she was already dead by this point? What if the FBI agents had been corrupted already and had taken her straight to him? What if she was tied down to a table somewhere being tortured and touched by his father? Lex started towards the door at the top of the staircase that would lead him into the house.
“What are you doing?” A gruff voice asked, restraining him.
“I am going to get Chloe, she should have been here by now”, Lex tried to get free.
At a nod from the general, Lex was held back by two soldiers.
“She is only a few minutes later than we expected and the people we have following her say that she is safe and will be arriving in exactly minutes. This will go as planned”, the three-star general assured him. He then gave the soldiers another nod and they let Lex go.
“Listen, Lionel wouldn’t make his move this soon, at the very earliest he would act at night. We will get them both out before anything can happen. The only ones who will know about this outside the family are you and several of my most select soldiers; these are men who I trust with my life, who have literally been willing to lay down their lives for me and my family. We will get Chloe out of here safely”, he still barked, but there was a kindly glint in his eyes.
Lex nodded. “And everything is planned for after that. There is ten million dollars for each of the Sullivan’s in the accounts”.
“Good, I will protect them”, Sam assured him. Then they heard the beep that informed them that the car was pulling up.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
Two of the soldiers went up first, opening the door only a crack to peer around, the second that Chloe and her father were safely in and the front door was closed they burst in and started to drag them both down the stairs.
Chloe tried to protest and was fighting the man see saw Lex run up to her. He held out his hand to her and said, “Chloe come on”.
“Lex”, she gasped but grabbed his hand and followed without further comment. The look of fear and confusion in her eyes would haunt him for years, almost as much as her willingness to follow him in that moment. She had put all of her trust in him and he hadn’t lived up to it.
“Come on”, he continued to urge her once they were inside the tunnels still holding her hand and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders as she recoiled at the sounds going on above their heads. As the house exploded over their heads she looked back checking on her Dad rather than running and trying to save her own skin.
“He’s fine, come on”, Lex hurried her forwards. He could see her Uncle ahead of them but was not sure whether or not she had recognised who it was yet. They wound around in the tunnels for several miles, until they came out into the bright light. Only then did he reluctantly let go of her.
The second that he was no longer holding her she tore back and hugged her Dad.
Lex felt a knot forming in his stomach at this display of need. He knew that they wouldn’t be together for much longer and that it would be his fault. He could hear Chloe sobbing that she was so sorry and him squeezing her tightly and telling her that it was all alright and that whatever happened he was proud of her because she had stood up and done the right thing.
Uncle Sam and Lex traded meaningful glances; they both knew what was going to happen next.
“Gabe, Chloe”, the general started as he walked over them. Lex barely heard what he said as he explained the situation as he hugged both of them, the billionaire was too busy watching Chloe. She dried her tears as if unwilling to let anyone see her distress. He saw her expression change and her father’s hand squeeze her shoulder. She must have been told that she was to be taken away, permanently. Away from everything she had ever loved and known. Her father would not even be with her for the first six months or so. She would be with her Uncle on an army barracks the destination of which she would not be told at this point.
Her chin quivered although she tried to hold it together. She turned around and embraced her father once more as if she knew that this may be the last time that they would ever see each other.
Lex’s heart broke in that moment. That was the day that Chloe Sullivan died. The body was alive and well but her life was over and as he caught her gaze as she got on the helicopter with her uncle he realised that she knew that.
It had not been hard to fake desolation at her funeral.
~*~
Lex gritted his teeth as he tried to rid his mind of the images of Chloe’s stricken face, or her voice as she uttered the plaintive words “Goodbye Daddy” to Gabe. She hadn’t even said goodbye to Lex, just looked straight at him and blinked away tears as she got on the helicopter. His father had lived his life and made all of the wrong choices, Chloe hadn’t even had the chance to experience most of life before she was sent away. She had been confined just as much as his father had been - she had been taken away, forced into hiding, away from everything that she loved and was familiar to her, never having the chance to put down roots as she moved at least once every six months.
Lionel had deserved the miserable existence he had been confined to. Chloe had not. But it had been the only way to keep her safe. When push had come to shove, he hadn’t even let her testify. She had made a video several days before the explosion which was to be delivered to the court in the event of her disappearance. That had served to put his father in prison and keep her safe, or so he had thought …
He knew that his father was a powerful man, even behind bars. That was why Chloe had had to be kept moving, just in case he ever caught on. Several months ago, when he knew that he didn’t have long to live Chloe had disappeared. He had left it to the last minute, allowing them to think that they had got away with it but live in fear until … she was gone.
Lex’s hands clenched into fists. This was all so wrong, he should have just taken a gun and shot his father. No trial. No danger for Chloe. No horrible constant gnawing feeling in the base of his stomach.
He was so distracted by his remorse that he hadn’t noticed that someone else had come up behind them, until he heard a low throaty voice which sounded quite a lot like Lois’ saying, “You are the last person I expected to find here”.
He gritted his teeth; this was not the first time that he had had to deal with people – namely Lois – coming to tell him off for not leaving Chloe alone when it was his fault that she was dead. He sighed, he could tell by the voice that it wasn’t Lois but it sounded like another member of the Lane family, that voice was too distinctive.
Clark had turned around, “Who are you?” He demanded, obviously put out by the intrusion.
“Lucy Lane”, the voice replied.
Lex turned around. He knew that name, it had been … no it would just be her cousin. He stared hard at the woman in front of him. She looked to be about 5,8 but was probably only 5,5 without her heals on. She was slim and toned, a fact highlighted by her obviously expensive dark wool coat. From the looks of it, she had recently been in Italy as she was wearing the fall collection and dark glasses with her coat. Lex’s heart began to beat a little faster but he tried to control himself, he was seeing things.
He focused on her face. Her hair is shoulder length and a rich auburn and her skin was like porcelain, her lips were painted a deep red. She looked different but it could still be her, if only he could see her eyes then he would know for sure.
Taking a step forwards, he asked, a note of desperation in his voice, “Chloe?”
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Please let it be Chloe? :(
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
This one looks interesting!
I really hope that it is Chloe.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
A/N: Thank-you for the reviews. :)
*Chapter Two*
Martha Kent was on her way out to the barn to see how Jonathan was getting on with mending the tractor yet again, when she saw three cars speeding along the road to their house. The first was Clark’s red truck, the next was Lex’s silver car – she never could tell one make from another – and the one bringing up the rear looked like a black version of Lex’s.
“What on earth is going on?” Martha wondered, it had been quite a while since Lex had visited the farm and she had no idea who the third car could belong to. She walked out into the driveway and waited for them to come to a stop. The second that the truck did, Clark sprang out looking as if he might burst with energy, his face contorted by some strong emotion. Martha ran towards him trying to tell if something was wrong. Could Lex have found out his secret?
“She’s alive”, Clark screamed as he ran towards his mother. She looked at him in confusion as he reached her side and hugged her before running back to the third car. Lex was getting out of the second one and likewise going back to the black car. Wondering what was going on Martha made her way over there herself.
Clark was holding the door open as an extremely elegant young lady stepped out and surveyed her surroundings. Then she turned her attention to Martha, taking in her appearance through her dark glasses.
“Hello”, Martha extended her hand to Clark’s friend.
“Hello”, the woman returned, shaking Martha’s hand before slipping off her glasses.
“Oh my God”, Martha fell against Clark as her knees went weak. “Chloe”, she gasped, struggling forwards, with Clark’s help, to embrace the girl.
“Mrs Kent”, Chloe managed a small smile as the elder woman hugged her warmly.
“Oh darling, where have you been?” The redhead asked stroking the side of her face, trying to assure herself that it really was Chloe. “We thought that you had died. And what about your father?”
“Dad’s fine”, Chloe managed to say before being interrupted by Jonathan, “What is all this about? What’s going on?” He shot Lex a dirty look; where there was a Luthor, there was trouble.
“It’s Chloe Dad, she’s back”.
~*~
They all sat in the Kent’s living room sipping the hot chocolate that Martha had made for them after insisting that they all came in and got warm, explanations could wait a little while longer. Lex had smiled slightly at that, he had always known that Martha was a kind and perceptive woman. She, like he, had noticed that Chloe was certainly not at her ease being hugged or crowded by people. It wasn’t surprising he supposed, after all she had spent the majority of the last five years on her own fearing for her life. He wanted to know what had happened to her but like Martha thought that he could wait a little longer to get the full story out of her if it meant keeping her relaxed.
At first he had been reluctant when Clark had said that they would all go to his house, he had wanted to take her the mansion but gave in thinking that possibly Chloe would feel more at home at the Kents’. Besides he was too happy and relieved to mind anything. He wasn’t even too jealous that Clark got to embrace her immediately while he had to stand the side and watch, even though his arms ached to hold her.
“How are you?” Jonathan asked her, breaking through Lex’s thoughts. Chloe gave them all a perfect smile, “Great”.
Lex didn’t buy it. The smile was a work of art but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“You aren’t dead”, Clark repeated, still trying to wrap his mind around the concept.
“No”, she laughed, “I am still alive and kicking”.
“I don’t understand … how …?” Clark asked.
“It is all thanks to Lex”, Chloe looked over at him briefly, although she did not make eye contact. She seemed more uncomfortable around him than anyone else, Lex noticed. He shifted back in his seat, he wanted to lean in and take in as much of her as he could, but if there was a chance that she was afraid of him then he would have to be very careful. Maybe she thought that he was like his father.
Chloe’s next words dispelled this theory.
“He saved my father and me”. They all looked at her with interest and so she continued, “The FBI said that they would protect us and they dropped us off at a safe house but they didn’t do a very good job of it. Luckily Lex had contacted my Uncle Sam – the three star general – and they tricked the FBI into using a safe house which had a concrete series of tunnels underneath it. The second that we got inside they burst out of the tunnel, grabbed us and got us out just in time. Then we got on a helicopter and went to safety”. Chloe conveniently left out how scared she had been and the misery she had lived through since that day.
They stared at her in shock, “You knew that she was alive all of the time?” Clark turned to Lex.
He nodded, “I’m sorry Clark. I didn’t want to lie to you, but we couldn’t tell anyone. Not even her cousin knows”. The truth was that he had actually very rarely thought about what the situation was doing to Clark. He had wished sometimes that he could allay people’s fears, especially Lois’ whose grief seemed genuine, but he had been far more concerned with Chloe’s safety than Clark’s feelings. Besides, Lex thought bitterly, Clark hadn’t seemed to take the news as hard as he should have. Had Chloe loved him, Lex would never have been able to date anyone else let alone the girl who had always made Chloe feel inferior.
Chloe looked down in shame at that. “I know that Lois has been here in the past, is she okay?”
“Yes, she was very upset obviously but she is well”, Martha assured her putting her hand on Chloe’s shoulder and wincing as she felt Chloe tense up. “We understand why you did it sweetheart. You didn’t have a choice”.
Chloe’s aversion to being touched was also noted by Lex.
“Well I don’t understand. I don’t know how she got mixed up with Lionel Luthor in the first place, let alone having to run for her life”, Jonathan Kent exploded. He had had enough of having this conversation as if it were normal that innocent girls just had to play dead for a while and then came back. This was Luthor’s fault, he glared at Lex.
“Jonathan”, Martha scolded. She needn’t have bothered, Lex had stopped caring long ago what the head of the Kent family thought of him, the only thing that concerned him was the growing flush in Chloe’s cheeks. He wondered if she was getting sick.
“No Martha, I’m sorry but I have said that the Luthors were bad news for years. Now they have hurt Chloe, her …”
“It wasn’t the Luthors”, Chloe’s voice was cold and took them all by surprise; the old Chloe could never have spoken like that. “It was Lionel and I got myself into the mess, me and no one else. It wasn’t Lex’s responsibility to get me out of it, he didn’t even allow me to testify”, Chloe rose to her feet, “Thank-you for the hot chocolate Mrs Kent, I think that it is about time that I left”.
Lex was torn. Part of him was delighted that she was willing to defend him, that she clearly wasn’t afraid of him. Part of him was concerned at how hard Chloe now appeared to have become. And part of him was just so sorry that he hadn’t protected her as he should have and wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let her go.
Clark had been sitting silently for a few minutes, trying to process all of this when he saw Chloe climb to her feet and wanted to drag her back down and hold onto her, he couldn’t risk losing her all over again.
“No Chloe, don’t leave yet”, Martha pleaded, “Jonathan didn’t mean any of that. We would like to catch up. Do you have somewhere to stay? Would you like to stay here?”
Chloe looked unsure for a moment but then felt compelled by the desperation she saw in Martha’s eyes to sit back down. “That is very kind of you but I have been taken care of”.
“Well you know that you are always welcome here”, Martha said, sitting as well. “You can change your mind at any time”.
Chloe smiled.
“I mean it, any time. 1 o’clock in the morning …”
Chloe put her hand over Martha’s, and Lex noticed that she seemed better when she was the one to initiate the contact. “I understand thank-you Mrs Kent. Really. But I am fine, I’m staying at the best hotel in Metropolis”.
“That’s expensive”, Jonathan commented.
“Don’t worry, I have money. Dying was financially the best decision that either my father or I ever made”, her eyes flicked over to Lex before returning her attention back to Martha.
Martha just smiled. This was a rather difficult situation.
“I hate to seem like I am pumping you for information but I guess that old habits die hard. What do you know about Lois? I don’t want to scare her too much when she finds out the truth”, Chloe asked them.
“She was distraught”, Jonathan put in. “She thought that her cousin had died. She came here to find out the truth a few months after your death. For a time she thought that you might actually be alive because there was nothing in your tomb, but Lex”, he cast the billionaire a dirty look, “said that there had not been enough of you left to put in a coffin”.
Lex noticed Chloe’s shoulders tense at this.
“You can imagine how she was affected by such news. But after enough time, she stopped looking. She gave up hope”, Jonathan continued ignoring his wife’s furious ‘I hope that you will enjoy sleeping in the barn for the next month’ look.
Chloe looked forlorn.
“Don’t even think it Chloe”, Lex’s voice was low and commanding. She looked up at him, eye contact for the first time. “You couldn’t have got a message to her, you know that. Any contact would have put you in danger and her too. It is regrettable that she was upset, but unavoidable”.
Clark swallowed. He had just been regretting that Chloe hadn’t found a way to slip him a note, without thinking about the risk for everyone involved. This wasn’t something that they should be going in to right then and he could see that his father was about to say something to that and so asked the question that had been plaguing him. “Where have you been?”
“Here, there, everywhere”, she gave another perfect smile and Lex wondered if anyone but he could see that it was painted on.
“I was put in army barracks with Uncle Sam at first under the name Lucy Lane. She’s my cousin, Lois’ younger sister, who ran off several years back so it wasn’t strange that my Uncle was so protective of me and wouldn’t let me off the barracks or sent a military escort with me everywhere”, she explained.
“That must have been difficult for you”, Martha said understandingly.
“No”, Chloe lied. “It was a fantastic experience, I got to travel the world somewhere new every four months and it really gave me a chance to focus on my school work. I graduated within six months and then every time we moved I got to study a new language, they military program for language learning is fantastic. No knowledge to fluency in 3 months”.
Her jaw tightened imperceptibly as the memories from the first six months flooded over her - sitting in front of her computer in a locked room for hours poring over her school work and trying to stop sniffling.
“Your father went with you?”
“No, not at first. For the first year we were kept apart for our own safety, but after that we were more or less near each other, one the same continent at least”, Chloe brushed it off. There was no need for them to know the number of nights she had laid awake crying and hugging her pillow, desperate for some word from her Daddy.
Lex felt a little sick at that, her face had always been so expressive but now the blank mask told him more than her tears ever could have. She had been broken.
“Where did you get to go?” Martha asked, clearly wanting to keep the conversation going so that none of the men would have the opportunity to say anything.
“At first just within the States, but once my Uncle had to travel abroad I was put under the supervision of someone else and we went to Europe namely: England, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy and finally Croatia.”
“Oh how lovely”, Martha said wanting to kick herself, the poor girl had been running for her life, not on some bloody holiday. “You must have got to go to see a lot of things.”
“Some”, Chloe nodded. “I couldn’t really go out in daytime especially not in the UK because there are surveillance cameras everywhere; it would have been too easy for Lionel to find me. But I have been to all of the major museums etc.” She strove not to look over at Lex, “Someone very kind made sure that all of the systems of the things that would interest me were taken off line at night so that I could go to them, and shopping etc.”
Chloe thought that she should stop there but she continued anyway. This might well be the only time that she would ever see Lex again and she couldn’t bring herself to face him. This would most probably be the only opportunity that she would ever have to say thank-you, and that she knew and appreciated everything that he had done for her.
“For my last birthday the power along several streets in Rome went out and there was a bomb threat so that nearly everyone was removed as the military moved in.” She smiled. “I got an entirely new wardrobe and enough books to put Waterstone’s out of business”.
There was awkward moment.
“Glad to hear that you were having fun whilst we were all worried sick”, Clark muttered and then looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Chloe I didn’t mean … it wasn’t …”
“It’s fine Clark”, Chloe assured him, “You don’t have the power to hurt me”. She didn’t add ‘no one does anymore’.
“Well you are back now”, Martha tried to get the topic back on to neutral ground. “What are you going to do? Are you thinking about college?”
“I’m not sure yet. I thought that I would spend my life in hiding so I didn’t let myself think about what I would do if I ever got out. When I was told that Lionel was on his last legs, I admit that I did have some fantasies about being back in the real world and being a journalist or something … but I didn’t let myself indulge too much as I still didn’t know if I would survive. It was only when we received confirmation of Lionel’s death that I could come out of hiding. I have only been legally alive for a few hours; I need to find my place in the world before I worry about the next step. Luckily I don’t actually have to work so I can indulge myself for a few more weeks”, she smiled.
She didn’t mention the fact that she wasn’t even sure how she would manage in a working situation or who would want her as she was. Feeling uncomfortable under all of their gazes, she flashed another megawatt smile. “Besides, I might need to officially finish High School before I think about anything else”.
“What?” Lex demanded.
“Well, I did the work and got the grades as you know but I don’t think that the board of education will accept that”, Chloe explained herself, shocked by Lex’s outburst.
“Yes they will. You were on the military system, everything that you did counts. As do your languages qualifications, which will be changed to be under your name. Any College in America or University in Europe would accept those credits and give you a degree”, Lex said.
“Wow, you really thought of everything”, the words were out of Chloe’s mouth before she thought.
“Not quite everything”.
“Yes, well I really should be going. I need to unpack”. Chloe got up, said goodbye to the Kents, promised to call and made her way out to her car accompanied by Mr and Mrs Kent.
No sooner were they out of the room than Clark demanded, “Was it fun, Lex?”
Lex just raised an eyebrow at him.
“All of these years, pretending that she was dead. Making us think that you were being eaten up by remorse? What was it? Revenge for me keeping secretes from you, you decided not to tell any of us that Chloe wasn’t dead. Hell, you might have been angry at me but what the hell did Lois or Lana ever do to you?” He only kept his voice down so that Chloe wouldn’t hear.
He let out a derisive laugh, “You know you should get a bloody Oscar. That performance at her funeral and that one this morning were impressive”. He had to blame someone for this, and he sure as hell wasn’t ready to admit that he had played a part in all of this by keeping his secret from Chloe.
“I never used the word dead at her funeral”, Lex reminded him, “I said that she was gone, and she was. Her life was fucking over. And as she disappeared from my radar four months ago, I did think that she was dead. As for your pain, considering how quickly you moved on to Lana, I don’t think that you have any room to talk”. With that Lex headed towards the door, hoping that he would be able to get a word with Chloe before she left.
Clark grabbed Lex’s arm, only thinking to control his super strength at the last minute, “Don’t you dare tell me how much I care about Chloe”.
Lex groaned as he heard Chloe’s car pull away.
“Well then maybe you should worry a little bit less about me, and a little bit more about the fact that she is clearly in a great deal of pain, cannot stand to be touched from the looks of things, keeps looking around as if she expects to be picked off at any moment and plans on going through all of this alone”, Lex suggested pulling his arm out of Clark’s grip.
It did not actually matter what Clark did or did not do. Lex had to make a few phone calls to ensure that legally everything was sorted, then he would go to her hotel room. Chloe Sullivan was not going to go through this alone.
TBC
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Man Chloe is different. I wonder what she really went through? I hope Lex can help soon. Great update.
You might want to update the date. That way people will know you have updated the chapter. :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
I can't wait to read more on this one. You really have me wondering what all happened to Chloe.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
I really like where this is heading. Who was Chloe with once she was no longer under her uncle's supervision? Maybe someone who might present a little competition for Lex?
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
I would love to see what Chloe did during those 4 months she under Lex's radar.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Yay new fic!!!
Great start Poor Chloe she must've been so lonely
Stupids Clark and Jonathan
Can't wait to see Chloe and Lex meeting alone and he helping her ger her life back
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
This is just amazing! I'm so looking forward to how Lex and Chloe will soert their issues out and be together:)
Is there a way to learn a language in three months? Really?! Wow! But you problaby can't do anything else but that...
And I loved this line: ‘I hope that you will enjoy sleeping in the barn for the next month’ look.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
TrinityR: Thank-you. Yes, it is possible well ... it is possible to be taught on a really intensive course but no one normal can afford them. You only get them in the military and civil service. They are one on one courses with the best teaching equipment for 50 hours per week. When you think about it, the best Universities only have 80 contact language learning hours per year and the average course last three years so actually it is possible. Although it will pretty much leave you exhausted hence the reason that Chloe was put on those courses so that she would learn new skills but also not have time to think.
He he it is an important look.
Malugargula: Yes, she was very lonely.
Trckyrcky: There will be lots of flash backs.
Skyblue78: Maybe. *smirks*
Rachet: Good. :D
Hfce: Thank-you for reminding me about the date, unfortunately it isn't letting me do that regularly at the moment so that is why it wasn't updated. Hopefully that will sort itself out soon. I wonder what she went through too.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
can't wait for next update . clark and johnthan are idiots.love that lex could tell the changes in chloe and tell she was in pain . love that lex is not going to let her go thru this alone
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
A/N: Sorry it took so long, reviews do make me work faster. :)
*Chapter Three*
Chloe sat on her bed and looked around her hotel suit. It was large and immaculately furnished. It was the most comfort she had had in five years … or in her whole life really as the Sullivans had not been exactly rich before that, but she was left unimpressed.
“Come on, snap out of it”, she chided herself. This was ridiculous, she finally had what she had not even dared to dream of for years and she was letting herself get upset. For the first time she could go anywhere she wanted, do anything she wanted and yet she was still divided from those she loved and felt as alone as she had in those first few months.
~*~
Chloe blinked back the tears as she checked the final box and pressed the submit button. Her computer announced that she had completed her current task. She sniffled. This was pathetic.
She looked around the room. It was nice enough; it was far bigger than her bedroom at home and made to look even larger by the fact that it was painted bright white. It was divided in two by a screen, behind which stood her bed, bedside table, wardrobe and chest of draws. On the other side was a large desk complete with computer and everything else she needed to do her school work, sofa and TV in its own cabinet. There were two doors, one which led out into the hallway and one which led to her en suite.
Chloe couldn’t remember the last time that she had left the room, it must have been five days ago at least. At first she had longed to go outside but now she was more realistic. Sometimes she would stand on her sofa and jump so that she could see out of the high window, which allowed light in, to catch a glimpse of the outside world but mostly she tried to avoid it. It was too painful to see the world carrying on when she was stuck in there.
The computer beeped. Chloe looked for her next assignment and couldn’t believe it when she saw that there were no more. She had completed an entire year’s worth of work in less than six months she had been working so hard. That was rather worrying. That meant that she had enough credits to graduate with an A. But what would she do now?
She pushed back from the desk, she had no idea what she was going to do next. Every waking second she thought about her father, her friends, what she was missing out on and so she had put everything into her studies. Every morning she got up, ran into the bathroom to wash and change so quickly that she barely saw her reflection, and then got on her computer where she stayed until she couldn’t keep her eyes open and dragged herself over to the bed, or the sofa if she couldn’t make it that far, or sometimes she fell asleep at her desk. The only contact she had was when someone brought her her meals three times a day which she picked at and left, returning the last plate when the next one came. When her uncle was around he tried to visit her, they talked for five minutes and that was that.
Then Chloe would return to her room feeling worse than before, - accompanied by the guards who had been with her that day in the tunnels - and she would work, her vision becoming steadily more blurred as she stared at her screen refusing to let the tears fall. She would be strong.
She stretched and realised just how tired and sore her body was from the hours of forced stillness. Maybe a hot shower would help. She went over to the bathroom and turned the shower on and began to strip her clothes off. Normally she did this as quickly as possible and dived into the shower without looking at herself, she wanted to get to work as quickly as possible as if that would somehow stop the thoughts that plagued her, but today she knew that there was no more work for her to do.
“Urgh”, she groaned as she looked down at herself. She had most definitely gained weight in the time that she had been there and her skin was not looking its best. She pulled out the scales and stood on them. Another groan, 2 stone more than when she had been living in Smallville. “Great”, she grumbled.
Chloe turned her attention to the mirror and was even more concerned by what she saw there. That wasn’t Chloe Sullivan.
Chloe Sullivan’s hair had been short for many years although the style was constantly changing as her hair grew so quickly that she sometimes just had it cut in weird and wonderful styles just to see how it would look, knowing that it would have grown out in a week. Now her hair was almost touching her shoulders, but it wasn’t blonde. The top was her natural brown but even duller than she remembered due to her incarceration, the bottoms still dyed blonde but faded. There was no shape, no style, no colour. It looked awful.
Her skin was just as bad. She never wore that much make-up as her skin had always been good but now it looked terrible. So pale she was almost grey rather than an elegant white or healthy tan.
The worst was yet to come. Her eyes were undefined, puffy and red. The large bags underneath them told of her irregular sleeping habits and how difficult she found it to rest with the constant noise. If Clark could see her now he would run in the other direction, she wanted to run away and hope that the scary lady wouldn’t follow her. Not that she would be able to get far with the shape that she was in. She was fat. Well, maybe not technically, there were no pockets of fat on her body but she was thicker than she had been before and she had always wanted to be ten pounds lighter then. What was worse, she had lost the toned look she had had before.
“Well that is what happens if you sit of your ass for months on end”, she told herself.
She looked over at the discarded pile of clothes. Sweats and nothing else. This was ridiculous, she knew that she had a load of stuff in the other room, normal clothes and probably even some make-up.
“This stops right now”, she looked herself in the eye in the mirror.
She wrapped herself in her bathroom, turned off the shower and headed out into her bedsit. She pulled out a box from under her bed; it contained things that she had been given in case she had had to move. In there she found make-up, various hair dyes and things like that.
Rifling through the collection she found several bottles of foundation which would take care of her skin. Unfortunately it would almost make her look like a Goth it was so pale, but at least that way she would be able to cover up the grey. That settled which hair dye she picked, the black. She checked the back, it wasn’t permanent, it would come out after ten washes but she would have worked out something else by then. She did not intend to remain cooped up but she wouldn’t go out whilst she looked like she did now. There were other things, spray cans in various colours. Fun!
Chloe grabbed what she had decided she needed and went back into the bathroom.
Two hours later Chloe stood in front of the mirror and felt better. Her hair was as short as it had been in her sophomore year when she had been possessed, but this time it was black with red highlights. Her skin was a perfect white which hid a multitude of sins. Her eyes darkly lined and her lips highlighted red to match her hair. She looked like the bad egg daughter of a general, not a scared miserable little girl and that was an improvement.
Her skin also looked a little better now that she had showered again but she was determined that she would do something about that too. She headed back into her bedroom and over to the wardrobe. She did not have that much in the way of clothing, she had been opting for the sweats because that was what the army had provided and she had been loathed to take anything from the pile Lex had purchased for her but she got over that as she looked through them.
She grabbed a pair of black jeans which fit very snuggly, a nondescript black top and a blazer style jacket. She looked around for shoes and found some boots, perfect. If she was going to step on some toes then she should make sure that her own feet were adequately prepared.
When she was dressed she decided that she wasn’t going to waste another second. She was going to go outside, she knew that she would not be allowed off the military base but she was going to go outside!
Chloe walked over and unlocked the door from the inside, yanked it open and stepped out.
“Where are you going, Ms Lane?” One of the soldiers she recognised by sight asked her, as he stepped in front of her. Her room had a permanent guard.
“Outside for a walk”, she said, her chin raised. He looked vaguely amused by her new look and stance. Her chin was held a little too high and her tone a little too combative, but she wouldn’t back down. If she couldn’t be Chloe Sullivan anymore then she would embrace Lucy Lane and at least get a breath of fresh air.
“About time!”
~*~
Chloe closed her eyes willing the memories of those first months to disappear and breathed deeply, trying to relax. Outside her room she could just about hear people moving around , Chloe could barely believe that she now actually found that soothing and that it had been the peace and quiet of the Kent farm to make her nervous. She had grown used to always hearing people around her, even when she was alone. She supposed that she should have been more afraid of the people as if she was alone then no one could hurt her, but more than anything now she feared being alone. Everyone seemed to leave her. What if one day she was left all alone? Complete forgotten?
“You’re pathetic”, she scolded herself, getting up and making her way over to her suitcase, it was time to unpack; she couldn’t put it off any longer. At that moment she heard a knock and the door and checked her watch. It was too late for the maid to be coming, she wondered who it was.
“Just a minute”, she called in an airy tone. She knew that there would be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why someone was knocking on her door in broad daylight when she wasn’t expecting one, Lionel was dead for God’s sake, she was in no danger. But that didn’t stop her from grabbing her gun from her handbag on the way to the door.
Chloe peered through the spyhole and was shocked by what she saw. “Lex?” She asked.
“Yes”, he replied through the door and after fiddling with the locks she opened the door to him.
Lex winced as her heard the forced cheerfulness in her voice as she called that she was coming. That wasn’t good; he could tell that she was scared and so he took a step back from the door hoping that she wouldn’t be intimidated and could get a good look at him through the spyhole. If she didn’t check before opening the door she would be in trouble.
He still had no idea where he stood with her and their limited interaction at the Kent’s farm had done nothing to clear it up for him. He had always thought that she would hate him, but he had not seen any traces of hate. For a time he had thought that she might be afraid of him, maybe that was why she refused to really look at him, but then she had defended him. A glimmer of hope welled up in him, but he squashed it, she hadn’t said goodbye to him either or made any effort to contact him.
As he heard his name on her lips, he smiled. “Hello again”, he greeted her as she opened the door. Although she tried to look composed he could tell that she was surprised to see him there, she stood with one arm holding the door open and the other behind her back.
He looked her up and down. She had taken her coat off and he could make out her form through her perfectly tailored black trousers and low cut blue top. “Nice to see you”, he gave her his most charming, most practiced smile.
Chloe rolled her eyes, but held her stance. She was used to men looking at her, she had been surrounded by them in the last few years although most of them tried to pretend that they weren’t when one of her guards was around. She had stopped feeling nervous about it quite a while ago, now it just made her feel powerful although the way that Lex looked at her as if he could see right through her clothes and wanted to eat her up made her a little apprehensive and excited.
“Just happen to be in the area?” She asked conversationally, looking over his shoulder. Lex made her uneasy, he was the only one who probably still could. She owed him so much and he had seen her at the last moments of her being Chloe Sullivan, she was sure when he looked at her that he could see her inner insecure self.
“No, I was in Smallville but I wanted to speak to you so I flew over here. May I come in?” Lex asked, he saw no reason to hide his reasons for coming from her.
She raised her eyebrow as she heard that he wanted to speak with her but stepped back and allowed him to come in, closing the door after him careful to never turn her back to him.
“Nice place”, Lex commented as he looked around.
“Yes, it is rather”, Chloe responded a little warily.
“It must be costing you a bit. How long are you planning on staying here?” Lex asked as he turned back around to face her, noticing that her suitcases hadn’t been touched yet.
“Yes, well I can afford it. Did you come here to ask for a loan?” Chloe asked trying to gage his reaction; he would be perfectly within his rights to ask for the money back now that she was no longer in hiding.
Lex smirked and shook his head. “I just came to see you because I wanted to speak to you, no ulterior motive”. He watched her intently, trying to read her as she read him. Did she think that he wanted the money back? Did she not understand that he wanted to care for her?
“From a Luthor, I’ll believe that when I see it”, she said. Damn, that was stupid. He had done so much for her, she owed him so much.
“Well, nothing terribly ulterior”, he offered seeming unaffected by her comment.
“What can I do for you?” Chloe asked as she moved over to an armchair and sat down on it, motioning to Lex to do the same on the sofa which faced the chair. He noticed that she had chosen the only option which would ensure that she was not actually forced to sit next to him. He also noticed that her arm remained behind her - almost casually -, but he was fairly certain what was held behind her.
“I want you to come and stay with me at the mansion”, Lex announced, without preamble.
“I beg your pardon?” Chloe chocked, sure that she must have misheard.
“I want you to come and stay with me at the mansion”, Lex repeated, somewhat amused by her reaction. She did not look afraid, just a shocked. He could not imagine that this would be the only time that Chloe was propositioned by a rich, powerful man – although he was probably the only one who really did just want to live with her.
“Why?”
Damn, that was a question that he didn’t want to answer, it wasn’t that he didn’t have an answer, he just didn’t want to give it to her. Maybe he could get away with just outlining how it would be beneficial to her. He looked into her eyes and knew that that would never be enough; he had to be honest.
“Look Chloe, I promised to protect you and I didn’t do that. I want to make that right now”. Seeing that she was just staring at him incredulously, he continued, “Let me help you”.
“You did protect me, you got me out of there and gave me money. The fact that I am still alive proves that you did protect me and I don’t need help now”, Chloe replied, her face an emotionless mask.
Chloe had the most animate face that Lex had ever seen, he had been impressed by it the first time that they had ever met. Back in Smallville she would never have been able to pull of this mask, he ground his teeth. Four months ago, the last time that Lex had seen her on camera, she had not been able to mask her emotions this well. “What happened to you, Chloe?” He wondered, but dared not ask her yet unless she shut down completely.
He sighed. “I may have protected you physically but I didn’t emotionally. I just took you away from your life, from everything, left you alone in a room for months, ….”
“You were watching?”
“I was informed”, he dodged the question. No good would come from that line of thinking. “When I lost contact with you, I was so scared. I thought that Lionel had finally got hold of you and killed you. That you would never get the chance to do any of the things that you were supposed to. That was when I knew that I should have killed my father years ago; I should never have let you be hurt”.
Lex’s eyes had been on his clenched fists for most of this confession, it was only at the end that he dared to look back up at her.
“I wasn’t hurt”.
“You are, emotionally”, Lex challenged her. He could not stand to see this passive face on her, he had been trying to ease her into the idea that he wanted to / would help her but if she needed to be provoked then he could do that too.
“That is bullshit!” She spat at him, “Why is it that everyone thinks that little Chloe must not be able to handle anything?”
“I think that you can handle anything”, Lex corrected her, a touch of steel in his tone, “but no one can go through what you have been through and not have some difficulties”.
She scowled at him; she hated the idea that he knew some of what she had suffered. No one should know anything about her that she had not herself chose to tell them – she had changed a lot since her hungry high school reporter days.
“Your entire life has been taken away”, Lex reminded her, pleased to see the fire beginning to simmer in her eyes, “now legally I can and have given you that back. I will also make sure that you are credited with a College degree, you have enough money to never have to work again … but you have to decide where and how you want to live”.
“And I will”, Chloe assured him.
“And how are you going to make that decision hauled up here?” He inquired.
Chloe shifted uncomfortably, she knew that he had a point but she wasn’t willing to admit to it, so she just retorted, “It’s a nice place”.
“Yes, but that isn’t the real reason why you are here, is it?” He stared at her intently.
She shifted again.
Lex knew that he had been right; her body language told him as much even if her lips refused to. “You cannot stand the silence, it makes you uncomfortable so you need constant security and people around you although never actually in the same room as you. You need to have only strictly formal relationships with everyone around you. You cannot stand to be touched. And you are still afraid; for God’s sake you are carrying a gun”.
Chloe couldn’t deny any of it and took the gun out from behind her back. Lex reached out to take it from her and was surprised when she let him do so, she clearly trusted him if nothing else.
“Come back to Smallville with me Chloe”, he looked at her earnestly. “There is a room waiting for you which is just as nice as this one, so you can have your privacy but still have the constant reminder that people are around you outside, and that you haven’t been forgotten”.
Her green eyes widened at this, how had he known her greatest fear? This did not escape Lex but he forged on, “The security is state of the art, which will help you to feel safe until you get used to being out in the big wide world again”.
It was another good point, Chloe had to admit. He seemed like he had really thought all of this out, which concerned her.
“I know that you were originally from Metropolis and I can understand that you might want to come back here eventually, but Smallville is a better area for you for now”, Lex tried to explain so that she wouldn’t just think that he was trying to control her. “There are too many people in Metropolis. I know that you want to get over this quickly and force yourself to interact and just snap out of it, but it doesn’t work like that. If you do that then you are likely to just end up making it worse. Smallville will be a big enough adjustment for you to start with. There you will be able to get used to interacting with people again; see the people that you used to care about; and find your place in society”.
Chloe considered his offer. She was angry that he could see all of that about her when she wanted to hide it and that he thought that it was his job to look after her, but she couldn’t deny that his offer was tempting. It made sense in a lot of ways and as much as Lex made her uncomfortable, he made her feel safe.
“I don’t want charity”, she said finally.
“Oh, I never said that it was free. I will expect you to work for your room and board. I am working on several new projects which could use your unique talents”, Lex told her knowing even as he said it that that would be the deal clincher. She needed a project.
A mystery, Chloe’s ears picked up. She needed something to do or else she would go crazy. She pondered his offer - a chance to live at the mansion, to feel safe, and to be of use to someone and keep her mind off things.
“I will give you exclusive rights to be my only official interviewer”, Lex offered, surely there was no way that she could resist that.
“If I try to go back into journalism, you will let me interview you and print it?” Chloe checked, narrowing her eyes at him. He really must want her to come and stay with him if he was willing to offer that.
Lex nodded. “I know that you wouldn’t be happy just being a lady of leisure, that you will want to work. I also know that you must have been worried about finding a job as even with a college degree you have no work experience except for a job at the Planet you got fired from. You come to work for me for two months and I will give you a fantastic review which will get you into any sector you want. I know that you would never forgive me for buying you a position but I will support you however I can, in whatever field you choose to enter”, he assured her.
“If in a two months you decide that journalism is still your thing then the Planet will be impressed that you have worked for me on this campaign, that you can get an interview with me and if you wanted it would even give you the chance to write your own story”, Lex pointed out.
“The offer was very tempting”, Chloe admitted as her brain tried to process all of this. Everything in her told her to accept, she had no reason not to other than her need to stand on her own two feet and the funny feeling that she got when she was around Lex.
“So what is it to be Miss Sullivan?” Lex asked, even as he decided that he would not accept no for an answer.
Chloe surveyed him for a few more seconds and she realised that he genuinely did just want to help her, he was not going to weaken her.
“Okay”, she tried to ignore the tingles which travelled across her skin at the thought of spending more time with him, “On one condition. I like hearing my name, my real name”.
He smiled. “Very well, Chloe Ann Sullivan”.
TBC
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
yeah, that will be a good fic!!:):) More, please
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Oh, man, this partnership will be awesome
Can't wait for more
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
I am so glad she accepted. Now she can start healing. :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
A/N: Thank-you everyone! :)
*Chapter Four*
“Well, that was pathetic”, those dark eyes leered down at Chloe as she collapsed on the hard cold floor.
“Fuck off”, Chloe spat back, holding onto her side.
“I’m glad to see that there is some fight in there at least”, he smirked down at her.
“You have no idea”, Chloe glared at him.
“Actually I have a pretty good idea”, he crouched down next to her, “I know who you really are, I know what you did to get yourself into this position and what you did to try to get out of it”.
“My Uncle told you?” Chloe gasped.
“Of course. You know I was pretty excited to meet you, I was even impressed in the tunnel but hiding in that bloody room, working yourself to death to try to avoid dealing with the situation. That is pathetic and weak, and I don’t think that you are that girl”, his tone was cold but his eyes were warm.
Chloe’s jaw wobbled but she wouldn’t let herself seem weak in front of him. She tried to tell herself that it was just because of the pain in her side and not because of his words or because she knew that they were true.
“You see, this is exactly what I mean”, he gestured to her. “You think that not crying after everything you have been through makes you strong when really it just makes you even more vulnerable”.
She still tried to keep her jaw firm.
“You tried to run away from the problem, hiding in your room behind your computer screen and where has it got you? Has there been a single moment that you haven’t thought about what you have lost? Has there been a single moment of happiness?” He demanded, as he loomed over her.
She shook her head.
“And now you are in such bad shape, so tired, so under nourished that you can’t even run for 30 minutes on the treadmill without having to get off and then falling over with a stitch in your side”, he indicated to where she was holding.
“Yeah well I don’t care that much about physical fitness”, she groused.
“Well I do, now come on”, he took her hand and hauled her to her feet none too gently. “Your stitch will go faster if you keep moving”, he wrapped an arm around her waist and forced her to walk.
“Urgh!”
“Very articulate and here I was told that you had the word smith thing going on”, he smiled at her.
“Well I have given up on a lot of things lately”, she snarked.
“Your health should not be one of them”, he replied sombrely.
“I bet that my u… father would be interested to hear the way that you are speaking to me this way”, Chloe said lightly.
Pretending not to notice her near slip, “I think that he would just be happy to see that you are out of your room and with a new look to boot”, he nodded at her head. “Interesting colour choices, by the way”.
“He would probably be more impressed by the fact that I just graduated”, she shot back.
“Maybe”, he shrugged. “What are you going to do now?” He tried to ignore the gnawing in the pit of his stomach at the information that she had graduate so quickly. He knew that she had been working herself too hard but that was ridiculous, he should have intervened sooner. If he weren’t careful then his head would roll. If Chloe was protected and healthy then he would be richly rewarded, if not then he would spend the rest of his life in a place that made prison look like paradise.
“I’m not sure but I’ll figure it out”, Chloe replied.
“Well I have a suggestions”, that got her attention. “Someone very powerful suggested that you would hide yourself away and finished all of your work within a few months and that afterwards you would need something to do.”
She tried to remain calm, he could only mean Lex. “What did he suggest?”
The dark eyes noted her reaction to the reference to the billionaire, “He suggested that you would like to learn some more foreign languages”.
Chloe’s eyes went wide. “How did he know?” She asked but did not expect to receive an answer. Worryingly it did not surprise her that he had thought about her, considered what she would like but she never expected him to work it out. How could he have known? She had never told anyone that. Everyone knew that Chloe Sullivan knew Latin and that she wanted to be a reporter but not that she wanted to travel the world and know more and read more. She had studied some languages at school but thirsted for more.
“I can’t leave the compound, so how would that work?” She wondered.
“That part’s easy, the military and the civil service have the best private language teachers in the world and you will have full access to them here. It will be hard work but it should take your mind off things, 9am-6pm six days a week”, he told her.
“That would be good”, Chloe admitted as they walked around the room for the second time.
“Stitch any better?” He asked.
“Yes thank-you”, she dodged out from under his arm. She had used to consider herself a fairly open girl, she Clark and Pete had always been putting their arms around each other but now it made her feel antsy. It was odd considering the number of times a day she wished that she had someone to hold.
“Do you want to get back into shape?” He asked her.
“Of course, although I think that that might take some time. Good job that the army has a gym isn’t it?” She tried to joke, her hand still over her stomach although the pain had gone.
“Not that long, I go to the gym every morning at 5am. If you wanted to work out without being seen that would be the best time to go, then from 6-7:30am I would be happy to help train you”, he said.
“Train me?” Chloe looked up at him in confusion.
He stopped walking and turned to her, “Yes Lucy. You are never going to stop being afraid until you learn how to take care of yourself properly, let me help you get back on your feet”.
Chloe looked up at him; he was tall with broad shoulders and as horrible as he had been to her at some points that day she knew that he meant well. She knew that she should say yes although she wanted to run back to her room so she nodded quickly before her courage could desert her completely.
“Good”, he smiled. “Now I’ll take you back to your room to shower and change. Today you are dining in the officer’s mess. Being cooped up isn’t good for you”.
An hour later she sat next to him and opposite several other officers who she recognised from the tunnel as a large plate of food was placed before her.
“Eat it all, if you want to train like a solider you have to eat like a solider”, her dark eyed solider informed her.
“You think that Bloom there is bad to you, you should see him with everyone else”, an officer with an English accent informed her before extending his hand, “Dru Zod at your service Ms Lane”.
“You’re just mad because he caught you sneaking in with that redhead last week”, the third man at their table laughed before also extending his hand to Chloe, “Victor Stone”.
“Nice to meet you both”, Chloe smiled at them, “I’m Lucy Lane”.
“We know”, they both smiled at her, then Victor added, “Damn how much steak and potatoes did Bloom give you? That plate weighs more than you do”.
“Yeah, I had noticed that too”.
~*~
It had turned out to be a good thing that Davis had loaded her up so much, the following day’s training session had almost killed her. She had known that she was out of shape but even when she had been in shape she didn’t think that she had ever worked out like that. Although it did keep her mind off things, as did the intensive language training. By the time that she went to have her dinner at 7pm before collapsing into bed at 9pm she had been half dead. Still it was nice to be surrounded by people. That had become her routine for the next few months.
She had still felt lonely, she had still been frightened but it had been better. Exercise had become a way of life for her and the second that Chloe found herself alone in her new bedroom in the mansion she had been unable to help herself but went to the gym for a workout, even before unpacking.
That was where she was when Lex found her covered in sweat.
“That’s a good look for you”, he announced from the doorway where he stood observing her.
Chloe snapped to attention, her eyes keen and suspicious. She could hardly believe that she had already relaxed so much in the mansion that she had allowed herself to get caught up in her own thoughts, normally that never happened. Especially not in the last four months, during which time she had been so tightly wound that she had thought that she might explode.
She relaxed slightly as she saw Lex and, replaying the disruption in her head, realised what he had said. She fought her natural inclination to gasp at his presence and the fact that he was flirting with her. She knew that he didn’t mean anything by it but just having him there made her feel like she had when she was in High School.
An energy which she hadn’t felt in years coursed through her veins and she strove to control it. She wasn’t a teenager anymore, she had been through a lot in since she had left Smallville and learned a lot too … and part of that was how to handle men.
“So I’m told”, she smirked at him. “So do you work out or have people to do that for you?”
He smiled, and straightened entering the room properly, “I still do some things for myself”.
She raised an eyebrow in inquiry.
“Fucking for example”, he said as he sat down across from her and began to work on his upper arms.
Chloe just said “Hmm” as she started on the cross trainer again, trying to ignore the way his arms bulged as he worked the muscles in them. He really had very nice arms; they were perfectly toned and looked warm and strong but not overly buff. She did not think that she had seen him arms bare before, it was a shame that t-shirts were not normal work wear for Luthors, as he could probably have got a lot of contracts signed just because people were too distracted to negotiate terms.
“Something you find distracting Chloe?” He quirked an eyebrow at her.
“No, of course not”, she turned pink. This was ridiculous, she hadn’t blushed in years.
The devilish grin he shot her told her that she had been caught out. Well two could play at that game, she increased her tempo slightly and noted the smouldering glint in his eyes.
“Something you find distracting Lex?” She challenged.
“Yes, your breasts namely”, Lex replied.
She turned even pinker. How did he make her feel like a High School girl again? He was supposed to be the one getting uncomfortable, not her. And those arms were still extremely tempting.
“Men are so predictable”, she informed him dryly.
“Our interests possibly, but I promise you that I could find some interesting variations on a theme”, he was still so bloody cocky.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s what they all say”.
Lex stopped smirking at that although he seemed to stare at her even harder. “That’s what they all say”, could have just been a comeback. It had to just be a comeback. All of the time that she had been in the army barracks she hadn’t had a boyfriend, had she? He hadn’t seen one but she had found the cameras in her room. Was it possible that … No, she was just pulling his leg. He observed her desperate to notice some sign that would confirm this decision.
Chloe tried to look supremely innocent and unruffled under his scrutiny. She wouldn’t look at him, she wouldn’t. Even as she thought this she was certain that she could feel his gaze on her, tempting her to pay him attention. She looked instead at the door, at the sign on the wall, at another machine, at the machine he was on and then finally at him.
“Going to keep staring at me all afternoon?” She snapped and then wanted to kick herself; this was his house after all and she was just a guest. He had every right to look wherever he damned well pleased.
“Going to keep avoiding eye contact all afternoon?” He asked in reply, not taking offense at her words or her tone; as far as he was concerned she was completely within her rights to be irked by his staring at her, regardless of whose house they were in.
Chloe wanted to deny that that was what she was doing but then thought that that would be ridiculous as she was quite clearly avoiding looking at his face whenever possible.
“You don’t avoid eye contact with anyone else”, he pointed out.
“You have seen me interact with relatively few other people”, she noted.
“True, but you had no problem looking at Clark”, Lex pushed the issue.
“He was my best friend before I left”, Chloe reminded him.
“But you didn’t have that much to do with his parents, I mean, did you really see them that much more than you saw me, especially nearing the end?” He asked, moving the topic along. He wanted an answer.
“No, but they are …” she struggled to find the words and finally had to settle for, “different”.
“How so?” He wondered. There were hundreds of differences, but she knew what she meant.
Chloe refused to look directly at him. Lex sighed, he recognised her tells now. He stopped working out, got up and walked over to her. He placed his hands over the tops of the handles forcing her to come to a stop and then moved his hands down over Chloe’s.
Her breathing quickened, her first impulse was to pull away from him even though she knew herself to be in no danger.
“Chloe”, his voice was low and brooked no disobedience, “look at me”.
As if of their own volition, her eyes did as they were told.
“Tell me why you are so uncomfortable around me. You aren’t afraid of me are you?”
“No, of course not”, she replied shaking her head in earnest.
“You know that I would never hurt you”, he watched as she nodded her head. “You think that I betrayed you?” He asked cautiously.
“Don’t be so stupid”, she snapped looking appalled at him.” You didn’t betray me, I was the one who let you down”. There, it was out before she had even realised what she was saying.
“What? Chloe”, he demanded, “what are you talking about?”
“You know that I let you down”, she replied wondering whether she could yank her hands away and run, she did not want to have this conversation.
“No you bloody didn’t!” He growled, he gripped her hands more tightly but not enough to hurt her.
Chloe felt the squeeze and realising that she couldn’t escape bowed her head and reminded him, “Lex I came to you telling you that I could get your father put in prison and asking for help because I couldn’t get out of the quagmire (of my own making) on my own. Then I almost got you killed, you had to intervene and save my Dad and I, you parted with so much money to protect us and you didn’t even get the testimony from me that you wanted.”
Lex could hardly believe his ears, that she could feel guilty about what had happened was incredible to him. “Chloe I was the one who wouldn’t let you give that testimony, I know that you were willing to do it and either way we did get him put away”.
“Yes, but you wouldn’t let me because you knew that I was too weak”, she replied without thinking and Lex’s eyes filled with disbelief. “I saw that look on your face the day that I left, I saw the disgust in your eyes - I could read how disappointed you were in me. You have always been a good judge of character and able to sum people up, you are the one person I am sure can see inside me and I don’t want to see myself reflected in your eyes or for anyone else to see it either”.
“If you read that then you need glasses. I didn’t let you go to court because it wasn’t safe. That was the only reason, your bravery was never called into question”, Lex started as he tried to get his head around the new information.
She looked at him disbelievingly.
“Chloe”, he released her hands and cupped her face, ignoring the shudder that went through her at such an intimate action. “I don’t know whether or not I can see you better than anyone else, but I sincerely hope that I can”. Being this open with someone did not come naturally to him but he knew that if he was going to try to get her to open up then he owed her the same. “Believe me, you have nothing to fear from what you might see in my eyes or what anyone else might see through them”.
Her eyes widened a little as she searched his to see if he was telling her the truth or just trying to comfort her. She did not like to think of how many times she had been brought to tears thinking of him sitting in his office, drinking a scotch and sneering at the idea that he had ever trusted her. She had always just assumed that he must think as badly of her as she did.
“You were brilliant”, he assured her as she brushed his hand down the side of her face. “I was always sorry that you got caught up into all of this drama between my father and I, but it isn’t strange that he would think about you. You did the right thing to get out of the situation and come to me. You put a monster behind bars, and as far as the money, I never cared about that. All that I cared about was how much potential was wasted, how sad you must have been when you were taken away. I always thought that I let you down, that I should have killed him …”
“No”, she almost shouted, “never think that. You would never have forgiven yourself if you did that, you did the right thing letting the law take care of him”.
His heart went out to her, after all she had been through she was still so sweet … although delightfully snarky. “The day that you were taken, I was so impressed but that image has haunted me”, he confessed, not knowing why.
“Well, it is all over now. And I am fine”, Chloe managed a small smile.
Lex mirrored her expression, but didn’t tell her that he knew the truth. He knew that she wasn’t fine and that she was hanging onto herself by a thread. He certainly didn’t tell her how much of her life in the barracks he had witnessed, until she disappeared. He felt his need to know what had happened to her rear its head again but attempted to squash it; they have made enough progress for one day and he wouldn’t get any further pushing her at that moment.
Chloe swallowed. She felt better, elated but the heat from his hands was almost making her shake. She wanted to make him step away from her without offending him or making herself look weak, she smirked. “One question that has always plagued me, how much stamina does Lex Luthor’s really have?”
He grinned. He knew exactly what she was doing but was happy to play along. “Plenty”, he extended his hand to her to help her off the cross trainer. He led her over to the running machines.
“Ready, get, set go!”
~*~
“I still maintain that I let you win”.
“Sure you did”, Chloe smiled over at Lex as he held out her chair and she sank into it. “You forget, I have trained with the army … men who could bench press you”.
He ignored the thought of those men around her as he had seen many of her training sessions and knew that they had not touched her, except when sparing.
“Well technique is more important than brute strength”, he gave her a cheeky look as he took his seat on the other side of the table.
“I agree”, Chloe gave him a seductive smile before ruining the effect by giggling.
That look killed him. If he ever found out who had taught her to flirt like that he was going to have to kill them. She was far too tempting now, not that it had been particularly easy before.
As he stared over at her he was seized once more by the urge to rush over to her, take her in his arms and never let her go. He was so relieved to have her back. He had been in hell thinking that something had happened to her, it seemed almost too good to be true that she was back and living under his roof. He would be able to see her every day and help her heal.
She was dressed in jeans and a fitted polo neck, casual but gorgeous. If she were wearing new clothes then he wondered if she had unpacked, when he had gone to her room earlier he had not found her and had noticed that her suitcases remained untouched – just before he went to find her in the gym.
“Had the chance to unpack yet?” He asked.
“No, not yet. Why do you ask?” Chloe wondered.
“No reason, I just wondered if you wanted me to send a maid up and if you would have any time free after dinner”, he pretended to be interested in his dinner but kept one eye on her at all times.
“What did you have in mind?”
“It’s a surprise”.
“Alright”, Chloe agreed without thinking, she trusted him. God that was worrying, the one person in the whole world she trusted was Lex Luthor.
TBC
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
I so hope there was nothing between Chloe and Davis.
Besides that one concern - awesome chapter!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Poor Chloe. She really thought Lex was disappointed.
I'm glad they talked about it
Great chapter
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
I am glad she is learning to trust him little by little. I am dying to know we she is afraid of touch though.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
*Chapter Five*
It had taken months for Chloe to learn to relax on the base, but eventually she had managed it. Well, relax might have been too strong a word, not to resemble a ticking time bomb might have been closer to the truth. But either way, she no longer found the noise outside her room to be a disruption but rather it soothed her, reminding her that she was not completely alone. Now that Lionel was in jail and all attempts to have the trial overturned had failed the restrictions were a little less severe; although she had not met her father face to face since the day that she had been taken, she had been able to call him every night.
At first this had made things worse. She had sat with the phone in her hand sobbing as she tried to say everything that she wanted to say to him but not being able to, however eventually she had calmed down and now they spoke every night.
It had been two months now since she had graduated and started her training and she could feel herself getting stronger in every way. Every morning she got up and after changing into her sportswear opened the door and found Davis waiting for her. Together they would walk to the gym where she could not actually complete a full circuit of the gym next to her new mentor before going over to the sparing mats. She was getting better at fighting too. She had thought that she had had skills before but they were nothing compared to Davis’ knowledge. She spent most of her time on her ass, but she was learning and one day was certain that she would get the jump on him.
Then she would get cleaned up, everyday noticing the changes in her body as she did so. When the last lot of dye had washed out of her hair she had ordered better ones and makeup. She had decided to go auburn and enjoyed her new more fitted clothes.
At breakfast she would banter with the same officers she had spoken to on her first day out of her room. She was becoming more and more confident, more the Chloe of old … although, of course, she was now Lucy. Sitting in the canteen was an odd experience, at first she had been worried by all of the noises around them- constantly thinking that someone was going to jump out at her -, but now she was so used to them that she knew what was going on around the entire canteen. Chloe knew if something was out of place before anyone else did and as long as she was completely in control of her environment – or at least knew everything that was happening in it – she could deal.
The only times that she felt really scared where when one of the men accidently made contact with her. She did not mind it when she was sparing with Davis because she was expecting it, but in normal situations she hated it. The months that she had spent locked up had really done a number on her.
As grateful as she was to now have people to speak to a full hour of it was very wearing and it was a relief to leave the canteen and go to her language lessons where there was only one other person to deal with. Once she was there there was no room to think about anything else. Her brain was so occupied with learning the grammar – and often complaining how illogical their grammars and vocabularies were!
She was half dead by dinner time – she ate lunch in the classroom with her teacher as they never really had a break. Finally she got to collapse into a chair and eat her dinner, only half listening to what the others said until it was time to go and speak to her father and go to bed.
Her father wanted to hear about everything that had happened in her day and was in fact the person who had suggested that she should start going for walks around the base. She had told Victor about this plan as she thought that he was the most likely to help her and had not been disappointed. From then on, every night after dinner but before her phone call one of them would walk her around the base. It was interesting to have them point out what everything was until she knew the lay out of the base as well as any of the soldiers; in fact she was sure that she could see some ways of getting around the base without being detected.
One night just after they had returned an idea occurred to her - she should go around the base by herself. Davis was always talking about how much he wanted her to feel safe and the truth was that she wouldn’t feel safe until she knew that she could go out by herself. She opened her door and poked her head around the side, there was no sign of a guard anymore now that Lionel was definitely not getting out. She breathed a sigh of relief and began to make her way down the hallways, avoiding the security cameras as best as she could. She wouldn’t actually go outside the base, she knew that that would not be safe but there was no reason why she couldn’t go on her nightly walk again only this time un-chaperoned.
As she heard her boots fall on the tiles, Chloe felt her heart rate increase. She shuddered; although she knew herself to be alone she couldn’t not help the hairs standing up on her neck or the knot in her stomach alerting her to danger. She shook herself, she was just being silly. Too many hours of enforced solitude and nightmares about Lionel had sent her mad and apparently two months wasn’t enough to get over that. She was on a military base for crying out loud, she was completely safe. And so, she forced herself to keep walking rather than running back to her room. This was ridiculous, she had been running around by herself since she was a kid, there was no reason for her to be scared now, especially when she was beyond safe.
“Where do you think that you are going?” A voice behind her asked, bringing her up short.
“Damn it”, she swore. She was so used to feeling constantly afraid that she had ignored her body the one time that it had really sensed danger … or at least another person. She wondered who it was, it couldn’t be one of the officers as she didn’t recognise the voice. Still, she turned around anyway putting on her bravest face.
It was a lower ranking solider, she recognised him from around but wasn’t sure exactly who he was. It didn’t matter. Everyone on the base knew that the General’s daughter was there so there was no reason why she shouldn’t be walking around there.
“I asked you a question”, he took a step closer to her.
“And you will notice that I decided not to answer”, Chloe raised her chin and gave him a look of supreme hauteur. She knew that that was not the way that he was supposed to speak to the daughter of a three star general, she was damned sure that no one had ever spoken to Lois like that. Her first instinct had been to run but there was still a vein of the real Chloe in her, and Chloe Sullivan didn’t run from some trumped up solider.
He snorted and advanced on her.
Chloe threw a glance over her shoulder and realised that even if she did run down the hallway now she would be trapped within minutes. She did not like the way that this man was looking at her. She had been the only woman on a military base for months, over the last weeks she had become used to getting looks from the men that she passed but none of them had been as disrespectful as this one, none of them had made her feel as cheap and dirty as this one did either.
“Don’t approach me”, she ordered him, her voice not quite holding the level of authority she had been aiming for.
He just laughed, “You are trying to give me orders? That’s rich coming from a girl being kept on a military base because her Daddy is too worried about what she might get up to if she was let loose”.
She shuddered, not just because she was starting to think that he really might mean her harm but also because she realised that that was the way that people would view the real Lucy and because of that people would try to take advantage of her. What might this man not try to do if he ever came across her?
“You forget yourself”, Chloe bristled.
“And you forget your place”, he reached out to grab her wrists, pulling her to him, “give me a kiss”.
Davis’ training came to her in an instant. She stamped her heel down on his boot, although it did not make much of an impression her next kick to his shin caused him to loosen his grip. She jammed the heel of her hand up into his chin as she had been shown and heard him scream as his jaw was dislocated and he bit his tongue. Chloe moved back and aimed a kick to the back of his knees, causing him to fall.
The adrenalin was pulsing through her veins.
“Who the fuck are you to talk to me that way”, she yelled.
He was on the floor now on his hands and knees, spitting up blood, but Chloe was not going to let him get away with this. She was sick and tired of being weak, of being moved around without her knowledge or consent. She had had enough.
She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her.
“You do not fucking speak to me in that way and you never touch me”, at that she back handed him across the face.
For the first time in over a year she felt powerful, she wasn’t afraid of anything not even loosing herself in her new identity.
“I am Lucy Lane, daughter of a three star general and if you ever come near me again they will have to use your dental records to identify your body”, she growled before turning and walking back to her room. She only got two paces before she came face to face with Dru.
~*~
Chloe sat next to Lex in his car as they sped along the roads into the centre of Smallville. She had given up asking where they were going as it was clear that Lex had no intention of telling her until they arrived. The truth was, that was fine with Chloe.
She looked out of her window at the corn fields as they whizzed by. Every so often she would see a farm house light up in the darkness, looking warm and inviting. It was hard to believe that anything could ever go wrong in a place like that. It was how she had always seen Clark’s home as a child, the perfect family home where there were no problems. She imagined that even when Clark had been told his family of her death that despair could never really have taken hold of a house like that, Jonathan would have made some speech about heaven and they would all have felt better and gone on with their lives. Suffering and real feelings were something reserved for people like Lex and her.
It was very easy to imagine Lex wandering around his mansion with thoughts that actually bothered him. Hell, that was how she had always seen him before she had gone away. She was pleased to see that the man who now sat next to her looked far more sanguine than he had when she had first laid eyes on him that morning. The moment that he had realised who she was, she thought that she had seen him grow as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he had stayed like that so far. She hoped that he would never go back to the way that he had been before.
The idea that he had felt that he had in some way let her down was hard for her fathom, but it had clearly affected him. She was glad that they had spoken so frankly earlier, the fact that he was not disappointed with her made her happier than she could ever say … but she knew that there were many things that they would never be able to say; Lex would blame himself if he knew and think her weak and despicable.
Besides, Chloe had never been one to share her private thoughts, she always just shut down and buried herself in work. Well she supposed that once Lex put her to work tomorrow she would be able to do that again. She tried to look out of the window again but found herself being too distracted. Lex’s car was very comfortable, and nice and warm considering the frost sparkling on the ground outside. Her car was nice as well but it didn’t smell right, it had that new car smell. This car smelled like Lex, like she had remembered Lex smelling all of those times she was alone and it made her feel safe.
It was strange to think that Lex had come to mean so much to her over the last few years when she hadn’t seen him once during all of that time. She had always been fascinated with him, but from the day that he had promised to protect her he had taken on the role of a knight in shining armour to her. That day in the tunnels he had been her hero.
She blushed a little at this thought and looked over at Lex to see whether he had noticed. He had been periodically looking over at her throughout the drive and happened to be doing so at that point. Thinking that he might be about to ask what she was blushing about or worse think that she was imaging something naughty between them, she tried to think of something to distract him.
“Are we nearly there yet?” She asked in a sing song voice.
“No, not yet”, he smirked. He had noticed the blush. He thought about pressing the issue but thought better of it so he asked, “Fancy some music?”
“Sure”, Chloe leant forwards to play with his stereo. She wondered what songs he had, what kind of music he liked. “Any of it not classical music?”
“Selection F”, he said with a smile.
Chloe clicked it on and selected F, wondering what it was. “Let me guess, Kylie?”
“Not quite”.
Every single day I got a heartache coming my way
I don't wanna say goodbye baby
But look at the tears in my eyes
“Free, nice”, Chloe leant back in her seat and tried not to join in with the song.
“I am surprised that you know of them”, Lex watched her as she unconsciously wriggled her hips as if she wanted to dance.
“Yeah, my Dad loved this band as a teen. I found his LP collection when I was a kid and refused to give them back”, Chloe grinned, mouthing the words to the song.
I don't wanna say goodbye mama
But look at the way you made me cry
Every way that's nice you show
You've got a heart that's made of ice
And I know
“Being locked up stops you singing?”
She flushed, having being caught. “No, but I don’t sing in front of other people – with the exception of karaoke – unless they join in”.
Lex was about to point out that he had already heard her singing, and seen her dancing around her bedroom in her bra and panties once she had moved to Europe, but thought better of it. “All together then”, he said wondering if there was anything that woman couldn’t get him to do. He began to belt the song out:
Fire and water
Must have made you there daughter
You've got what it takes
Once she had stopped laughing, she joined in.
To make a poor man's heart break
A poor man's heart break
Then the song changed.
All I need is a friend
Someone to give a helpin' hand
When I'm afraid in the night
Someone to squeeze me
And tell me it's alright
You know I worry such a lot
And I would give all I've got
Just to have someone believe in me
Just to do that and put me
Back on evenly.
“Well, this is awkward”.
Baby, baby, be my friend
Baby, baby, be my friend
Baby, baby, be my friend
I will love you till the end.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
Go Chloe with that soldier. I hope the other guys learned from that guy. Don't mess with her. LOL!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
Well I don't think that anyone really learned from that because Dru, Davis and Victor are now on Lex's payroll and informed him of what had happened. After that he sort of ... disappeared without a trace so no one knew what he had done.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
I want some steamy action now:D
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
i like this story please update again soon.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TrinityR
I want some steamy action now:D
Me too ;)
Loved how Chloe handled the soldier!!! Go Chloe!!!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
*Chapter Six*
“Here we are”, Lex said as he pulled into the car park of The Talon.
“This place is still open?” Chloe asked in surprise, trying to ignore the knots forming in her stomach as she thought about going in there and being surrounded by so many people she didn’t know.
“Yes”, Lex turned off the car and put the key in his pocket. “Lana sold me her interest in the business when she moved to France but she couldn’t hack it abroad after all. When she came back she asked for her job back and continued to work here throughout college, she is the full time manager now and refuses to let it be closed down”. He observed her closely to see her response to hearing about her old friend, and wondered if hearing that Lana hadn’t survived abroad would give Chloe a bit of an ego boost as she had not only survived, she had thrived in the harsh conditions.
“So, is Lana going to be in there tonight?” Chloe asked, trying to brace herself.
“Yes, probably. I called her and told her about the situation. You have to get used to going into crowded places. The Talon won’t be too bad tonight, only a few people. We can go in, get coffee and then go down to the theatre which we will have all to ourselves”, Lex explained.
Chloe smiled. It was very sweet of him to have thought of this, he was clearly trying to help she just wished that she didn’t need the help; she hated feeling weak.
“Well, I can go through a lot for a good cup of coffee”, she gave him a brave smile.
He wanted to reach over and squeeze her hand but he didn’t, he just got out of the car and watched as Chloe did the same before he the chance to go around and open the door for her.
“Ready?” He asked as they reached the door.
Chloe nodded and he assured her, “It will be alright”, before opening the door to the coffee shop. As she entered her former hang out, a wave of nostalgia hit her. The aroma of coffee tantalised her nostrils and she heard the familiar sounds of students chatting away. She looked around her, nothing had changed except for the people.
Lex placed his hand on her lower back causing her to jump, but she tried to overcome the reaction as the gentle pressure did reassure her and urged her forwards. Together they made their way over to the counter.
“Our usual’s please”, Lex said to Lana’s back, “and some of those double chocolate chip cookies”, he added as he noticed them sitting on the counter top.
Lana had been anxious all day. When Clark had stopped by that morning to say that Chloe was back from the dead Lana had had to sit down, she had wondered if maybe Clark had been imagining things because that simply couldn’t be true. She had loved Chloe like a sister and had thrown up when she had heard of her death all of those years ago. She couldn’t believe that she had been so selfish throughout their friendship.
Chloe had loved Clark and yet she had made overtures of friendship to Lana, she had allowed her to stay with her and her father even when it would have been easier for her to just let Lana leave, and how had Lana repaid her? She had accused her basically of being a bad friend and untrustworthy. She had gone out with Clark even though she knew how much Chloe had loved him. She made everything about her.
She hadn’t known what to do, she had returned for Chloe’s funeral but found it just as hard to be there as it had been in France. Everything reminded her of Chloe. Everything reminded her of what a bad friend she had been. She had been thinking of leaving to go and stay with her aunt Nell until she had met Lex at the funeral. He had given her a note that Chloe had told him to pass along in the case of her death.
Lana blinked back tears as she thought of it. Chloe had known that she and her father were about to die and she hadn’t told Lana. Instead she had chosen to go through all of that alone rather than burdening others with her problems and in the last few days before her ‘death’ she had been thinking of everyone else. The letter had been so sweet telling Lana how much she meant to her and how she would always be her sister and in such a role she had to do something for her, she had to love Clark.
A tear slipped down her cheek but Lana brushed it away, only Chloe would have done something like that.
When Clark had told her that Chloe was back she hadn’t dared to believe it but when Lex had called later that day to tell her to prepare the cinema for him and Chloe that night she had knew that it must be true; Lex wouldn’t be wrong.
Ever since then she had been running around The Talon hoping to get everything ready. She wanted to ask so many questions but had been warned by Lex not to. He said that when she saw Chloe she was to greet her, tell her how happy she was to see her alive and well, give her a brief hug and ask to make plans for later in the week. She was not, under any circumstances, to ask where she had been, talk about her change in appearance or crowd her if she valued The Talon and the Kent farm – both of which could be bulldozed within the hour if Lex were displeased.
Now the moment had arrived. Lana turned around with a smile plastered on her face. “Chloe”, she gasped as she laid eyes on her friend, her sister. She could see why Lex had warned her about not commenting on her appearance, it was rather striking. She was beautiful, but auburn and probably weighed less than Lana did now.
“I can’t believe it”, she rounded the corner of the counter and embraced her friend, never wanting to let go - it was only the look that Lex gave her which made her do so, even though she could feel that Chloe barely returned the hug.
“I am so happy that you’re back, we thought that you were dead”. Chloe definitely looked uncomfortable. Lana noticed that as she returned behind the counter Chloe seemed to relax and didn’t look too bothered by Lex’s presence.
“Anything you want, on the house”, she said as she started to make their coffees and get their biscuits.
“Thank-you”, Chloe said, finally finding her voice. “It is good to see you again too”.
Lex’s gaze kept flicking between the two girls. He knew that he had to make sure that Chloe kept interacting with people but he wanted to be sure that he could control those meetings, at least to start with. This was going to be a huge adjustment for her.
“Maybe you could come by the manor later in the week”, Lex suggested.
“That would be great”, Lana enthused, “is that where you are staying?”
“Yes, for the moment. Lex has a job for me for two months”, Chloe explained pleased that she was finally starting to be able to speak in full sentences without it sounding stilted.
“That’s great”, Lana said, wondering if she would ever be able to think of a new word.
“Here’s your order”, she said handing them on a tray to Lex. “Everything is prepared for you downstairs. I’ll see you later. Chloe, it really is great to see you. I am sorry for the things that I said before you left, I …”
“It’s fine, you were right. I did stick my nose where it didn’t belong and it very nearly cost me my life”, Chloe shrugged.
Goodness Lana felt terrible. “Everything is alright now though, isn’t it?”
“Yes, of course”, the smile was perfect. She could have been on an advert for a shampoo, “I am back in Smallville and Lionel is dead. What could possibly be wrong?”
As if in answer someone burst out laughing and Chloe jerked. Her eyes wide and panicked, then increasingly nervous as she looked at Lana and realised that she had noticed.
Lana didn’t care what Lex said, she was at her friend’s side in a minute and had wrapped her in her arms. “It will be alright, we will make it alright”, she comforted her and she clung to her. Lex was about to intervene as he noticed Chloe become even tenser but after a minute she began to relax and mumbled back, “I know”.
~*~
As Lex and Chloe entered the theatre and locked the door after them Lex kept the lights on and walked around the entire area checking everywhere. They both knew that there was nothing to be afraid of but that she wouldn’t be able to sit and relax until they had performed these checks.
“Private theatre, nice”, Chloe joked as she watched him checking around and felt herself calming down slightly. She wrapped her arms around her when Lana had held her. It had felt odd, but not unwelcome.
“Only the best when you go out with Lex Luthor”, he smirked as he returned to her and took a remote out of his pocket and handed it to her. “I even bequeath you the control over the remote”.
Chloe gasped, “Never in the entire history of the world has that happened before”.
“I know, and it probably won’t happen ever again, so be sure to use it wisely”, he warned her.
With a nod Chloe started pressing buttons until the screen came to life and gave a list of films they could watch. “Did you choose these?” She asked incredulously.
“No”, Lex shook his head. “Lana did. I haven’t even heard of some of them but I did suggest a few”.
“This was very sweet of you”.
“Hey, you know that I’m not sweet”, his disgruntled expression was so cute that Chloe wanted desperately to hug him but refrained, but only just.
“I’m sorry, that was very strong and manly of you”, her eyes sparkled with mirth.
He gave a shrug. People didn’t normally thank him for things; they normally assumed that he had some ulterior motive – which he normally did.
“What made you do all of this?” She wondered as she noticed the snacks and drinks set out in front of two particularly comfortable chairs with throws over them. It made Chloe was to giggle, as if the coffee and cookies weren’t enough, she was starting to get the impression that Lex might be trying to fatten her up.
Lex thrust his hands into his pockets. “I thought of all of the things that you had missed out on and I wanted to try to give some of them back to you. I know that this isn’t the way that you would have preferred to go to the pictures and that you would have preferred to be with Clark but I also know that you are not ready for that yet. Being surrounded by darkness and that many people would probably do you more harm than good”.
He had not meant to talk about what she had been through that night but the topic seemed to keep coming up.
“You know that none of this was necessary, I am not your responsibility”, Chloe informed him, hoping to relieve some of the burden he clearly felt and so was somewhat surprised to see his face fall rather than looking relieved.
“Which is what makes this all so much sweeter, sorry I meant manlier”, she teased him, covering her tracks. She didn’t want to hurt him.
“You know I can cancel all of this”, he offered.
“No no I’ll be good, I promise”, she crossed her heart.
“Alight”, he couldn’t help but grin. He felt like a kid on his first date. He offered her his arm and she took it and they went to sit themselves down.
“Lex”, she started. She wanted to ask him about how much he knew of what had happened to her but as she looked over at him her courage failed her and so, instead, she inquired, “Which one would you like to watch?”
“Whichever you prefer”, he answered, rather than saying simply ‘you’.
“Clueless followed by How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days it is then”, she gave him her most mischievous grin.
“Ah, indulging my penchant for blondes”.
“I thought that you liked brunettes”.
“It varies”.
~*~
Lex had heard of Clueless before but never actually seen it. It was a rather novel adaptation of Emma – no pun intended –, but he found himself watching Chloe more than the film. At first when the lights had gone down she had been tense, her eyes darted around the room continuously and without thinking Lex had reached over and taken her hand. She had frozen, her breathing stopping completely for a minute. He was about to remove his hand when he noticed that her eyes were fixed on the screen, she clearly did not want him to notice her reaction and so he stayed still of a few moments longer. Eventually her breathing returned to normal, once she had got over the shock from his touch and the panic it caused, she seemed to have been calmed by it.
He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and smiled as he felt her return the gesture. Only as the movie progressed did a new idea occur to him. She was sitting bolt upright still and if touch did seem to sooth her eventually maybe he should try again. She would have to get used to it sooner rather than later and here she wouldn’t have to be embarrassed by her reactions in the dark.
As Cher came on to Christian in the movie, Lex slowly removed his hand from hers and pretended to yawn, and stretch. His arm was around the back of her chair, not very subtly.
He heard Chloe giggled, she didn’t take her eyes off the screen but asked, “Are you trying to put the move on me?”
“My my aren’t we conceited? I was just stretching”, Lex replied, “Darling when I put the move on you, you will know about it”. Even as he said it he wrapped his arm around her shoulder pulling her over into his chest slightly. It felt awkward, not just because he had not been that tactile with her before this but also because she remained rigid although letting him pull her.
If he concentrated he was fairly certain that he could feel her heart beating a thousand times a second but he kept his hold on her, stroking her arm gently and trying to keep his own breathing steady as if that would somehow calm her. It seemed to work.
By the end of the film Chloe was cuddled up to him.
She breathed in his smell, felt the warmth of his body. She hadn’t been hugged by anyone other than her father in 5 years before that day – and even then only once or twice a year. She was not used to this intimacy although she knew well of other kinds.
Sorry if Chloe seems a little weak at the moment, I promise that she isn't, she has her reasons.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 9th February 2013
I am glad she is getting out and getting used to people again. But what in the world happened to her?
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Hfce: Yes me too, I like to see her getting out. There is a big reason (but don't worry it is NOT rape) but it is partly just that because she was confined for so long that she is not used to people. Think of children when their parents get divorced, the stress and the days off school mean that when they go back they are really jumpy - at least in my experience living in the divorce capital of the world - and the longer they are off the worse it gets, even if it is only a week or two. Imagine being afraid for your life, after been taken away from everyone you love, kept away from everyone for six months and then only being surrounded by people who you don't know if really care about you or are just doing their jobs and who could be taken away at any time. It would give anyone a complex about getting too close, and you wouldn't be sure how you fit in. Also just not being used to having so many strangers around you, in the army she would have recognised everyone and would have known more or less what they were all going to do. Even on her trips out in Europe it was when no one else was around.
That is why Lex is trying to introduce her to as many new situations as possible while he can still control them and just get her used to physical contact.
Trinna: I'll try my best.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
I certainly hope it wasn't an affair either:/
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
*Chapter Seven: Part One*
“I can’t believe that you actually stayed here when you had the chance to leave”, Chloe laughed as they made their way through the halls of the manor. “I mean, don’t get me wrong it’s a nice place you have here but I thought that you hated Smallville”.
Lex shrugged. “I had to stay at first to make sure that Clark was alright but then I moved full time to Metropolis before deciding that that wouldn’t work and that I would be better off dividing my time between the two locations. I thought that it would be easier to live in the city where nothing would remind me of you, but it didn’t work”.
“Was he?”
He stopped walking and looked at her in some confusion. “Was who what?”
“Was Clark alright, after my death I mean”, Chloe voiced the question she had never dared speak out loud before. She didn’t want people to be sad over her death, she had wanted Clark and Lana to get on with their lives but she did wonder whether she had left any sort of indentation on their lives at all. She could not help but remember how quickly Pete had been forgotten when he had left and how lots of people died in Smallville and no one ever mentioned them again.
“No”, Lex answered her honestly. “How could he be?” He watched her expression intently and couldn’t help but smile, “It is alright to be happy that you were missed, even if you are sad that you caused them pain”.
“I know, it just seems so selfish”, Chloe said with a shake of her head.
“It isn’t, everyone wants to know that they made a difference and you certainly did, you only have to have seen you funeral to know that”. Seeing her looking at him questioning Lex, continued, “It was huge”.
He hated to think about that day, the day when they had said goodbye to her but she needed to know how much she had been valued.
“Every business in the town shut down and everyone turned up. Every single inhabitant of this damned small town knew who you were, they said that you were always after the story and spoke about your smile and your lively enthusiasm. So many of them said that just seeing you and reading your articles had inspired them and made them feel like they knew you”, he rubbed his hand over his head. “It was really rather touching, but it was worse for the people who actually knew you”.
“You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to, I know that it must have been difficult for you to pretend in front of that many people”, Chloe considered her actions for a moment before reaching out and placing a hand on his arm.
“No, it’s okay. You need to hear this. No, it wasn’t easy. All that morning I sat in the Church as people filed in and out, watching them grieve and knowing that I was responsible. You weren’t dead but you might as well have been for all you got to do. I just kept seeing that image of you as you got into the helicopter, so brave but so forlorn. I thought of you sitting by yourself on some army base somewhere scared and alone and thought: ‘this is all my fault. Chloe should be here, with these people being loved not mourned and the only reason why she is not is because I asked her to put herself between the FBI and my father’”, Lex looked down in shame. “I am so sorry; I should never have done that to you. I should have dealt with him, that day as I sat there I actually worked out how long it would take me to get to my father, how long it would take to kill him and get you out of there … and yet I did nothing”.
“Lex”, Chloe voice was sharp as she placed her hand underneath his chin and forced him to look up at her, ignoring the soft warmth of his skin beneath her fingers.
“We have been over this”, she reminded him. “You know that none of this was your fault, it was all mine. If I had not been selfish, stupid … if I had not spied on Clark then none of this would ever have happened. And I would never have wanted you to commit murder for me. I couldn’t stand it if you had that on your conscience”.
He stared at her, trying to work out how someone could possibly be so sweet after everything she had been through.
“You are amazing”, he told her as he cupped her face. She was so caught up in him that she did not flinch this time.
“No, I’m not. Tell me what happened”.
Trying to recall himself to the task at hand, Lex went through the day for her, describing what had happened, who had come and what they had said until he got to the Kents. “Clark just sat there, repeating over and over again that it was his fault with his mother trying to comfort him and Pete on the other side saying that he couldn’t have known although I am not sure what he couldn’t have known about”.
Chloe nodded, “I didn’t know that Pete had attended”.
“Not only did he attend he gave a stirring speech about what the Luthors had done to you”, Lex told her ruefully, “at least he was right for once”.
She shook her head, “He shouldn’t have done that. It had nothing to do with you”.
“Other members of your family don’t share that opinion. Your cousin Lois was there and made it quite clear that she blamed me and was going to get to the bottom of it”, Lex explained. “That almost got her into trouble a few times, but her investigations turned up nothing new. In the end she turned her snooping skills onto Clark”.
“Did you do the same?” Chloe asked, clearly worried and looking guilty as she thought of her cousin who she still had not called, she didn’t know how to yet.
“No, I did as you asked in the note you left me. I stopped investigating Clark”, Lex assured her. “Can I ask you why you …”
With a nod she replied, “Interfering in other people’s lives was what got me in trouble in the first place and I could see that it was going to lead you down the same path. I wanted you to have the benefit of Clark’s friendship and I thought that my asking you if I ended up dead might be the only way to stop you from throwing everything away”.
It was his turn to nod, acknowledging that how well she knew him and his obsessive tendencies. “Chloe I promise that even if the answer is yes I won’t ask any questions and I won’t do any research but … did you ever find out the truth?”
“Yes”, she answered instinctively trusting him. “A few days before the trial it all just fitted together, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen it before and I felt so guilty”.
“I’m sorry”.
She gave him a sad smile, “You see now you are believing your own press, you might be a Luthor but you are not responsible for everything bad that happens in the world. You are certainly not responsible for my stupid actions”.
“We make a good pair don’t we”, he smiled tenderly back as he put his hands on her shoulders, “both only realising what the right thing to do was once it was already too late”.
Chloe looked up at him, they were only inches apart now. “What was the right thing to do?”
Lex swallowed, he had not been expecting that question. For years he had sworn that if he ever got the chance to speak to her face to face again that he was not going to let his pride get in the way but now it was overwhelming, as was his fear that he might scare her off.
“I should have been a better friend to you”, he hedged. “From the first day that I met you I knew that you were special and for that reason I avoided you; afraid that somehow my Luthor ways would hurt you or that I would fall for you when you were still a teenager. I shouldn’t have let anything come between us, I should have spoken to you about every topic I could think of, should have seen you every day”.
Her eyes widened as she replayed that speech over in her mind wondering if she had somehow misheard him. She could not have just heard what she thought that she had heard. There was no way that Lex Luthor could have been interested in her. She should demure and step back but she found herself asking, “And what about now?”
“You aren’t a teenager anymore and I intend to see you every day and speak to you every day”, his voice was thick with emotion and he was within an ace of pulling her into his arms and kissing her senseless.
“I’m not the same girl I was when I left”, Chloe protested a little, breathlessly.
“You are still Chloe”.
~*~
Lex paced the hallway outside Chloe’s bedroom. This was truly pathetic. He wasn’t some love stuck kid teenager, he was Lex Luthor for crying out loud. It wasn’t even as if he had got a kiss from her, just a smile. That wonderful, sweet, goofy smile that warmed him in the depths of his soul.
He should go back to his room but he could not help but be drawn to her. He wanted to know whether she was fast asleep or if maybe she was awake too and thinking about him. He couldn’t see any traces of light so he assumed that she must be asleep (although he thought that she slept with the light on) and was about to turn back around and head back to his room, considering that it was quite late after two movies - so it wasn’t that strange that she was asleep - when he heard a muffled noise.
Straining to hear, he thought that he could hear her whimper.
“Chloe”, he called out as he knocked on her door gently, “Are you alright?”
There was another sound, this time it sounded as if she wanted to scream but was smothered.
In an instant Lex had pulled the master key from his pocket and Chloe’s door was swinging open.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Oh man I hope she is okay. EEK!!!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Now I'm counting on some comfort in the dark, some snuggling and some kiss:d
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
A/N: Sorry, no kissing yet. It was tempting but it would have ruined the next couple of bits.
*Chapter Seven: Part Two*
One year into Chloe Sullivan’s incarceration she was moved and she had never been happier. She knew of the political reasons for their move but was still thrilled to be moving to England along with her uncle, Davis, Dru and Victor. She was getting used to her daily routine but still longed to have a change of air and what was more she knew that her father had been sent to England.
It didn’t bother her that it had been pouring down the rain as they landed in the dead of night on a secret flight from the states, it didn’t bother her that it was constantly grey and overcast, all that mattered to her was that she was soon going to see her father, of that she was sure.
She had been correct. Chloe was given two days to settle in, to sleep off her jet lag and to get into her routine of training and learning before one morning after breakfast she went to meet her language tutor only to find Gabe Sullivan sitting there instead.
Everything that she had learned in their time apart about being self-sufficient disappeared and she threw herself into his arms screaming, “Daddy”. Their reunion was a tearful, hug filled one and took most of the day. Chloe had never been so delighted in her life, nor quite so heartbroken when her Uncle came in to tell her that it was time for her Dad to go.
Chloe had tried to be strong, she really had as Victor and Dru shot her sympathetic looks. She had to be strong for her father, but as he left so had her strength. She had slumped to the floor and sobbed. She had thought that they would be together again for good. She had not realised that it would only be for a few hours.
Just as she had been getting herself together her uncle had popped her head around the door and told her that he too was going, along with Victor and Dru, as there had been an emergency abroad and that Davis would look after her from that point on.
By that point Chloe had not cried, after several hours of constant heart wrenching sobs over her father having been taken from her again, nothing could faze her.
“Fine, go”, was all that she had said. The three men had left her and Davis had come in to see her.
“It gets easier, or so I hear. Being away from your family”, he told her.
Chloe hadn’t responded to that, but Davis had been right. She had never cried again when someone had left her, at least not while awake. She just got back up to her feet and got on with life. She never talked about her life with anyone except for on her father’s rare visits; she just trained and learned now even more isolated. The only person in her life – other than her father over the phone – was Davis. It was strange that she could rely so completely on someone she knew absolutely nothing about. It was easier to know nothing about him in some ways, if he weren’t a human then he could not be doubted.
He was her rock, he never really showed emotion but he was always there. He taught her how to fight even better, how to shoot a gun and how to sneak around even better than she had been able to before. He taught her to distance herself from people. She no longer touched people ever except for sparing; she did not even shake their hands. It was easier to pretend that people didn’t really exist when there was no contact and if they didn’t exist then it wouldn’t hurt when they left.
It didn’t hurt when they moved to Ireland, by this point she was too strong to care where she was. Ireland wasn’t that different from England for Chloe, the only difference was that when they got there Davis started disappearing for days at a time leaving her only with her language tutor and to go back to eating in her room. It was only when she decided to go into the canteen even if it was by herself that she started to meet someone knew. But he would leave her too, only in a more permanent manner.
~*~
As Lex made his way into Chloe’s room he pushed the door to and heard it locking automatically, at least this way he could be sure that that would not be interrupted. He was relieved to note that she was not being attacked, nor did she appear to be having a fit but the look of agony on her lovely features chilled him to the core.
He knew that she would hate for him to see her like this, but he couldn’t leave her.
“Chloe”, he called out to her gently as he approached her bed.
Her bedside lamp was still on, as he had suspected that it would be. The light from it had peeked out from beneath her room in the barracks he knew, but this one was too large for the light to reach that far.
The covers had been pushed down to her waist and her taunt stomach was reveal as her white cotton top had ridden up as she thrashed around. Her breasts heaved as she fought for breath over the sobs which seemed to choke her.
“Chloe”, he repeated her name as he drew nearer, not sure what to do. He was not aware that anyone had ever noticed these symptoms in her before, but the guards on her door had been taken off several years ago and there was no reason he supposed that people should know if she went through this every night. He paled at the thought.
Her hands were flying around her body writhed, he was getting really worried that she might hurt herself.
Seeing that she had not responded when he had said her name he made his decision, he would have to restrain her. He grabbed her wrists hoping that this would snap her out of it rather than waking her and making her worse, but it did neither. Chloe continued to claw, just less efficiently. Afraid lest he damage her wrists as she flailed about; Lex tried to lay his body on top of hers to stop her but this just made her worse, now seeming scared.
Starting to panic Lex let go of her wrists, grabbed her around the waist and lay back pulling her on top of him. As soon as her body realised that he was no longer on top of her she calmed slightly. He held her close, stilling her movements.
She started to make the noises he had heard through the door again, only this time he could make out that they were words.
“Dun liv me”, she begged, to someone in her dream. “Dun liv me”.
“Shh”, he stroked her hair. “It’s okay I’m here, I’m not going to leave you Chloe. I’m here”. Still asleep and clearly gripped by a nightmare she buried her face into his chest, her hands holding onto him painfully.
“I’m zory. Dun liv me”, she whimpered through her tears.
“It’s alright I’m not going to leave you. I’m never going to leave you”, he reassured her, tightening his grip around her and putting up with the pain her nails digging into him was causing.
“What happened to you Chloe?” He wondered as he continued whisper soothing words to her and was relieved to see that she seemed to be calming down.
“I don’t know how much of this you can hear or how much you will remember Chloe but I swear that I am not going to leave you, I am not going to let you go again. You are mine, all mine”.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Wow, you are mine, all mine.
How much I enjoyed what he just said:D
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Posted on 30th January 2013
Glad that you enjoyed it, sorry that there was no kissing.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Poor Chloe
I hope Lex helps her forget soon whatever shit she went through
:)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Poor Chloe. I am glad Lex is there to help her. :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
*Chapter Eight*
Lex stared at the clock, it was 7am. He should have been up two hours ago, if he didn’t do something soon then people would start looking for him but he couldn’t tear himself away. He lay there in Chloe’s room, in her bed with her lithe feminine form pressed against him.
He looked around the room, trying to find something to distract him. It was a nice room, clean and tastefully decorated. He knew that it was good, otherwise he wouldn’t have given it to Chloe but this was his first time seeing it from this angle. Chloe moved slightly reminding him of his position very acutely.
There was nothing to distract him in the room and so he turned his attention to the bed spread, very nice, silk … oh hell no bedspread was nice enough to distract him from the fact that Chloe was in his arms and had been all night long. Actually, he doubted that the entire chorus of Victoria’s Secret models parading around in front of him in their skimpiest lingerie could have distracted him.
Chloe’s auburn hair fell across her face and touched his chest, Lex brushed the hair gently back so that he could see her now tranquil expression. She looked so peaceful in her sleep, he wished that she could always be as tranquil as she was now. That was not the case for him. He was tense all over and the occasional sigh she let slip was doing nothing to help the situation.
He had never been a cuddler; he was more of the wam bam thank-you ma’am mentality. In fact, he normally wasn’t even there the next morning so he would never have had the chance to cuddle, but with Chloe he thought that he could be converted very quickly. There was absolutely nothing unpleasant about being in this position, except for the fact that even after she woke up he would not get any satisfaction.
Her lush body pressed against him. He could feel her breasts through the thin white material of her t-shirt and feel the warm skin of her back where his hand rested on her bare flesh. The top kept moving riding up in her sleep. It took all of his self-control not to let his hand slip lower to her pantie covered rear. He could feel her toned legs as one was slung across him, stopping him from getting away – not that he was trying.
Lex took the hand that had been playing with her hair and placed it back over hers, which was placed on his chest. He felt a pang as he watched his large hand cover her delicate, slender fingers. He thought about how easily he could hurt her, he should pull away now … Chloe shifted against him.
“Oh God”, he groaned as her thigh grazed against him.
“Mmm”, Chloe moaned, seeming to bestir herself a little.
He stayed still, trying to even breathe more slowly. He had been wondering how he would get out of this but now the opportunity was beginning to present itself, he couldn’t bear to let her go. He might never get this chance again and on a less selfish note, he thought that she needed the sleep.
Even though Chloe had calmed down considerably when he had held her, the nightmares had not completely left her. For well over an hour she had fidgeted begging him not to leave her again, begging him to come back her. Even after that she had sniffled a little. Lex had spent most of the night watching her and stroking her hair, which she seemed to like. Luckily, possibly due to the meteor shower, Lex needed only two hours of sleep to be able to function perfectly.
His stillness seemed to bother rather than sooth her. She mumbled something unintelligible and rubbed her face against him. It seemed to take a few moments for her to realise that she was not snuggled up to a pillow. Slowly she raised her head.
The room was bathed in slow light from the bedside lamp and so she could quite easily make out the male form beneath her.
“Good morning Chloe”, Lex said trying to sound normal, well as normal as he could considering that this was the first time that he had slept with a woman where the only thing that he had done was sleep. And that he was now laying under her sporting a raging hard on which he hoped to God she wouldn’t notice. He was going to make this as easy for her as possible.
“Lex?” She lifted herself up apparently not realising that she was using his chest to do so. As she did this Lex was treated to a very nice view. The white t-shirt had now ridden up so far that a glimpse of the underneath of her breast was visible on one side, as was her perfect stomach down to her French cut lacy panties and lean thighs. It was with supreme difficulty that he supressed a growl of desire.
“Trying to ask politely what the fuck I am doing here, seeing as it is my house?” Lex inquired trying to be as calm as possible; he had no intention of making this more difficult for her than absolutely necessary.
“Something like that”, she replied, before following his gaze and blushing. She tried to pull her shirt down only to fall slightly, as she couldn’t sit up in that position without using her arms.
“Here”, he said and pulled the t-shirt down so that she was covered. “Better?” He asked.
“Um … yeah. Thanks”, she said uncomfortably, suddenly very aware that she was straddling him. Lex took her hips in his hands and gently helped her off him and sat up next to her, revealing more of his torso to her.
“No problem. Look I know that this must seem a bit strange to you, but I promise you that nothing happened, I didn’t come in here with the intention of forcing you into …”
“I know”, Chloe cut him off. “I would never think that you would do something like that, I am just a little confused”.
Lex smiled, it was nice to be trusted. “Last night I was passing by your room”, he neglected to say why, “and I thought that I heard something. I knocked on the door to see if you were alright but you make a sort of smothered crying sound and I … I know that it sounds silly now but I thought that maybe you were being attacked or had fallen or something. I called your name again but when I got no answer I came in and found you in the midst of a nightmare”.
Chloe hadn’t jumped down his throat for the impertinence of entering her room whatever the reason or the fact that he had a key to her room – she just took both of those things as being normal – so he was encouraged and continued.
“I went over to you and tried to wake you up but it seemed to grip you more powerfully than a normal nightmare. It was nearer to those ones I had after Julian’s death”, he said taking a deep breath. “You were thrashing about and I was afraid that you were going to hurt yourself so I tried to restrain you but that just seemed to make you worse. You seemed to think that you were being attacked”.
She swallowed guiltily, hoping that he wasn’t going to ask her about that. He burned to do so but refrained … for now.
“I’m not really sure how, but we ended up with you on top, clawing at me and begging me not to leave you. I held you and you seemed to calm down”, Lex explained.
Chloe looked down at his chest. He was extremely well made, firm and well defined although now decorated with scratch marks.
“I’m sorry”.
“Don’t be, I consider it a privilege to spend the night in the company of a gorgeous woman, and then to wake up being straddled and to have the scratch marks to prove it … well let’s just say that if they were down my back I would have to find an excuse to go around bare chested just to show off in front of Clark”, he grinned at her smugly imaging the look on Clark’s face when he was informed that Chloe was ‘a wild cat in the sack’. He wondered whether he could manage to pull that off with the scratched on the front.
Chloe let out a bark of laughter, “I don’t think that Clark would care, now if they had been from Lana…”
“I wouldn’t put it passed him … Wait, why are we talking about Clark in bed?” Lex gave a shudder, “Aren’t I enough for you woman?” He demanded in mock outrage.
She laughed.
It was like music to his ears.
“I really am sorry Lex. You just got suckered into my night-time silliness and …”
“It’s not silliness”, Lex was firm. “You have been through a hell of a lot, it is only natural that you have nightmares occasionally, and if I can be here and act as your clawing post then I am only too happy to apply for the position”.
She smiled, almost nervously. “This isn’t going to make working together too awkward, is it?”
“It doesn’t have to. We can forget all about this if you want, but I will always be here if you want to talk. I see no problem with being your friend and your boss”, he said, hoping that that didn’t sound too presumptuous.
Chloe smiled at him again, a real smile this time. It reached all the way to her eyes.
“I think that that sounds like an excellent plan”, she followed his line of trying to make the situation less awkward by trying to joke around. “And at least I have the distinction of being the first woman to spend the night with Lex Luthor and have nothing happen”.
“The even more impressive distinction of being the only woman I have ever waked up with”, he said without knowing why.
“Same here”, she said before realising what she had let slip and turning red.
Lex raised his eyebrows at this. The fact that she was wearing a man’s t-shirt and had been begging a man not to leave her in her dreams, had not escaped him. He had spent a good portion of last night trying to work out who it was. From something she had said the day before, he guessed that she wasn’t a virgin anymore although he could not work out for the life of him who it had been.
For a time he had thought that it might have been Davis, but the t-shirt was nowhere near big enough to be his, he realised now that he could see that it only made it a quarter of the way down her perfect thighs. Who did that leave? He longed to ask her but knew that that would not get him the information that he desired.
“You never wake up with women?” He joked.
“No, they normally leave after the sex part”, Chloe said with a shrug and a teasing look at him as she lay back on the pillows.
“You are kidding, right?” He checked.
“What do you think? Can you not see me laid out beneath a leggy brunette with perky tits and firm ass?” Her fingers trailed down her throat down the valley between her breasts, “Being touched?” She continued, “Kissed?” She gave him her most seductive look. “Licked?” She licked her lips.
“Oh God stop”, he groaned.
Chloe guffawed. She seemed to think it so funny that she actually ended up turned over with her head buried in a pillow as she screamed with laughter and beat her fists and legs against the mattress.
“You really find this funny, don’t you?” He questioned.
She nodded and finally, between giggles and gasps for breath said, “The look. On your. Face. I only. Meant. To get you back. For. Checking. Me out. An’ give you. Nice image. To make up for. The trouble. Last night. Didn’t. Think. You would. Look. Like. Like. That”.
“Well enjoy the power while it lasts little one because there is something that you should know”, he rolled over so that he could run his hand over her shoulder and down her back and whisper into her ear, “we Luthors play dirty and”, he gave her behind a pat, “we know where the coffee is”.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
LOL! I am glad she didn't wake up screaming at Lex for being in bed with her.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
He he! She was groggy at the time and she does trust Lex ... for now. If Lex had his way though she probably would have done some screaming!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Can't wait to see how dirty a Luthor can play
:)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
can't wait to see what happens next. I hope lex can help her thru what she went thru. loved that part when he said she was his
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Thank-you for the feedback. Here is the next part:
Chapter Nine
Freshly dressed and made-up (and having finished the coffee which Lex had had sent to her room once he had left) Chloe made her way through the winding hallways of the Luthor mansion glad of her good memory and sense of direction. She headed towards the kitchen in search of sustenance; she had just over ten minutes before Lex told her to meet him in his office.
Outside the kitchen she paused, she wasn’t sure if she should knock. Part of her felt that she should, but then she remembered how Lex had introduced her to the staff that they had seen the day before. She was his personal guest and he had made it quite clear that she was to be treated as if she were a Luthor and a Luthor would never knock.
She opened the door slightly and looked around.
“Miss Sullivan”, one of the maids notices her and walked over to the door to hold it open for her, “Is there anything that we can do for you?”
“I just wanted to grab something to eat before starting work”, she explained as she was ushered inside and a chair was pulled out of her at the breakfast bar.
Chloe looked around the enormous room, her father had been something of a cook when she was younger and would have salivated over most of those appliances – the bread maker was almost as large as their oven had been. There were several other maids in the room and someone who looked like a chef talking as he worked to … Lex.
He smiled over at her, “You know when I told you to be ready on time, that was for breakfast, not work. I wasn’t going to suggest that you start at that time”.
“Oh”. Damn, now he was going to think that she was greedy, she thought. As if she had to eat in the morning rather than it being optional.
Lex smiled at her with amusement, “Care to join me? The chef here has been attempting to outdo himself today. I didn’t know what you liked to eat, other than coffee and muffins. Although I know that you changed over to healthier options”.
“That did used to be my favourite”, Chloe admitted. Touched that he cared enough to have thought about what her favourite was, although the fact that he knew about her changed eating habits had not escaped her. Exactly how much did he know about her life? Why? And how much had he controlled?
“Well a range of healthy protein packed muffins and breakfast biscuits have been prepared, along with fruit and a collection of cereals and milks. You like unsweetened almond milk, right?” He checked.
“Yeah, I like unsweetened almond milk but you didn’t have to go to all of this trouble just over my breakfast”, she felt a little embarrassed.
“No trouble, I just order things, I don’t make them”, he smirked.
“I know, I was talking to the chef”, she smirked in reply.
“You know I am more than capable of ordering them to only serve you liver, cabbage and brussell sprouts”, he tried to look stern.
“No you are not, everyone knows that Lex Luthor is just a great big softy”, she teased.
The staff had been trying to ignore the conversation, not thinking that it was meant for their ears but at that taunt there was a collective gasp and all eyes became fixed upon Lex.
He was not unaware of their audience, but was more interested in Chloe. If she thought that he would let her get away with that just because they were – semi – in public, she was very much mistaken. Lex remained where he was, leaning against the counter, enjoying the tension in the air. He noticed Chloe lick her lips over slightly and raised an eyebrow before straightening and fixing her with the look that made most people cower.
Chloe did not cower, if anything his reaction just caused her spine to straighten and added a glint to her eye.
“Miss Sullivan”, he asked as he stalked over to her, “would you care to repeat that?”
“If I must”, she said, trying to stop her heart rate increasing.
His smirk broadened.
“Everyone knows”, she said as he wrapped his arm around her waist, “that you are a great”, he gave her a tug, “big”, he brushed an imaginary strand of hair out of her eyes, “softy”, he pulled her into him so that they were pressed together.
Chloe knew that he was just messing around. She had half expected him to take her to task over calling him a softy in front of his staff – or anyone else come to think of it –, but that he didn’t mean for her to be intimidated by his peacocking and it was probably just one of his ways of getting her used to contact again … the odd thing was that she wasn’t afraid of being near him. Well, that wasn’t really that odd. She had not really been afraid of physical contact before – especially not with him – just a little wary. It had not felt like something normal, but now it felt perfectly natural. Maybe it had something to do with her having being wrapped up in his arms all night long.
“Is that so?” his voice was low and sent a thrill down her spine.
“Yes”, her hands were resting on his abs from where he had pulled her. She ran her hands up his torso, “see soft… almost wobbly in fact”.
He growled.
“See now your tummy is getting all growly”, she continued to tease.
Lex laughed, he couldn’t help it but then he tried to get a hold of himself before giving her a light push backwards. “I’ll show you growly”.
~*~
They were sat around the table set out in the office.
“Always an over achiever Lex?” she wondered as she saw just how much he had had prepared.
“I try”, he grinned back, not taking her teasing seriously.
Chloe was almost sad not to get a rise out of him, “You know what I really fancy?”
“What?”
“Egg white frittata”.
The one thing that he hadn’t thought up, “I will call the chef”.
“No Lex, I was kidding”, she said, worried that she might actually have hurt his feelings, “It was just the only thing that I didn’t see on the table so I thought that I would opt for that, didn’t want you getting too cocky after you had done something so nice. I am not doing a good job of reinforcing the whole ‘it’s nice to be nice’ philosophy, am I?”
“If being nice means that I get to share your company then I think that you are doing a very good job”, he answered.
She blushed and wanted to kick herself. She had to learn to get used to his flirting with her.
“Yeah, well unfortunately I go for bad boys”, she said with a mock serious face as she studied the produce.
Lex wondered what kind of boys she had experience of, he did not know of any … unless Davis Bloom had tried something. He would have to make a call later and make sure that he did indeed know all. Focus, he rebuked himself, he couldn’t let a perfectly good opportunity to flirt with her.
“Well I am a Luthor after all. That isn’t bad enough for you?”
“Well Luthors are bad, I suppose …” she ignored what Lionel had done to her, “but I like a man who gets his hands dirty, not one who pays someone else to do his dirty work”.
Lex licked his lips, as he reached out and took an apple to start his breakfast. “I told you that I still do my own love making so I can only assume that you are trying to provoke me into a demonstration”.
She watched as he rolled the fruit around in his finger, strong, pianist fingers.
Chloe swallowed. She wanted to shake her head and tell him that that wasn’t what she had been trying to do at all, but then she decided that she was enjoying this game far too much to end it. “So what if I am?”
There it was; that damned smirk.
“Anytime, anywhere sweetheart, just say the word”, he took a bite out of his apple.
God, he should work for Granny Smith, Chloe thought to herself as he appeared to have to lick some of the juice off one of his fingers. He could have made millions in advertising, not that he needed any more millions of course.
“Ummm …”
Chloe heard the noise but it took her a few seconds to realise from whose throat it had originated; she was shocked to discover that it had been her own.
“Was that a yes?”
“No, it was a yummy noise”, Chloe covered as she grabbed a muffin and bit into it, “delicious” she commented and it was Lex’s turn to have an undesired reaction.
~*~
Their breakfast concluded, they made their way over to Lex’s desk and as they sat on opposite sides Chloe was reminded that she was in fact there to work and worried that her earlier conduct had been inappropriate – not just the waking up with her boss, which she couldn’t help, but the teasing and the soft comment. She squared her shoulders as Lex opened his laptop and hoped that she looked professional enough. She had opted for her best suit and limited jewellery.
She wanted to show Lex that she could help him. She knew that the other day he had said that she would be of tremendous help but she also knew that a large part of this was about helping her. She wanted to make sure that he came out of this deal better off than she did.
“What I am about to tell you Chloe is in the strictest of confidence, I will not only expect you to keep everything I tell you to yourself, I will expect you to only research it from this office and from that computer”, with that he pointed over to the other desk which had magically appeared since the night before. It was very large, well light, with a good sturdy chair and what looked like the newest laptop available. Chloe tried not to drool as she tore her focus from it and back to Lex.
“Of course”, she said with a short nod. It did not escape her that it was strange to think that Lex was willing to trust her to keep a secret.
“Good”, he smiled.
“Whilst I have decided that I do not wish to run for President at the moment as I see little advantage to it, I want to know how I would go about doing it and which of the current candidates are best suited to the job”, he stared at her, she did not look horrified by the idea.
“You want to see if there is one of them that you can manage so that you have the limited advantages of being in the White House without actually having to be in the White House”, Chloe finished for him.
“Anyone else working that out and I would be impressed, from you I expect nothing less”.
Chloe wished that she did not feel warm and tingly at his sort of compliment.
“I don’t want you to tell me what you think that I want to hear. I want the facts – the ones that are common knowledge and the ones that no one else knows -, even if that spells bad news for me. I want to know everything about each of the candidates, as well as what popular opinion is. On top of that I want to know what you believe is going to happen with them, how you think that they will be manipulated and how you think that we can get the upper hand”, he watched her as she almost salivated.
“I want you to look into absolutely everything, you start to sniff out a scandal then you are to uncover it … but only from within this office where I can be sure that you won’t get in trouble. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
“Crystal”, Chloe replied, “but I will need to leave the office to go through town records and things”, she pointed out.
“I can get you all of those things untraceably online”, Lex assured her. “Any problems with anything that I am asking you to do?”
“How do you feel about me hacking into the Pentagon?” She wondered.
“You can do that?”
“Of course”, she shrugged, “my record is 4 minutes 43 seconds”.
“I’m impressed”, Lex admitted. “Hack away as far as I am concerned as long as you do it from in here so that you cannot be tracked, although I would of course protect you were you found out using another computer, but I would rather keep you off the radar as much as possible”.
“Works for me”, Chloe happily complied.
“Any other questions?” Lex asked, not sure why he was surprised that she was taking all of this so calmly. Everyone else looked aghast when he even mentioned going into politics in any capacity.
“Why did you choose me for this? I am sure that there are hundreds of companies that could find out all of this information for you”.
“Indeed there are, in fact I have employed a good deal of them and they turn up good information not to mention dirt but they don’t have your eye for detail nor your understanding of the situation”, he explained.
She looked at him in some confusion.
“I know what some of your research projects were on while you were away”, he explained.
Chloe paled a little.
~*~
Chloe screamed, leapt out of her seat and attempted to hit her attacker.
“Woo”, Lex put up his hands as he took a large step back, “it’s okay Chloe, it’s just me”.
She looked dazedly at him for a moment before seeming to remember who he was and where she was. With a mumbled apology she dropped out of her fighting stance and he noticed her put her hand to her heart to see how fast it was beating.
“I’m sorry about that; I didn’t mean to scare you”, he apologised.
“That’s alright”, Chloe said turning from him to hit the save button.
“I did call your name several times before tapping you on the shoulder”, Lex informed her. Although he was sorry to have scared her, he was secretly a little delighted that she had clearly felt safe enough with him in the room to let her guard down so far that she had got caught up in her research. He had watched her when she had been in her room in other places, and had noticed that she had never truly relaxed.
“Oh sorry, you know how I get when I go into research mode”, Chloe said, wanting to kick herself for saying something so stupid. How on earth would Lex know what she was like when she was in research mode? He had been Clark’s friend before she had left, not hers.
“I was just coming to tell you that it’s three o’clock Chloe”, Lex explained.
“Oh, thank-you”, Chloe said sitting back down at her computer, clearly not realising the significance of him telling her what the time was.
He smiled. “The implication being that as you have been sitting there working without a break since 9 am so it is probably time for you to have a break … if not stop completely for the day. You appear to have done a week’s work there”, he motioned to the computer screen as he read over her shoulder.
Chloe had indeed not realised that it was three o’clock although now that she was not actively engrossed in her research and the effect of the shock was starting to wear off, she did start to notice that she was a little tired – her eyes and shoulders particularly. She rolled her shoulder a little as she backed up her work.
“I’m not sure that it is a week’s worth but it is certainly very interesting. Quite frankly Lex, I think that Lionel could run against some of these people - if even half of what they have done were known - and win looking positively holy”, she gave a shudder but stopped to roll her shoulder again.
“Impressive, my people came up with very little”, Lex said placing his hands on her shoulders, noting that she tensed but only for a moment.
“Yes, well going through adoption records is something of a speciality for me”, Chloe said as she clicked on one of the files. “This man here sold his children on the black market and then brought a new one a few years later when it looked like having a child could enhance his political career”.
“The bastard”.
“Indeed, but it gets worse. An average child would not really pass muster so he funding some very dangerous experimental projects which involved taking children who showed promise, making their parents think that they had just been the victims of accidents, then putting them in a ruthless training program. Most of them didn’t survive”, she broke off.
He squeezed her shoulders, trying to offer what comfort he could and noticed the knots hidden by her jacket.
She took a deep breath and continued, “But some did. He took the cutest one and adopted it, really photogenic”.
Lex rubbed her shoulders almost absentmindedly, trying to offer her comfort. As he felt her relax against her will he continued, he didn’t have the words to make any of that better.
“He won’t get into power”, Lex assured her.
“I know that I gave you a hard time about some of you and your father’s projects in the past, the truth serum, the lab … but if you have anything underhand like that still lying around …”
“He will find himself in one”, Lex promised, “and any children we find will be returned to their families where possible with all the help that we can provide for them”.
Chloe closed her hand over Lex’s.
“For what it’s worth, I think that you would make a great President”.
He looked down at her. For a minute their gazes locked, until Chloe turned away.
“Wow, that was really unprofessional. As if waking up with you weren’t enough …”
“Chloe, don’t”, he said. “Don’t worry about it. I know that I am your boss for the next two months, but I always intend on being your friend … even if you don’t accept it. So don’t worry about it”.
She smiled at him.
“Well then friend, care to join me on my coffee break? We can whinge about our bosses”, she gave him a wink.
“I would love to, although I did have something planned for a little later if you are willing to trust me. I think that it is something that you need, even if you are afraid at first”.
“Sounds interesting”.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
can't wait for next chapter.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
What a great first day. :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
*Chapter Ten*
“So what is that you need my trust for?” Chloe wondered as Lex led her back into the office and saw that it had been cleaned up and that there was afternoon tea set out on the coffee table. She had been wondering what he had planned for the last hour as they had eaten their snack and walked around the garden. She had asked him about it a few times, but each time he had just told her that she would have to wait and see.
“You will just have to wait and see”, he told her again, but Chloe noticed that he seemed a little nervous.
“Come on Lex, out with it. You’ll feel better”, Chloe coaxed him.
He closed the door and then ran his hand over his head, “Maybe”, he admitted.
“Let’s sit down”, Chloe said, she took his hand surprised at the gesture and how naturally it came to her.
As they sank down he started, “I have been wondering all day whether I’m doing the right thing”.
Chloe made to pull her hand out of his grasp.
“No”, he placed his other hand over hers to keep her in place, “not about you being here. Having you in my life … it is right. No room for doubt about that”, he said. Even as he said this he could practically hear his father in his ear, rebuking him for showing his emotions and weakness. It was only by reminding himself how his father had turned out and that he didn’t want that for himself that Lex made himself continue.
“I never doubt my decisions, I always know what to do in any business situation but this is more complicated. I have been going over it all day, sometimes thinking that I have made the right decision that it is something that you need to be forced to do and at other times I think that it should be your decision and yours alone”, he tried to explained.
“Have you made a decision?” Chloe asked, wondering what he was talking about.
“I guess I have”, he admitted, “I haven’t called off the meeting but I am starting to think that it would be a good idea to prepare you for it, although then that would just give you more time to get nervous and …”
“So you thought that you would just take this all on your shoulders and be nervous instead of me?” Chloe asked, unable to suppress a giggle. She couldn’t deny that she was a little irritated that he had apparently made a very large decision for her – even though she didn’t know what it was yet – she was gratified to see that he did at least seem to know that it wasn’t entirely his place to make such decisions. She felt that she needed to comfort him now, she could bug him about being controlling later.
“Something like that, I didn’t want you to be nervous”, he explained.
“Well I am not at all nervous now”, she kid him. “Come on Lex, just tell me … I trust you”.
“Lois is coming to see me in about 20 minutes”, he blurted out.
“Lois?” Chloe gasped.
“Yes, look I know that it really isn’t my place and if you feel like I have over stepped some boundary then …”
“No, it’s okay”, she said in barely more than a whisper as she thought of her cousin. She had wanted to call Lois for so long, since she had been put on that helicopter in fact. When she had returned one of the first things she had thought of doing was calling her cousin but she just didn’t know how. If she just called her then she might not even believe that it was really Chloe, she could hang up even more hurt than before.
“I thought of going over to her apartment, I even looked up her address but …”
“You didn’t know how to start a conversation like that”, he finished for her. “That was what I figured, hence my setting up this meeting with Lois. I thought that I would even prepare her a little, she had been bugging me for information for years and I have always tried my best to throw her off the scent without hurting her too much”.
“Thank-you for that, I know that it can’t have been easy …” Once again Chloe was having problems finding the words, she was beginning to think that she should visit a doctor. It was not normal for her to be at a loss for words.
“She was hurt, of course and I’m sorry that I couldn’t find a way around it”, Lex found himself really bothered by the fact that he had upset a member of Chloe’s family. He found himself remembering his pre-Smallville days fondly when he cared about no one’s feelings but his own.
“I told you before, none of this is your fault, you are going to have to start believing me at some point you know”, she gave him a nudge.
“I didn’t mean to back you into a situation you weren’t comfortable with. I was going to explain to Lois what happened and then give you the opportunity to see her if you wanted”, Lex ignored her trying to make him feel better.
“Thank-you”, she squeezed his hand. “You did the right thing. I had given myself a deadline, if I didn’t think of the right way to do it by the end of tomorrow I was going to ask you to come with me to Lois’ apartment to see her. You just beat me to the punch. God I hope that she doesn’t take it too badly”.
He was touched that she had thought of him. His heart swelled.
“I am sure that she will be thrilled to see you and she is made of strong stuff. The Kents were wrong, you know. When they implied that Lois had eventually given up, it wasn’t true. She never believed that you were really dead. She kept thinking that there was some way that you might have survived, that I might be holding you somewhere, she thought that maybe I was torturing you”.
“Oh God Lex, I’m so sorry”, she apologised rubbing his arm.
“”Don’t be. You deserve to be loved that much”.
“So do you”, she said without thinking.
He was uncomfortable. “Well, um Lois never gave up on you, not really. I tried to persuade her that I didn’t have you and that you weren’t being harmed but I am fairly certain that she has never given up hope”.
A tear trickled down Chloe’s cheek. “The thing is, that when I teamed up with Lionel the only person I wanted to hurt was Clark and it looks like he is the only one I didn’t manage to hurt. I guess that being bad really does come back to bite you in the ass, I just didn’t know that it would use other people to do it”.
Lex pulled his hand out of Chloe’s grip, but only so that he could wrap it around her shoulders.
“You had a few minutes of weakness, this is not your fault. My father clearly saw you as a way of getting to Clark and he would have found a way to get to you. If you hadn’t given in that time then he would have thought of something else. He might have even escalated matters, you were still a minor. I could easily see him killing your father and taking you in ‘out of the goodness of his heart’ if nothing else had occurred to him. It could have been worse. Besides, everyone has their bad days”, Lex said.
Chloe gave him a small smile, she knew that he at least really believed that. Just as he believed – however much she told him that it wasn’t true – that this was all his fault and that he should have killed his father in order to save her.
“It’s not true, you know”.
“It’s not true that everyone has their bad days?” Chloe asked.
“No, I mean it’s not true that your disappearance didn’t hurt Clark. It did, very much”, he wasn’t sure if he should be telling her this. He knew that the guilt would have an effect on her, but surely as she was already consumed by said guilt, at least she should know that Clark had cared about her.
“How did he find out?”
“I told him”.
~*~
Lex’s BMW pulled up outside the Kent farm, he did not think that he had ever been so unhappy to be there. It was just after 5 o’clock but being summer that meant that there were still hours to go before bedtime. He had never had much fun as a teenager but he knew that for Clark that would mean that he was just finishing up his chores. He would probably go into The Talon later expecting to see his friends … although they wouldn’t be there. Lana had gone to France. Pete had just gone and now Chloe …. He swallowed and ordered himself to keep it together. He at least knew the truth but he was going to have to make this convincing for Clark.
“You aren’t welcome here Lex”, he heard Mr Kent’s voice through his window and gritted his teeth. He slipped on his sun glasses and got out of the car.
“I am well aware of that, but I need to speak with Clark”, he walked around the older man.
“I heard what you said”, Jonathan tried to stop him.
Lex turned on his heel to face the farmer. “You know what Mr Kent, I am sick of it. Since the day I met you I have been nothing but nice, trying to ingratiate myself into your family. Time and time again I have proved myself, but you insist on believing that I am just like my father … even though I just had him thrown in jail. Or, do you really think that I am like my father?” He pretended to think, “You know, I don’t think you do. You know that my father would destroy your farm and your family if you spoke to him like that.”
Jonathan looked shocked, he was used to saying what he liked to people and they just had to take it, Lex, his wife, even Clark. What he said went!
“Let’s get one thing straight, I am going to find Clark and I am going to talk to him before the six o’clock news, this is far too important for me to let some jumped up little farmer get in my way so either you back off or I will make you”, Lex slipped his glasses down his nose. He had wanted to be able to hide his emotions but knew that the raw anger and hatred there would scare Kent.
“I am going inside to see Martha”, Jonathan mumbled.
“Good”, Lex sneered as he headed towards the barn and Clark’s fortress of solitude.
It seemed to take an unnaturally long time to get there; his legs seemed to be made of lead. As soon as he entered that barn he was going to have to lie to Clark and tell him that Chloe was dead.
“Lex, what are you doing here?” Clark saw him coming from inside the barn; the doors were open. There was a note of accusation in his voice.
“It’s about Chloe”, Lex got out immediately, he did not want to get into an argument about why he was there, he needed to get Clark’s attention.
“Is she alright?” Clark asked, standing in front of Lex all of a sudden.
Lex shook his head.
“Oh God, what did your father do to her?” Clark demanded, fearing the worse, “Is she in hospital?”
He shook his head again, he tried to force the words out but he couldn’t.
“She isn’t … she can’t be …” Clark too seemed unable to find the words – Chloe would have been very disappointed in both of them.
Lex nodded.
They stood there like that for ages before Lex opened the bag that he had brought with him and took out two bottles of beer, one for himself and one for Clark. He handed the younger man one and went to sit on a bale of hay. He downed almost the entire contents of the first one without pulling a face – he had no idea how people drank dirty sock water and enjoyed it.
“It was quick”, he finally managed to get out. “The FBI took her to a safe house, but that is nothing compared to the Luthor ingenuity. She and her father were barely inside when the explosion happened. There were no remains and no evidence that they were thrown free of the blast. They are both gone”.
At least he hadn’t lied and he could tell that Clark knew this. He too drank his beer.
“I should have protected her”, Clark whispered, but Lex heard him.
“How were you going to manage that?” Lex asked, “You may be strong Clark but it’s not as if you are flame retardant. Besides Chloe would never have let you go with her, she felt bad enough about having dragged her father into all of this. She didn’t want you involved as well”.
Clark had never wanted to tell someone his secret so badly before, maybe he was meant to. If he had just told Chloe then none of this would ever have happened.
“She thought about me?” Clark asked. “I have been such a jerk to her. I always just saw her as a friend, I didn’t even realise that she had a crush on me for ages even though everyone else did. Then when I did find out I didn’t treat it sensitively enough. I wasn’t much of a friend to her this last year even though she was there for me all last summer when I had my problems. I should have been there for her. I should have protected her from Lionel. There should have been someone there to hold her hand”.
“There was. I held her hand”, Lex started on his next bottle. “It isn’t your fault it’s mine. I know what my father is capable of. I should have paid more attention to him, especially when he started to take an interest in Chloe but I convinced myself that she was just some unimportant girl and that my father would leave her alone if I didn’t get involved but he didn’t. I hurt her. I let her father have his job taken, I let her be threatened, even when I promised to protect her … I didn’t”.
Clark shook his head, “You weren’t her friend, it wasn’t your job. It was mine. Besides you did protect her, it was the FBI that fucked up”. There earlier fight and differences were forgotten as far as Clark was concerned.
Lex stared at his friend in shock; he had never heard the boy use language like that before.
“If I had protected her as I ought, then she would be here with us right now. Bugging you into following some lead with her and teasing me about getting a toupee”, in an uncharacteristic display of emotion he added, “God I wish that I could hear her telling me that I should get a toupee or a hair transplant. Hell, I would take her yelling at me for not protecting her if only I could hear her voice”.
“You grew close with her”, Clark noted as he two drank more. He had been so wrapped up in himself and Lana and in his fight with Lex he hadn’t even noticed that Chloe had really needed him. Even in this conversation he had only just realised that Lex implied that he had been ‘holding her hand’ or helping her emotionally during this time.
The billionaire shrugged. “I got to see her, who she really was. This young woman with all of the potential in the world who had fucked it up rather spectacularly. She somehow managed to be scared, loving – towards her family and friends -, angry but also smart and brave and determined all at the same time”.
“She always was”, Clark acknowledged.
“Yeah, I just ignored it”, Lex admitted.
“Why?”
Lex looked over at Clark, thinking that this admission was probably going to break the last glimmer of hope their friendship had. “Because she was 14”, he answered simply.
“Oh”.
~*~
“He didn’t forget you. It wasn’t something that he felt for a few days and then conveniently got over. He was willing to sacrifice Lana for you”, Lex explained.
“I would never have asked him to do that”, Chloe protested.
“I know, I saw the note you wrote to Lana”, he rubbed her shoulder. “I don’t think that I could have done something like that”.
“When you really love or work out that you don’t love someone it is easy”, she admitted.
“Which was it for you?”
“Tell me about what has happened since then”, Chloe prodded.
Seeing that she had no intention of answering his question, Lex continued, “Exactly what you wanted to happen. Lana came back and tried to start things up with Clark again, he refused at first after about a year he gave in. They were officially together when he left for MetU. He studied English in the end, much to everyone’s surprise. He said that he had been inspired by you.”
Chloe gave a small smile. “I knew that telling him about everything that I was reading would eventually get him into reading”.
“He can read faster than anyone I’ve ever met”, Lex admitted, “even faster than you. English only has class on Monday morning so he commuted, did the classes. Somehow by the end of Tuesday he had read all of the books and stayed on the farm to help his parents out. The rest of the time he worked as assistant football coach at Smallville High. He said that he wanted to help people”
He sighed, “He didn’t want other teenagers to feel isolated, to be pushed around …”
“That’s Clark for you, always noble. I am happy that he is doing well”, Chloe smiled over at Lex. Of course she knew where he had gone to college and things like that – a very self-destructive habit of Chloe’s was to keep tabs on her former friends and acquaintances - but it was different to hear it from someone who actually knew what was going on rather than just putting the pieces together from afar.
“Yeah, he is planning on being an English teacher as soon as his training finishes, what with some financial aid and his job he managed to get through without any major debts. He is thinking of building his own home in a few years”, Lex said.
“That would be good”, Chloe agreed, “he really loves it here”.
“Yeah, I suppose that that is why he didn’t take the football scholarship but I have to admit that I was shocked by that”, Lex mused.
“I wasn’t”, Chloe said as she remembered figuring out Clark’s secret, without meaning to, when she had been sat in her room working only a few days after being taken. She now understood a lot more and decided that she was willing to be a sacrifice if that meant that Lionel would not find out about Clark and his abilities. That meant that she could not call him, even though she knew that Clark would have been able to visit her without anyone ever knowing, what if the call was somehow traced. If someone started watching Clark because of it … She could not risk exposing Clark.
She sighed, she would have to visit Clark soon and tell him that she knew and that she didn’t blame him for not protecting her, she knew that that would be eating him up.
“What do you know about Lois?” Chloe wondered, she looked over at the clock; they still had ten minutes until her cousin was supposed to arrive and she was getting extremely nervous.
“She’s a pain in the ass”, Lex told her with a dead pan expression.
“It’s a family trait”.
He smiled. “She cares about you a great deal. She came here a few months after your death was reported – she had been in Europe and that was as soon as she could make it back – and she was distraught. She wouldn’t accept your death. She came here looking for clues every day but eventually got on with her life, although like I said before, she never truly stopped looking.”
“I researched her”, Chloe admitted and Lex didn’t look shocked, “I know that she went to MetU like Clark”.
“Yeah, she studied journalism in your honour and got an internship with the Inquisitor”, Lex filled her in.
“I read a lot of her articles, not my style but they were really good. I imagine that she would really like getting to the bottom of mysteries, especially the juicy scandalous ones. In her writing she sounds happy … is she? She didn’t just go down that path because of me did she?” Chloe asked the question that had been bugging her for years now.
“No”, Lex assured her, “it was what she wanted. Besides she has a knack for getting to the bottom of things, she found out about some of Luthor Corp’s less favourable projects to try to blackmail me but when she couldn’t, she sold them to Oliver Queen in exchange for him using all of this influence to find you if you weren’t dead”.
“And …?”
“And he found nothing. But he suspected, I could tell”, Lex could remember the look of dawning comprehension on his former rivals face and then the look of extreme sadness. Although they had never been friends, they knew each other very well. Oliver had been able to tell just what Lex’s intentions had been and that they might never get Chloe back and so he had lied to Lois. She had fallen into his arms crying and Lex heard that they were now dating. He hoped that Oliver’s deception did not come back to bite him in the ass, whatever Oliver had done to him in the past he didn’t deserve that.
“Oh God, poor Lois”, Chloe moaned as she door to the office was flung open.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Oh boy here comes trouble. LOL! :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Hfce: She prefers to be called Lois, but yeah. ;P
*Chapter Eleven*
“What is this time Luthor?” Lois demanded as she stormed into his office without knocking or waiting for admittance. Lex sighed, he was used to this but he noticed Chloe jump slightly at the sudden noise.
He ran his hand over the top of her head as she let go of his arm and he stood up, the settee back was so high that no one could see if someone was sitting there from behind. That was probably for the best right now, he did not need Lois seeing Chloe until he had prepared her at least a little.
“Thank-you for coming at such short notice”, Lex said neutrally as he strode over to the doors and closed them.
Lois turned to eye him warily. “You knew that I would when I received your message saying that you were finally willing to tell me the truth”.
Lex examined her closely. He didn’t like Lois that much, he had always been pleased to see how much she cared about Chloe and knew that that affection had cost her dearly these past few years. She always had a slightly haunted look and a glimmer of fear every time she looked at him, - not for herself, he had realised long ago - but that he could have hurt Chloe.
“What is it? What did you do to her?” She demanded, now looking absolutely terrified. It wasn’t just the thought that Chloe might be dead anymore, it was the idea that this man might have held her prisoner, might have tortured her … “I swear Luthor if you have hurt her then your name won’t save you. I am more than willing to spend the rest of my life in prison if you have touched her …”
“I didn’t touch her, she is fine physically at least”, she attempted to reassure her.
Lois stared at him in disbelief, that was what she had been dying to hear for years but now that she did she couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be true, if it were then she had let her cousin down years ago. She hadn’t found her; she had let her be held captive for years. How could Chloe ever forgive her?
She launched herself at Lex, trying to hit him but her emotions made her sloppy and Lex easily out manoeuvred her, grabbing her wrists.
“You are lying”.
“I’m not”.
“So what, you just kept her here in your mansion to be at your beck and call while we all worried about her?” The tears streamed down her cheeks, thousands of horrifying images whirling around in her head.
“She wasn’t in the mansion, she was … elsewhere. But I promise you that she was never harmed”, Lex tried to explained. In truth she was taking it about as well as he had expected, hence him wanting to talk to her first. He was worried that Chloe wouldn’t be able to deal with such strong emotions, evidently he had underestimated her.
“I’m fine Lois”, Chloe’s voice came from behind her cousin.
“Chloe”, Lois gasped, wrenching herself from Lex’s grip and whirling around to see where the voice came from.
“No, you’re not”, Lois shook her head. This was a cruel trick, to get someone who looked and sounded a bit like Chloe to torture her.
“Yes Lois, I am. Look at me really look at me. Listen to my voice”, Chloe held out her hands to her cousin and was shocked to feel how cold they were. “Don’t pay attention to the makeup, the clothes or the new hair. Just look at me”.
Lois stared at her, comprehension dawning. It was too good to be true, she just couldn’t allow herself to believe it. She had had too many dreams where she woke up - still inside her dream – thinking that Chloe’s death had just been a dream. She had run down the street after too many people she thought looked a little bit like Chloe.
“Baby?” She whispered and Chloe nodded.
“It’s me Lo”, she promised her, squeezing her cousin’s hands before bringing on to her face to show her that she was indeed real. Then she removed the strap on her dress to reveal the scar that she had had since they were children. “See, here’s the proof, no one but you and I know that I have this or how I got it.”
The taller girl looked so desperately like she wanted to believe it, but still she doubted. This could all be some cruel practical joke.
“I spilt soda on the carpet of your tree house and you banned me and I said that I didn’t care and that I would just go and make a cooler one but as I climbed down we were still arguing, I lost my footing and fell over. You felt guilty and I never told anyone what had happened”, Chloe recounted the story.
“If Chloe were alive and tortured she could have told Lex that so that he could pass the new version of you off”, Lois wouldn’t allow herself to be conned. She would not get her hopes up.
Unfortunately Lex couldn’t deny that he would be quite capable of something like that, if it weren’t Chloe.
“I would have told him a fake story, one with just enough truth to make him believe it but with something wrong in it so that you would know that I was alive and well”, Chloe tried to make her cousin see sense, she could defend Lex later.
Lois appeared to be considering this for a moment before nodding.
“Besides, there is something that I would never have told Lex and he wouldn’t have known to ask about”, Chloe pointed out as she learnt over and whispered into Lois’ ear.
“Chloe”, Lois screamed finally, truly believing and threw her arms around her.
“Lois”, Chloe replied returning the almost bruising embrace although Lex noticed she still looked a little uncomfortable at first.
“Are you alright? Where have you been? What happened?” Lois demanded in the fashion which showed how she had got so far in her chosen profession.
Chloe looked guilty. “Can we sit down?”
Together they made their way over to the settee and Lex gave Chloe an encouraging smile when she caught his eye before leaving, to give them some privacy.
“I am so sorry Lois”, Chloe tried to keep herself together.
“What for?” Lois wondered.
“It’s all my fault. I was in love with Clark but he was in love with Lana and I found out that they were together by accident, I was so angry and I wanted to hurt them both, but mostly Clark”, Chloe started.
“Understandable. I have half a mind to go and wallop him on your behalf”, Lois interjected, wondering how on earth he could prefer Lana to Chloe.
“Well, unfortunately I didn’t decide to hit him, I wish that I had. Instead I agreed to do a research project on him for Lionel. I was so angry that I was being pushed out of his life for Lana and that nothing was going right; I wanted revenge”, Chloe wondered how long it would take before Lois turned on her.
“Oh Chloe”, Lois wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “Lionel is the devil himself”.
“I know that now. Hell, I knew that then but I was so blinded by hate that I thought that I could handle it. I couldn’t. It turns out that I don’t actually like destroying my friends. At first it was easy enough, I just gave him the information that I knew he already had and he gave me so much in return. New computers for The Torch, he got my father a promotion which meant that we could buy a new house, he got me my very own column in The Daily Planet …” She trailed off.
“It all sounds too good to be true”, Lois said sadly, she knew that this wasn’t going to end well.
“It was”, Chloe acknowledged. “Soon he …” She couldn’t tell Lois all of what he had really done so she opted for just the bare minimum of details. “He became nastier. He wanted more from me and when I refused to give it to him he decided to take everything away from Dad and me”.
Lois rubbed her back.
“I thought that if I could find something bad enough, I could blackmail him …” Chloe could hardly believe how stupid it all sounded now.
“Oh Chloe”, Lois moaned, not sure how to comfort her.
“I got in way over my head and I had to go to Lex and beg him to get me out of it”, she admitted.
“Did he?” Lois asked.
“Yes”.
“And what did he ask for in return?” She couldn’t turn off her suspicious mind. She knew that there was something more to this.
“Nothing.”
Lois looked incredulous as Chloe continued.
“I gave him all of the information that I had and we agreed that he would protect me and I would testify. Then it would all be over.”
“But it didn’t happen like that?”
Chloe shook her head. “Lex decided that it was too great a risk to take, he had warned me that I should try to get out, that he could make my Dad and I disappear within an hour if we wanted before we went to the FBI but I refused. I said that I would stand by his side”.
“What went wrong?”
“Lex thought that it was too dangerous, and he was right. He heard of a plan that Lionel had to kill me and knew that the FBI could not do the job they had been assigned and so worked with your father and had my father and I grabbed from our safe house just before the explosion that he set up and then pretended that we were dead”, Chloe got out in one breath.
“Bloody hell”, Lois exclaimed.
“Yeah, it was a bit of a shock for me as well”. She couldn’t help a rueful smile.
“Where did you go?”
“Oh, here there everywhere”, Chloe said with a shrug. She didn’t want to go into the details with her cousin.
“Sounds interesting”.
“Not really, but I was well taken care of so you don’t have to worry about that”, Chloe assured her.
“And Lex, he didn’t … he didn’t hurt you?” Lois asked not quite sure how to phrase her question.
“No, he took excellent care of me from afar. He made sure that I had everything I needed and kept an eye on me”, Chloe tried to console her cousin. She did not mention that she suspected that he may have been keeping a rather closer eye on her than she was quite comfortable with.
“So I guess that I owe him an apology for the last few years”, Lois thought grumpily.
“Probably, but I don’t think that he expects one”, Chloe smiled, unable to resist giving Lois another hug.
“If your safe return means that I need to eat crow in front Lex Luthor then … well I don’t like you that much actually”, Lois joked.
Chloe managed a small laugh but looked uncomfortable.
“Are you back because Lionel is dead? Is that what changed?” Lois asked, not asking why she had not got in touch over the years. She knew enough about how military operations worked, no one got to know, not even the next of kin.
“Yeah, once we got the news. I came home”.
“When”.
“Yesterday”.
“Oh”.
“I’m sorry, the first thing that I wanted to do was call you but I thought that you might think that it was some sort of sick practical joke or something. And I …. I didn’t know what to say”, Chloe finished lamely.
“That’s okay”, Lois assured her although she was a little hurt, she would have loved to know 24 hours earlier that Chloe was alive and well. “Besides now I can say that there has been one situation that left Chloe Sullivan not knowing what to say”.
~*~
Lois was living in Metropolis but had been planning on spending the night with the Kents – something she still planned on doing – but she demanded to be shown around Chloe’s room first and to take her cousin with her for dinner.
“Alright”, Chloe agreed, “but if we are going to let Lex have his office back then I had better go and tell him”. It wasn’t just that, she wanted to let him know where she was going. If he had demanded to know, she would probably have refused to tell him on the grounds that it was none of his business but she knew that he would worry and as he wasn’t being domineering she was happy enough to tell him.
She wandered around for a while before she found him – one of the maids had informed her that he had been headed in this direction -, when she heard his voice in the orangery.
“I don’t give a damn Bloom, I don’t pay you to think I pay you to know. Your job was to keep her safe and happy and to keep me informed of everything”.
Chloe paled.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
You need to clean out your PM inbox TrinityR. :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TrinityR
uh oh, Lex's in trouble.
OH yeah, big trouble
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Uh oh, sounds like Lex has some explaining to do!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
*Chapter Twelve*
Chloe sat in the passenger seat of Lois’ car as they sped towards the Kents’ farm house.
“I can’t believe this, it is so brilliant. You’re alive”, Lois babbled on. “I knew it, all of this time I just knew it”.
“I know you did Lo, Lex told me”, Chloe assured her, trying not to scowl as she said her saviour’s name.
“Yeah, him. Did you find baldilocks?” Lois asked, not really having anything against Lex at that moment. On the contrary she wanted to hug him and thank him for protecting her cousin … so naturally she was taking cheap shots at him.
“Um … yeah. But he was on the phone so I didn’t disturb him”, Chloe said, not wanting to continue with that conversation. She did not know what she had been thinking; she didn’t have to tell him where she was going. It was a decision which she had made in the heat of the moment and which she started regretting almost immediately, in fact even as she had returned to Lois deciding that she would show her around and leave without telling Lex she felt guilty. Chloe knew that he would worry about her sudden disappearance but then she remembered that he had apparently been paying someone to spy on her, he would probably know where she was going anyway. He had probably … no, she wouldn’t let herself go down that path.
“You’ve got a really nice room at least and I know that I can’t really compete but if you ever want to get out of the mansion there is always a place for you with me”, Lois offered. She hoped that it went without saying but then, realising how long they had been separated, she thought that she had better be explicit.
“Thanks Lois, if I ever get tired of being waited on hand and foot I will come and crash on your sofa”, Chloe smiled.
“It’s a fold out”.
“Cool. How do you work in Metropolis but live above the Talon?” Chloe wondered, “Isn’t that a bit of a commute? Property in Metropolis is not that much more expensive than it is here”.
“It is a bitch of a commute but I stay in Metropolis most nights”, Lois explained.
Chloe raised an eyebrow at her cousin, “So the occasional pictures I saw of you in the society pages with a certain billionaire saying”, she put on an overly breathy voice, “Oh no, we are just very good friends”, she dropped the voice, “were indicative of something more than mere friendship, were they?”
Anyone other than Lois would have blushed. “I don’t know what you are talking about baby. You know me”.
“Yes, hence the question”, Chloe prodded.
Lois face broke into a wide grin, “He is really fantastic Chloe, you would love him”.
“I’m sure I will, although I will of course have to have a little talk with him about his intentions”, Chloe put on her mean face, “Uncle Sam might not have been able to intimidate him but I will”.
“No doubt”, Lois guffawed at her cousin’s expression. “You might bite his ankles”.
Another nod.
“Or pull his hair, if I remember the argument you and Sarah had”, Lois recalled the day that Sarah Kent had pulled Chloe’s hair – Lois had not known of it until after the fact, as she was one year above them – and Chloe had responded by yanking on Sarah’s plat so hard that the little brat fell off the chair and smacked her head on the floor.
“She deserved it”.
“That’s what I told everyone, along with that she was making it all up”, Lois reminded her.
“Yeah, I think that maybe defending my hair pulling made you then saying that I had not pulled her hair at all a little less believable”, Chloe suggested.
“Possibly”, then something occurred to Lois, “Hang on a second, since when do you know that people live together before marriage? Who told you that?”
Chloe laughed, “I did have a TV set”.
“Oh, been keeping up with One Tree Hill?” Lois fell into one of their pre-disappearance conversations.
“Yes, can you believe what Brooke did with …”
“Hey, don’t change the subject”, Lois cut her off. “What has your love life been like?”
“You see, I knew that you would ask me that. Check that I am alive, focus on the hair, the clothes and then onto boys”, Chloe teased.
Lois just shrugged, “I take it that that means that there was someone”.
“Sort of”.
“Sort of?”
“I think that I might have been engaged”, she rang her hands together.
“What?” Lois pulled up to a stop outside the Kents’ house. “You think that you might have been engaged?”
“Yeah”.
“How on earth do you not know something like that?” Lois looked shocked, she had forgotten that she had hooked up with someone before but she doubted that she could ever forget being engaged … although strange things did happen in Smallville. Maybe Chloe had been exposed to so much meteor rock that she was having problems with her memory.
“It’s complicated. Please Lois, can we not get into it right now? I would just rather forget about it for one night”, Chloe looked at her beseechingly.
Lois stared at her hard, then said, “Alright, I will drop it … for now”.
~*~
Chloe breathed a sigh of relief as they got out of the car; she really did not want to explain anything to Lois right then. She knew that she would have to eventually but if she could just have one night without having to deal with things then she would be happy.
She reached into the back seat to get the bottle of wine, box of chocolates and bunch of flowers which she had ‘borrowed’ from Lex’s mansion and garden. There was no point in having award winning roses if you couldn’t take them to visit people – in Chloe’s opinion, at least.
Patting the bouquet she thought that they would enjoy their new life on Martha Kent’s window sill. She looked up at the house, it was just as she had remembered it. The day before she had not really had time to look about her properly, now that she did she realised that she could not detect one single change.
“Amazed that nothing ever seems to change here?” Lois asked, reading her thoughts.
“Pretty much”.
“If it helps, I am fairly certain that I have left Clark at least psychologically scarred”, Lois grinned, “I stayed with them for a couple of months, booted Clark out of his room”.
“I bet he loved that”, Chloe said, thinking that he actually probably had. Lois would have brought him out of himself a little more and helped him get into the swing of life again. She knew Clark and knew that he would have happily buried himself away in the farm had he been given the option and that even Lana’s sweet words and gentle looks might not have been enough.
“I think that he did, at least now he can honestly say that there has been a girl in his room”, Lois remembered one of her favourite taunts.
“I thought that he was with Lana?” Chloe looked confused.
“Oh he is but they haven’t … you know”, Lois gestured the rest of the sentence.
Chloe looked shocked but then she supposed that it made sense, if Clark had super powers it was always possible that he might lose control and really hurt her. She felt bad for Lana, sure the girl had got on her nerves at some points and she had even hated her for being loved by Clark at more than one point during High School but now she just felt pity. Lana had got the boy but would never really have the boy. That was depressing. Chloe at least knew that she could have sexual satisfaction with the man that she wanted – physically at least – with just one word.
Lois noticed the look and announced, “Serves him right for choosing the wrong girl. We both know that you would have rocked his world by down”, she threw her arm around her cousin’s shoulders. “Now, let’s go terrorize Smallville. He is going to be thrilled to see me!”
~*~
“So help me Jonathan Kent, if you ever want to see the inside of our bedroom again you will be sweet to that girl. She has been through a lot”, seeing that her husband was about to interrupt she held up a hand, “you don’t know how she got into that position to start with and neither do I. But the point is that she likes Lex and if you attack him you will not hurt him, you will hurt her”.
“Martha”, her husband tried to reason with her.
“No, no Martha, no sweetheart, no nothing. You will be kind to her; you will make her feel welcome here”, she ordered.
“Fine”, he took the roast that was given to him and took it over and laid it on the table, trying not to mutter under his breath. He really hated sleeping in the barn.
Martha heard the sound of car doors closing and looked out of the window to see that the girls had arrived. “They’re here”, she called to Clark – she thought that he was in Metropolis – and saw a blur travelling in the direction of his bedroom, then coming back down in a suit and then the living room was miraculously cleared.
She headed out of the door to greet the girls as she saw Lois wrapping her arm around Chloe. She was glad to see that the younger woman was looking a little less nervous, although there was still a sadness and confusion behind the eyes.
“Hello girls”, Martha hurried over to them wrapping them both in a hug, trying to ignore that Chloe still became a little rigid in the embrace before softening.
“Hello Mrs Kent”, Chloe said as she stepped back, “we brought some things”, she handed them over, putting up a barrier.
“Thank-you sweetheart”, she smiled, not missing the gesture.
“Well Chloe brought them, I didn’t”, Lois admitted.
“Well technically they are from Lex”, Chloe finished for her cousin.
“Do you think that he will notice that the prize winning roses are missing a few blooms?” Lois teased.
Chloe just shrugged, “He told me to make myself at home”. She had plucked them right in front of the security camera so she was fairly certain that he would notice, not to mention that she had taken the enormous ones, right from the very the middle.
“It was very kind of you, although of course completely unnecessary”, Martha assured them as she walked them in. “I was delighted when Lois said that she was bringing you along with her, is Lex coming to?”
“No, he had to work”, Chloe said automatically. Martha Kent had always made her feel strange. She was so kind and motherly to everyone, she was glad to see that she had clearly taken to Lex but then was angry with herself for caring about Lex when she thought of what he might have done.
“Oh well that is a shame, maybe next time”, Martha said hoping that Chloe was getting the message that she and anyone she chose to associate with would always be welcome in their home.
“I’m sure that Lex would be delighted to have dinner with you”, Chloe said, letting her know that she had got the message.
“Come on, I have to harass Smallville”, Lois looked at Martha, “I mean say hello to your charming son”.
“I know what you meant”, Martha seemed unconcerned by Lois’ bullying of Clark, “he is pacing in the living room”.
“Smallville get your”, she looked at Martha, “bottom out here”, Lois yelled.
Clark appeared. “Hi Lois”, he looked slightly shy, “Chloe. It’s good to see you”.
“Yeah everyone likes to see her now that she is a brunette and has some designers in her wardrobe”, Lois joked, having had her fill of sentiment.
“It’s not because of that”, Clark said frantically, looking at Chloe as if really afraid that she might believe that.
“It’s alright Clark”, Chloe reached out to pat his arm. It didn’t feel as normal as being with Lex did, but as long as she was initiating the contact it was alright. “I am used to Lois’ sense of humour”, she opened her arms to him for a hug – which he did awkwardly. In a mock whisper Chloe added, “and I use the word in its broadest sense”.
“Hey”, Lois interjected.
Chloe pointedly ignored her and stayed in Clark’s arms for a few moments longer, remembering how safe and warm she had always felt there. She still did – after the initial discomfort – but it wasn’t as a lover.
“I missed you”, she told him.
“I missed you too, so much, I’m so sorry about …”
“It’s alright”, she assured him, “we can talk later”.
Clark had to use all of his self-control to reign in his strength. He could so easily have broken her he wanted to hug her so hard.
As they finally pulled apart she inquired, “Is Lana joining us?”
“No”, Clark seemed uncomfortable.
“She knows that I am alive, I met her yesterday”, Chloe said, wondering if that was why Clark looked so odd.
“I know that she does, I called her right after you left”, he admitted.
“Yeah, but no one thinks to call me”, Lois complained before giving Chloe another hug to show that she was mad with Clark, not with her.
“It’s not that”, Clark continued.
“Then what is it?” Chloe wondered.
“She um …”
“Lana has got it into her head that my constant suggestions to Smallville here about how he could improve himself are actually a sign of my deep and requited love for him”, Lois explained with a laugh. “I think that someone has got a fear about having the love of her life taken by someone he barely knows … I wonder where she got an idea like that from”.
“Tact”, Chloe muttered, “might want to learn some”.
“Nah”, Lois shook her head linked her arm with Martha’s and headed inside to give Clark and Chloe a moment alone.
“Shall we?” Clark asked overly formally, offering her his arm.
“Why thank-you kind Sir”, Chloe laughed trying to imitate a simpering southern belle.
“I read the note that you left for Lana. Thank-you. I just want you to know that I wouldn’t just dump Lana for …”
“Hey, it’s fine. I wrote that note to give you a chance; you aren’t in any way obligated to me. I promise”, Chloe smiled and Clark grinned, a weight taken off his shoulders.
“Thanks”, he gave her a slight squeeze.
“You’re welcome”, she wondered if she should hint that she knew. “Besides, you aren’t Lois type. She goes for heroes, men that have been decorated more times than a Christmas tree”, she gave him a wink and Clark’s jaw dropped comically. She couldn’t know, could she?
~*~
Dinner passed amicably – Jonathan was on his best behaviour – and the food was delicious. Lois seemed to know that Chloe didn’t want to discuss anything about herself at that point and so she kept them all entertained by teaching Clark and talking about the seedy things that she had seen in Metropolis. It was fantastic to be in such a warm family environment where there were no concerns.
She should have known that that wouldn’t last long.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
Can't wait to see what's gonna happen
:)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 16th February 2013
1. Who's Sarah Kent?
2. CHLOE'S ENGAGED?! WHAT? WHAT?! I don't want her to be!
What have I done to you to deserve this?:(
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Sarah Kent was a horrible girl at Chloe and Lois' primary school, she had the same surname as Clark but is not relation to his earth parents - but the coinsidence of the name made Chloe pay more attention to him when she first moved to Smallville.
She might have sort of got herself engaged, you will just have to keep reading to find out more. :) Don't worry, there will be a Chlex ending and angry Chlex hate sex at some point.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
*Chapter Thirteen*
The sun had set during the course of the dinner, creating the perfect ambience for a patented Kent movie night. Chloe and Lois had retired, along with the family, to the living room where they were in the process of huddling up together to watch a James Bond movie when a bright light shone through their windows, startling them all.
Chloe in particular jumped about a foot in the air, although she tried to pretend that she had not and that she couldn’t see the sympathetic looks the other were shooting her. It had been enough of a chore for her to sit in the darkened room watching a film with gun shots without unexplained lights just coming out of nowhere.
“What in the world?” Martha wondered loudly – attempting to divert the attention from Chloe’s reaction - as they all stood up and made their way over to the window as the light disappeared again. There was a bang and Chloe found her hands being held by both Lois and Clark, who were staring with fury in the direction of the disturbance. She wanted to sink into the ground.
Without the lights on, it was too dark to make out the form of Lex Luthor – through the window - as he slammed the door of his car and charged towards the door, raising his fist to bang on it only to find it opened for him.
After giving Chloe’s hand a squeeze Clark had flicked the lights on and headed for the door, ripping it open hoping that it wouldn’t be another case of Jor-El causing problems in the barn. As he saw that it was only Lex, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Have you seen Chloe?” Lex demanded of Clark.
“Yeah, she’s right here”, Clark replied, wondering why his friend looks about ready to jump out of his skin.
Chloe came up behind Clark when she heard her name – ignoring Lois’ attempts to shield her until she worked out who it was -, she had known that Lex would worry but she thought that he would just assume that she had come over to the Kents’, she had thought that maybe he would even call there but not turn up in person.
Clark stepped to the side to allow Lex to enter. “Come in, we’re just watching a film. We were sad that you couldn’t make it, Chloe told us that you had to work”.
Lex would normally have been flattered to have been thought of but at that moment could only think of Chloe. He had been beside himself with worry. At first when he couldn’t find her he had just thought that she must have been somewhere else in the mansion, but after having checked with the maids and finding out nothing he had turned to the security footage. There he had seen her picking his mother’s prized roses with apparent glee, smirking as she raided the wine cellar and appropriating chocolates from the kitchen before leaving with Lois. She appeared to have been collecting presents and hadn’t taken any bags so he assumed that it wasn’t permanent but he couldn’t be sure and that scared him. As they had left in Lois’ car and Chloe hadn’t taken her bag he had no way of tracking her.
“Damn it”, he swore. He knew that he should have got a microchip inserted in to one of her back molars last time she had had a dentist check-up, but as she never had any cavities it would probably have raised her suspicions if she had suddenly been informed of one.
He had called The Talon but Lana had not seen them, she said that she thought that Clark was having dinner with his family and had been rather annoyed to hear that Lois was around. He thought that she might have gone with Lois to the dinner, that would explain the flowers but when he had called the Kents he had received no answer. Praying that it was just a case of them not answering their phone during meal times, he got in his car and sped over there.
“Chloe”, he checked as he entered and saw her, pleased to see that she was looking a little guilty. “I was looking everywhere for you”. He knew that he should have been ashamed to show such emotion but at that moment all he cared about was making sure that she was safe and sound … and then taking her back to the mansion and wrapping her in his arms and never letting her go, possibly while scolding her for having run off and scared him in the first place.
“I was here, having dinner”, she informed him, then annoyed with herself for giving him information as if she owed him something. Well, she owed him her life but she didn’t want to think about that right then. She needed to hold on to her anger as she saw him standing there looking so concerned. It became easier as fury swept across his features.
“Glad to see that you weren’t doing something stupid when you left the mansion without informing anyone”, he said, every syllable dripping with sarcasm.
“I don’t have to inform you or anyone else of where I choose to go”, Chloe spat back. “If that is something you require from me then I just tell me and I will leave tonight”.
“No”, he stepped forwards and would have grabbed her if Clark had not put an arm out to stop him.
“Maybe we should go outside to talk”, Clark said in a tone which made it sound like a suggestion even as he muscled Lex out of the door.
“I had better go too, thank-you for a lovely evening Mr and Mrs Kent. I’ll call you tomorrow Lo”, Chloe made her goodbyes.
“You’re welcome sweetheart, drop by any time”, Martha gave her a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek, secretly wanting to tell Chloe off for running off without telling anyone. She could see how much Lex cared about her and didn’t want him to be hurt in that way.
“You sure that you are going to be alright?” Lois asked with a look that clearly said that she thought that she could take Lex if his little outburst had upset Chloe.
“Yeah”. And with that Chloe made her way out into the night.
~*~
Once outside Chloe wrapped her arms around herself to ward of the chill, and wished that she had remembered to bring a jacket or something. She scanned the area for some sign of the duo and couldn’t see anything but intuition told her to head for the barn. As she rounded opened the door she could hear Lex complaining, “Get off me Clark, what did you think that I was going to do? Drag her back to the mansion by her hair, lock her up and rape her?”
“No, of course not”, Clark released the shorter man, “I know that you would never hurt her but she seems really nervous of any physical contact”. He sighed; he was really screwing this up. He hadn’t been a good enough friend to her, he hadn’t trusted her with his secret, he hadn’t protected her, he hadn’t reacted well yesterday and now he was taking his fears out on his friend.
“Not with me”, Lex said, doing his best to keep the bragging note out of his tone.
“She doesn’t pull away from you?” Clark asked with interest.
Lex shook his head, “The first couple of times yes, but not anymore …”
Before Clark could ask any questions and work out anything about her feelings towards the billionaire Chloe interrupted them, “Can I come in? Or did you two want to be alone?” She raised an eyebrow, making her dirty implication clear.
“Chloe”, they both turned to her.
Lex sipped his car keys from his jacket pocket to another one, before taking it off and walking over to her to wrap it around her shoulders as Clark said, “Of course”, and closed the door behind her.
He took the opportunity to observe the two. He did not think that Lex would intentionally lie to him about Chloe’s progress just to make himself seem more important, but he might have misread her behaviour.
Chloe pulled back as Lex approached her, shooting him a death stare which he returned as he just invaded her personal space even more and brought the jacket around her shoulders and tugged it in place authoritatively. Clark heard her heart rate increasing and was about to step in, worried that Lex was scaring her, but as he looked more closely he noticed that she was overly warm. She was angry, but she wasn’t scared. Lex had been right.
Clark considered the situation. Lex had called him last night to tell him not to worry about Chloe, that he had convinced her to stay with him and that he was going to take care of anything she needed legally, jobwise etc and that he would see what her mental and emotional states were like and get her the best councillors in the world, if necessary. It was pretty much what he had expected from Lex, but it was still reassuring to hear. It seemed like he had been taking pretty good care of her if he had got her to trust him and not fear him in such a short a period of time – and when he was so clearly angry.
“We need to talk”, Lex informed her coldly, as he tried his best to reign in his temper. Chloe folded her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow.
“Chloe”, he growled her name and Clark noticed the heat radiating through her body, in several areas in particular. He blushed and returned to his normal vision. Clearly Chloe was not afraid of Lex Luthor.
“Lex”, she replied, her own voice and seductive, “I came here to speak to Clark”.
He smirked, he was angry and the fear had not quite warn off yet but if she was baiting him … well that was better than indifference. He didn’t know what he had done to make her take off and act out like this but he would find out, and he would wait if she was determined to make him. He would return the favour later, making her wait and beg when he was on top literally and metaphorically.
“As you wish. If this is a private talk I’ll wait in the car to take you home”, he stressed the final word.
“No”, she began and saw the look of pure horror on his face; it was like a blade through her heart. She reached out her hand to touch before remembering how she thought he might have betrayed her and pulled back, although she finished her sentence quickly. “There’s no need for you to wait, I’ll get a cab back.”
Relief was evident on his face and Chloe hated herself for caring.
“It’s fine, I’ll wait”, Lex stated.
“No”.
“Chloe you can’t take a cab, you can’t be closed up with someone you don’t know …” He tried to explain in what seemed to him like a rational manner.
“Don’t presume to tell me what I can and can’t do Lex Luthor, I’ll have you know …” Chloe was just gearing up to take him down.
“I’ll drive Chloe back”, Clark stepped in, sensing that they might both start world war three over this issue. He got the feeling that there was something going on that he was not privy to. “It will give us more time to talk”, he spoke to Chloe, then turning to Lex, he added, “and she knows me and I won’t let anything happen to her”.
“Fine”, they both said, their eyes boring in to each other.
Clark wasn’t sure who he felt more sorry for. Being on the wrong end of a Luthor was a terrible thing and something most of the globe feared, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Chloe might actually have the worse temper … although it would be a close call.
“I’ll see you at home then”, Lex said, still making no move to actually leave.
She nodded and he felt his heart lighten slightly, she was definitely coming home to him. His expression must have come across as being too smug to Chloe as she decided to put him in his place, “That is so kind of you Clark”.
Lex rolled his eyes. “If you want to make me jealous honey, then you will have to try better than some farm boy”, he purred into her ear, so close that only she could hear. He placed his hand low on her back and watched with delight as she shuddered. Her body responded him, even if her mind was determined to hate him for some reason, at that moment.
“Clark”, he nodded to his friend as he slid his hand back around Chloe – taking his time to enjoy the tremor he could feel beneath his palm - and made his way back to his car.
“Mind if I ask what all of that was about?” Clark asked, once they were alone.
“No, I don’t mind but I’m not going to give you an answer”, was Chloe’s only reply, she seemed distracted by the barn door – through which Lex had just left - as if by staring intently enough at it would enable her to see straight through it. Clark did so, on her behalf, and informed her, “He is just sitting in his car”.
He wondered if maybe he had gone too far, if seeing his powers in action would terrify her even though she knew of them now.
“Right”, Chloe said pulling Lex’s jacket further around herself, now that he wasn’t present she could admit that she was grateful for its warmth and it smelled nice.
“So you can see through objects”, she surmised, “that makes sense, now that I think of it”.
“When did you find out?” He wondered, shocked by how well she was taking all of this.
“That you are an alien from another planet – probably from Krypton or somewhere near it? – and that because of our sun you have super human abilities which have been coming on over the years and which you keep hidden from everyone?” She asked, then added, “Except, I expect, from Pete and your parents”.
“Yeah”, Clark said.
“Pretty soon after I left. I was just sitting there thinking – or rather trying not to think about Smallville – and suddenly it all just clicked. I cannot believe that I didn’t figure it all out sooner; it is so obvious when you think about it. Some investigative reporter I turned out to be”, she scoffed.
“No one has ever worked out before”, Clark said, trying to make her feel better.
“Yeah well none of those people were Chloe Sullivan”, she pointed out.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you, it’s just …”
“You didn’t think that I was trustworthy”, Chloe said, so that he wouldn’t have to. “It’s okay Clark. If I were in your position then I wouldn’t have told me either. I … I wasn’t the kind of person that I would have liked to have been. I knew that I was getting obsessed with things but I couldn’t stop myself”, she gave a shrug as she tried not to think of how similar she was to Lex in that regard.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you or that I didn’t want to tell you Chloe, it was just that knowing is a huge responsibility. One that no one should have to bear. And I’ll admit that I was a little scared of telling you, but more because you would have asked the questions that I was trying not to ask myself”, he looked ashamed. “I am sorry that I kept you out of my life, I’m sorry for the way that I treated you.”
“Clark, it’s okay, you have nothing to apologise for”, she assured him.
“No, I do. I should have been there for you, I should have protected you. If I had told you the truth then you would have known to come to me, I would have been able to keep you from getting hurt”, he fidgeted.
“That is not your job”, Chloe said earnestly, “you are a superhero. Your job is to worry about people everywhere, not just me. And maybe if I hadn’t pushed you then you would have been able to open up to me. If I hadn’t tried to hurt you then none of this would ever have happened in the first place. I put the people I loved the most through hell all because I was stupid and selfish and …”
“Don’t, please Chloe”, Clark walked over to her and was about to embrace her when he pulled back, remembering how she had changed.
“It’s okay”, she assured him and he carefully folded her in his arms.
“I’ve missed you so much”.
“I’ve missed you too”.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
I'm glad Chloe and Clark are friends again. She hurts a lot when they're fighting.
Now can't wait to find out about the engagement and see her talking with Lex
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
I was scared for a bit there. LOL! I am glad they worked it out sort of. LOL!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Scared for whom? Lex and Chloe or Clark and Chloe?
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
angry sex hah? Ok, that should be interesting:D
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
*Chapter Fourteen*
“Sure you don’t want to help Lois kick me out of my room”, Clark asked as he drove up the driveway to the Luthor mansion, already knowing the answer, even before he had seen Lex’s car sitting outside the main entrance with its owner leaning against its bonnet.
Although there was no wind it was well below freezing and Lex did not even have his jacket, and yet he waited. This was the only way into the mansion, this was the only way that he could be sure that he would know the very second that she arrived.
He was being stupid and he knew it. He had checked that she was coming home to him and she had nodded, Chloe’s word was good enough for him. It was. That was the only reason why he had left the Kents’ in the first place, afraid that if he pushed her she might reconsider. When they had the argument which he was pretty sure they were going to have, it would be under his roof - where she belonged.
He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead. The lights from the mansion illuminated the horizon enough for him to see anyone coming – or to at least made out their headlights -, but the more time passed, the more anxious he became.
Lex glanced down at his watch once more, certain that it had to have been at least an hour since he had last checked it only to discover that he had in fact been less than thirty seconds. Frowning he brought the timepiece up to his ear but found that it was indeed still ticking.
That didn’t satisfy him though; there was no way that it had only been a quarter of an hour since he had got there. He should go into the house and check the clock in there, but if he did that then he might miss them. She might sneak in without his ever knowing, he could sit out there all night not knowing that she was in and safe. She could be waiting in there for him thinking that he had forgotten her. His guts clenched, she couldn’t have thought that he didn’t care, could she? Was that why she had been so strange with him earlier? He had replayed their last meeting – before she had gone to the Kents’ for dinner – over and over in his head but he couldn’t come up with anything. She had clearly been angry when she had left and in hindsight - as much of it as could be garnered in under half an hour – he could admit that his way of going about it had probably only raised her hackles since then.
He sighed, debating what to do when he saw headlights. He tried not to get his hopes up, there could be any number of reasons for those lights, they did not necessarily mean that Chloe was coming home. They turned in at the gate and made their way towards him.
It was definitely Clark’s car. He stood to attention and strode down to the truck, it had barely come to a stop when he yanked the passenger door open.
“Lex”, Chloe gasped as the cold night air hit her. She had seen him coming but couldn’t quite believe it. He couldn’t have been standing out there all of that time waiting for her, his icy fingers grasped her wrist as she got out of the car. He had been outside all of that time.
“You’re freezing”, she said automatically reaching out to hold both of his hands and chafe them before realising what she was doing, she wanted to give him his jacket back but she knew that he wouldn’t take it, he would just wrap it back around her, pulling her closer and then she would be in danger of forgetting everything. Hell, if he said her name the way that he had in the barn she was in danger of begging him to take her on the hood of Clark’s car and worrying about anything else much later.
Clark joined them around the other side, “See, I brought her back safe and sound”.
Lex managed to tear his attention away from Chloe for one second and flashed Clark a tight smile. “Thanks, I’ll call you tomorrow”, he said as he put his arm around Chloe’s shoulders and began to steer her towards the mansion. This possessive gesture reminded her of why she was angry and what she suspected him of, Chloe pulled away and, standing on her tip toes, kissed Clark on the cheek.
“Thanks for a lovely evening Clark”, she said as she stepped back, “it was a shame that it had to end so soon”. She shot a look at Lex which Clark was fairly certain must have been meteor aided, but Lex withstood it, just wrapping his arm around her again and leading her off.
“Bye”, Clark called after them, “we should arrange to do something altogether this weekend”, ‘if you both survive until then’, he added under his breath.
~*~
“We need to talk”, Lex announced, as they stepped over the threshold and indicated to the maid who came scurrying over that he would take care of Chloe. He removed his jacket from her shoulders when he saw that she was trying to shrug out of it.
“Yes, we probably do”, Chloe admitted.
“The office?” When had he started thinking of it just as the office rather than his?
“Sure”, she agreed, not saying anything when he put his arm back around her shoulders. She could still feel how cold his finger were, as soon as they reached the office she walked over and stoked the fire ordering him, “Come over here and warm up”.
He smiled, “I didn’t know that you cared”.
The look she gave him should have scorched him.
“You’re mad”, he surmised.
“To say the least”, she admitted, sitting down on the coffee table wondering if it would irk him. He seemed like the kind of man that would get irked by something like that but Lex just sat down next to her and placed his hand on her back, rubbing gentle circles.
“Care to tell me what about?” He pressed, “I mean I know that I have the ability to make you angry in about 2 seconds flat but I get the feeling that there is something more to it than my turning up while you were watching a movie”.
“There was”, she nodded.
“I saw you taking the things as presents”, he prodded.
“I’ll pay for them”, she told him, remembering how childishly she had acted that afternoon.
“Don’t be silly, I told you that you were to make yourself at home. My mother would have liked to have seen her prize roses appreciated”, he watched for her reaction.
Chloe looked at him in despair, “You’re kidding? They weren’t really your mother’s … ?”
“No, I’m not”, he smiled slightly. So she clearly didn’t want to hurt him too badly, deep down. “But like I said, she would have been happy that they were going to a nice new home to be enjoyed, after all as you took the flowers from the root Martha can now replant them”.
“Oh”.
“So are you going to tell me what I have done to make you so mad?” He asked, still rubbing her back.
“I was trying to forget, at least for tonight”, Chloe admitted, “it just hurts so much”.
Lex paled, what could he possibly have done to hurt her so badly, without even knowing it?
“Tell me”, his tone was beseeching.
“I heard you … on the phone”.
He looked at her uncomprehendingly.
“Lois asked me if I wanted to go to the Kents’ with her, I went to tell you that we were heading off”, she admitted begrudgingly, reminding herself that there was nothing wrong with keeping him updated if she was the one choosing to do so, but still she tried to cover herself, “and that your study was free”.
He grinned, she had planned on telling but then he remembered that he had done something. “Go on”.
“I heard you speaking on the phone to Davis Bloom, I found out that he was in your employ”, she explained.
“You’re angry that I am in contact with him?” He wondered, thinking back to his conversation.
“No, it’s not about that. Or at least, not directly. But I do need you to answer some questions for me honestly”, she focused so completely on him that he wondered if she might actually be able to see into his brain.
“I’ll always be honest with you Chloe, if there is something that I can’t answer then I will tell you straight out”, he promised her.
“Alright”, she believed him. “Davis was in your pay?”
“Yes”, Lex nodded.
That was what Chloe had expected, at least that showed that he wasn’t lying about the most basic things. Or maybe that was his plan, tell her the truth about the things which she could verify and lie to her later. She gave herself a mental shake, she couldn’t think like that. “From the very beginning?” She checked.
“No”, Lex shook his head. “Your Uncle was in charge of finding the men, I only met them afterwards. Then obviously I made sure that they were on the pay role and that I was getting information out of them”.
Before he got the chance to asking anything else, Chloe asked, “What did you ask them to do?”
“Oh God Chloe”, he groaned, feeling sick. He should have seen this before, she hated being touched, she was jumpy … how had he not seen this before? Because he was a bloody fool who hadn’t wanted to see, just like when she had first got in trouble.
“What did he do Chloe? Did he hurt you?” He grasped the tops of her arms, a sense of dread building up inside him. If he had touched her, he would kill him. No, not kill. He would keep him alive for years, as many as humanely possible just to make sure that he was tortured every single second of his existence.
“No no nothing like that”, Chloe assured him, seeing where his thought process was headed. “Just answer me Lex; what was he supposed to do?”
“He was supposed to keep you safe”, he answered simply, stroking her arms where he had held her so tightly. His heart rate wouldn’t slow down.
“In what sense?” She asked.
“In what sense? Chloe what is this about?” His fingers grazed over her pinked flesh, and he had to resist laying a kiss there – just to make it better, of course.
“Just answer the question”, she was becoming tenser, “In what sense?”
He sighed, “In the general sense. Make sure that no one got near you, that you were on the base, that you got three square meals a day, that you had your vitamin pills. You had a laptop etc”, he rattled off the duties he could think of.
“Was he supposed to become part of my life? Was I supposed to become dependent upon him?” She questioned. This wasn’t really about Davis, but if he had toyed with her through Davis then who knew what else he was capable of.
“I don’t know”, Lex said quietly. There had been something between her and Davis. He should have known, should have guessed. “I guess … it was always a possibility. I just wanted you to be safe and as happy as possible but I didn’t really think of the emotional side that much because I didn’t know how to fix that. I suppose that somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that you would have a relationship with the people there”.
She looked appalled.
“But you did think about my emotions, my birthday was fantastic”.
“You spent it with Davis”, he realised.
“Yes”.
~*~
“Having a good time?” Davis asked as he escorted her around the best art gallery in Florence.
“Are you kidding me?” Chloe almost shriek bouncing around. “This is one of the best birthday’s ever! I cannot believe that Lex did all of this. I mean, I know that he always looks out of me. I know that he always provides, he has even closed down shops before but this!?!? Any entire quartier of Florence has been evicted on a bomb threat so that I can go around all of the art galleries, after having the best lunch ever after having spent the morning with the best designers in Italy who all acted as if it were some great honour to make my clothes!”
Davis grinned over at her, “Well you only turn 21 once”.
“I know but this! This is incredible!” Chloe jumped up at and down. At that moment she could never have imagined that something would soon happen to change her life forever.
~*~
“Did you enjoy it?” Lex asked, the reports that he had got from that night had indicated that she had but then she had disappeared – along with Davis – the following day. Davis had only come back at the same time as Chloe and he had had no better luck getting information out of him than he had with Chloe.
“Yes, very much so thank-you”, she answered honestly. She couldn’t understand how he could be so genuinely concerned for her safety and her feelings and then have done what he had done.
“You disappeared the next day”, he fished.
“Something came up, but you know that don’t you?” Chloe asked, eyeing his suspiciously.
He looked at her in confusion. “Chloe, I have no idea what you are talking about”.
“Lex I am so incredibly grateful for everything that you have done for me and my father, none of it was necessary.” He was about to interrupt and so she held up a hand to stop him, “and it was sweet of you to care about my life there and to want to check up on me, I could even understand it if you told Davis to keep an extra special eye out for me … but you know so much about my life there. You kept such a tight hold … You were responsible, weren’t you?”
“For what Chloe?”
“For Jimmy”.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Jimmy? Ok, I don't know if I'm still pissed at you for Chloe being engaged or my curiosity is rather picked.
I hope that Chloe got engaged to Jimmy, but he died. End of story.:P
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
*Chapter Fifteen: Part One*
“Who’s Jimmy?”
“You bastard”, Chloe shot to her feet, rage coursing through her veins. She hadn’t known what to expect from Lex, she had hoped that he would have some reason for what he had done, something that would magically make it all better, but she had never thought that he would just deny all knowledge of Jimmy.
“How dare you?” Chloe shouted, at least with him still sitting she was taller than him for once.
“How dare I do what?” Lex asked, holding his hands out in the age old gesture of innocence.
“How dare you claim that you have no knowledge of Jimmy. You know what Lex? I can forgive a lot of things. If you had had a good reason for what you did then I would have tried to get over it, but not this”, she was shaking with fury.
“Chloe I have no idea what you are talking about”, he stood up and tried to take her in his arms to sooth her.
“Don’t you dare touch me”, she jerked back, away from his touch. She went too near the fire and Lex reacted without thinking, grabbing her and pushing her to the side and onto the sofa, not hard, just enough to make sure that she wasn’t going to walk back into the fire and burn herself.
“What the hell gives you the right …” Chloe started another tirade, trying to get back to her feet but Lex just sat down in front of her on the coffee table and pulled her closer to him by her hands.
“I was just trying to keep you from falling into the fire place. Please, just talk to me”, he tried to be calm. He gave her his best look, hoping that that would placate her, at least a little.
“I can’t believe you. Just tell me the truth!” She yelled at him.
“I don’t know what you are talking about”, he could feel his own temper rising but he tried to keep it in check. She was being completely unreasonable, but he reasoned that she had been through a lot.
Chloe was on her feet again. “Stop fucking me around Lex. Either tell me the truth or I am leaving!” She knew that it was manipulative, she knew that it was wrong to threaten him with that but it was the only thing that she had over him and she was angry so she used it.
Lex paled.
She took a step back at the look in his eyes. She had never seen anything like it. It was cold and hard and looked something like dread.
“No”, he was on his feet and had pushed her back onto the settee before either of them could think. “You will not leave me”, he growled as he loomed over her, reaching for her wrists. “You are mine”, he shook her limbs slightly, “Have you got that? You signed a contract. You work for me for at least two months, only then do you get your reference. You live under this roof with me where I can protect you. You are mine”.
“I am not yours and I won’t be pushed around and intimidated by a Luthor ever again”, Chloe tried to get up even though that now meant that they were nose to nose, both breathing hard.
There was fear in her eyes, she tried to hide it but it was there.
“I am not some puppy from the pound for you to own Lex and I won’t be forced …”
Something inside Lex broke.
“Oh God Chloe, I’m so sorry”.
She stared at him in disbelief.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean … It wasn’t my intention to … I’m not this man. I don’t force myself on women, I don’t make them stay with me against their will.” Shit. He was turning into his father. He watched her tremble slightly.
Making sure his voice was soft he reached out to cup her face. “I’ll give you a reference. I’ll give you whatever you want. I’ll do anything to make you happy even if that means you leaving … please don’t leave”.
“Lex”, she started, not knowing what to say. The raw emotion in his eyes couldn’t be faked. She ached. Ached to be wanted, need like that. She knew what it was like to feel like that, she had always been the one desperate for affection and receiving none … until Jimmy.
She was torn. “You swear that you will tell me the truth?”
“I swear it on the memory of my mother”, Lex said and made the sign of the cross.
“Tell me everything that you know about Jimmy”. This was it, the deciding moment for the rest of her life.
He sighed. “I don’t remember a Jimmy. I did keep an eye on you and demanded that Davis and the others do the same. I knew everyone that you came into contact with – or at least I thought I did – but I don’t remember a Jimmy. I assume that it is short for James”
Chloe nodded.
“To the best of my recollection there were quite a few James’ on the military bases, I wasn’t aware that any of them went by Jimmy though. He must have been American, the British generally prefer Jamie”, he tried to figure this all out.
She nodded again. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
“You didn’t leave your room for the first 6 months and Davis was always around for the 6 after that so it must have been once you were in the UK, but not someone who was British”, he continued the deductive process.
Another nod.
“That would make him either James Cobb or Henry James Olsen”.
“I didn’t know that his first name was Henry”, Chloe whispered, more to herself than Lex.
He raised an eyebrow.
“I see that you were really close”. He could have kicked himself, that wasn’t the way to make her trust him or tell him what was going on.
“We were, I agreed to be his wife”, Chloe said emotionlessly.
Lex looked as if he had swallowed something sharp.
“He’s the one who had that problem in Italy …” He trailed off as he remembered what had happened. He had been sad when he had heard of it, a young man with such a future … it really was a pity.
“Yes”. She felt numb.
He wanted to hold her, to comfort her and tell her that it would be alright, that he would make it better but he knew that he couldn’t. Feeling that he should say something nevertheless, he tried, “I didn’t know that you knew him. Davis never told me”.
“Davis never knew”.
Lex stared at her. “Chloe”, he ran his thumb along her flesh. “I swear that I didn’t know that there was anything between you, I didn’t even know that you knew each other let alone that you were engaged. Had I known … I would have done something”.
She didn’t say anything.
“You do believe me, don’t you?” He asked, his other hand running up and down the length of her arm.
“I …” She focused on him. His voice and face told her that he was telling her the truth. He had sworn on his mother’s memory, that had to mean that he was telling her the truth. His touch was even warm and pleasant, it made her want to believe him. Yearn to believe him just so that she wouldn’t have to pull away from him. She didn’t want to leave him. He had to be sincere.
His display of temper earlier had just been because he cared so much about her and she needed to be cared about … but she could not help but remember how similar it had been to one years before. She shivered as she remembered Lionel, his hands all over her, holding her down, pushing her against the cave wall, hiding her in the shadows.
Afterwards he too had caressed her arm. He had looked at her with an expression almost as honest as Lex’s and yet she had known that Lionel was lying, but if she hadn’t been the one underneath him only a few minutes before she would never have believed him to have been anything but sincere. No one would have, that was why she had told no one. She had been at the mercy of the power of the Luthors once, she would not let herself fall again. She would not believe lies again. You didn’t trust anything but the facts and the facts said quite clearly that Lex knew more about her than he should ever have been able to find out without someone on the inside. That person had to be Jimmy, otherwise there was no explanation.
She should leave right then and there. That was the only sensible option, however she couldn’t make her legs work and there was a voice in her head screaming at her to stay. Trying to negotiate with herself she gave herself a few more seconds to think, she might come up with some explanation that would clear both Jimmy and Lex. If her brain would just work she might be able to. She ran through all of the options but it still came out only one way. Well, she reasoned, she might think of something better before the morning or at least be able to work out how best to respond to the problem; there was no sense in burning bridges unless she knew that that was her only option. She was rationalising and she knew it. She wanted to stay near to Lex, in spite of everything.
“Chloe, I am telling you the truth. I am a really good liar, I mean really good and you have just told me that you could forgive me if I had done whatever it is that you think I have done if I told you the truth. It would be so easy for me right now to give in to temptation, to make up some story but I’m not going to. I am telling you the truth”, Lex tried desperately to think of something that would make her believe him and make her stay.
“I don’t think that I am in any position to make a decision tonight, I will decide tomorrow morning”, she said with all of the strength that she could muster before leaving the room before she could do something stupid like say she didn’t care whether he was lying, she wanted to believe him and demand that he held her until she felt less alone, miserable and confused.
~*~
Chloe lay awake in her bed. She had tried to read a book. She had taken a long scented bath. She had listened to music. She had done yoga. Nothing had worked. Nothing could stop her from thinking about Lex and Jimmy.
Her mind whirled, but nothing got sorted. She couldn’t focus on any one moment, any one feeling she was just so tired and yet sleep would not come. She had barely slept for the month before and one night’s worth hadn’t been enough for her to catch up. Her head throbbed, her heart ached, her throat had a ball in it only beat in size by the one in her stomach. She needed a few hours of sleep at least if she wanted to have any chance of thinking clearly and coming up with a solution to all of this … or at least making sense of it.
She grabbed the bottle of pills on her nightstand and – without checking the dosage – poured a bunch into her hand and threw them back.
“Shit”, she thought as she remembered how strong they were. One would have been enough. Two would have been too many and she had taken …
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
I don't understand. What happened to Jimmy? :D:D More, please? And Lex, he should be more angry at the engagement:D
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
You will find out in a chappie or two. *evil smile* I am working on the next bit right now, up tonight in the next 20 mins or tomorrow.
Let's just say that although he didn't know about the engagment - unless he is lying to Chloe - he knows something that gives him confidence!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by
HotCrossedBunny
You will find out in a chappie or two. *evil smile* I am working on the next bit right now, up tonight in the next 20 mins or tomorrow.
Let's just say that although he didn't know about the engagment - unless he is lying to Chloe - he knows something that gives him confidence!
He either knows that Chloe is in love with him by now or that Jimmy is out of hte picture:D Or both;p
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
*Chapter Fifteen: Part Two*
“Damn it”, Chloe swore as she flung back her covers and scrambled to her feet. How could she have done something so unbelievably stupid? She had been lying there feeling sorry for herself and hadn’t been thinking about what she had actually been doing. What if she hadn’t realised in time? What if she had just gone to sleep? The image of her father and Lois crying over her lifeless pale form made her feel sick. That was probably a good thing, she decided as she staggered into the bathroom. It would make her next job put easier.
She grabbed a bobble off the side and tied her hair back before easing herself onto her knees in front of the toilet. She lifted the lid up with one hand and closed her eyes, bringing her other hand to her lips. She had promised herself that she would never have to do this again when she was 12 and had briefly experimented with the idea of making herself sick to avoid gaining weight. It was a disgusting practice but, in this case, necessary.
Without trying to think of it too much she forced her fingers down her throat. She coughed a little but it wasn’t enough, she cringed as she jammed them further down. She gagged but kept going, then she coughed. She squeezed her eyes even more tightly shut as she braced herself.
She was sick.
Fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt the tablets coming back up, completely undigested. She opened her eyes to check, yes all of the tablets where in the bowel surrounded by things which had been far more appetising before they had been digested. The sight was too much for her and she threw up again. All of Martha’s hard work had been for nothing, but at least that meant that there could definitely be none of the tablets left in her system.
Chloe wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, closed the lid and flushed before falling back against the wall. The tiles chilled her through the thin cotton but it was almost welcome she was now so overly hot. She felt terrible. Ten times worse than she had a few minutes ago, now her throat burned terribly and her mouth tasted horribly sour.
Collecting her strength, she got up and shuffled over to the vanity unit where the sight that met her in the mirror caused her to burst into tears. She looked terrible. She was pathetic. She slipped out of Jimmy’s t-shirt, leaving it in the laundry hamper, and washed her hands and face thoroughly before brushing her teeth until she tasted blood. It wasn’t enough. She took a long, scaldingly hot shower but she still felt dirty and awful. Even as she drenched herself in body spritz, and put on new panties and another one of Jimmy’s shirts she didn’t feel any better.
She went back to bed, keeping the lamp on hoping that that would somehow make everything alright. She tried to snuggle into the shirt but it didn’t work. It just smelled like detergent. She wanted a real live human being there to hold her. It was the way that she had felt before she had met Jimmy on the base, when she hadn’t been so exhausted at the end of the day that she couldn’t think.
Chloe had never let Jimmy spend the entire night with her. They had sex which left them both exhausted, then he left. He would have stayed if she had asked, she could have held him every single day, but she hadn’t. She closed her eyes, she had to sleep and not think about him.
It was no good. The memories come flooding back and she knew that it was never going to work. She was being ridiculous. She was just overly emotional because she was over tired. She just needed some sleep and, she reasoned, that justified anything she did to get it.
~*~
Lex stared after her as she left the office. He wanted to go after her but he stopped himself with a level of self-control that he had not previously known he even possessed. She had said that she would at least stay that night, him going after her now might make her change her mind and leave right then. He had to prove to her that he could control himself and that he wasn’t going to hurt her.
He wasn’t sure what his next move should be. He wanted to get on his laptop and research as much about Henry James Olsen as he could, but then he would know too much. If Chloe was going to ask him more questions the next day and he knew all of the answers it would look too suspicious.
Scotch. That was the Luthor family solution to emotions and it was what Lex turned to that night. Scotch and whiskey.
Anything that stopped him from thinking about how close he was to losing Chloe and how he had acted that evening was welcome. Anything that could help to numb the pain was a blessing.
As he sat and drank he stared into the flames, if he looked closely enough he was almost certain that he could see Chloe’s face in some of them – although that was probably the alcohol. He was staring so fixedly that he did not notice at first when the door was opened.
Chloe didn’t know what had possessed her as she made her way to Lex’s room that night, or why she felt so hurt when she saw no light on and received no reply when she knocked on his door. There was no reason why he should put up with the way that she had treated him (they were in his house after all, he didn’t have to put up with anyone talking back to him) and there was certainly no reason why he should be awake in the middle of the night just because she needed him.
Her heart sinking a little further she made her way to the kitchen to see if they had some cough syrup so at least her throat wouldn’t hurt her but as she did that she noticed a light coming from further down the corridor. It was coming from Lex’s office.
There was no way that Lex could still be up, was there? He didn’t have any more work that night.
Feeling a little foolish she knocked on the door but when she didn’t receive a reply thought about retreating but the awful feeling only increased at the thought of that and so she pushed the door open.
She saw him, sitting there with his back to her.
“Lex”. Her whisper was barely audible but sent every hair on the back of Lex’s neck shooting up.
“Chloe?” He turned around to see her, at once delighted and horrified. Was she there to tell him that she had decided to leave right then, that she couldn’t even stand to spend one more night in the mansion?
“This doesn’t change anything”, she warned him, still only just making herself heard over the fire.
She didn’t have to say anymore, he knew what she meant. Before she knew it, she was wrapped in his arms.
“This doesn’t change anything”, she repeated weakly.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
grest story. love the update
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
eh;/ I hate that she sleeps in Jimmy's shirt and that she had sex with him. Sorry. I just hate Chimmy! Jimmy was a good character, but not with Chloe.
Sorry...:P
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Annie13: Thank-you.
TrinityR: Understandable. I actually quite liked Chimmy, although obviously not as much as Chlex. Hopefully you will like it a little more later on. :) It won't happen in the next chapter so don't get your hopes up, but if you need something else to think of you could think about Lex helping her out of Jimmy's shirt. ;)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Glad you're not mad at me:) I still love your story to set it straight. I just didn't like the line about Chimmy sex:D You know, ok, they're enganged, I can deal with it, but I don;t have to think about other disturbing activities.
But you hate Lexna,a so I guess we're even lol
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Great updates. She is so going to stay with Lex. LOL! :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 28th February 2013
Wow... I didn't see this Jimmy thing coming...
Great chapters
Can't wait for more
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
*Chapter Sixteen: Part One*
Lex held her close, stroking her hair and her back as she murmured something into his chest that sounded like, “I can’t sleep. The thoughts, the nightmares, the fear … they are only afraid of you”. At that moment she could have recited the words to “I’m a little teapot”, and it wouldn’t have stopped his heart from soaring.
He cursed himself, she was obviously distressed and that bothered him, it really did but not enough to stop him delighting in the feel of her in his arms or that she had come to him. He was a sick manipulative bastard for feeling anything but concerned at that moment. He should just be focusing on her … But she had come to him, the voice in the back of his head reminded him. True he was the only one in the house but she could have called the Kents, Clark or Lois would have been over there within 10 minutes. She could have called Lana. But she had come to him.
She nestled perfectly in his arms and he could feel her softening slightly. She trusted him. Whatever her mouth said. Whatever her head tried to convince her of. She must trust him, otherwise she wouldn’t have come to him. She wasn’t afraid of him and she trusted him. The fact that he got to hold her was just the icing on the cake. However many times she said that this didn’t change anything he knew that it did, and he was not going to lose her.
“Come on”, he said, finally ending the embrace only to put out the fire. He walked over to the door, holding it open with one hand and holding the other one out to her. “Let’s go to bed”.
Chloe studied him for a moment. She had come to him for comfort, afraid of being turned away but now that he was offering it she was also afraid. She was sick of feeling like this. Trying not to feel timid she took his hand and allowed him to lead her out of the room and down the corridor.
As the moved through the hallways she replayed their brief exchange in her head, looking for hidden clues – her reporters instincts hadn’t dulled much during her incarceration. One word stuck out. Bed. He had said the word bed, she had not said that. She hadn’t said anything about her needing him, about needing to be in his arms to stop the nightmares – at least she didn’t think that she had. She stared up at him, he did not appear to be disgusted or pitying and that was something at least. But he had definitely said the word bed.
She assumed that they were heading back to her room but they walked right passed it and over to Lex’s. She had never realised before quite how close their rooms were. They were barely a few metres walk from one another.
Lex noticed her look of confusion as they passed her room but didn’t say anything, she had come to him this time and it was going to be as he wanted. He was going to take her to his room, he was going to prove to her that there was a very real place for her in this house and in his life - and it sure as hell wasn’t in the bloody guest room. As they reached his door he tried to ignore the fantasies he had of bringing her to his room before. She hadn’t looked quite so anxious in those dreams; she had been warm and willing. He gave himself a mental shake, nothing like that was going to happen that night so there was no point in getting himself all worked up. She wasn’t there because she was attracted to him, she was there because she needed him and he was going to be the perfect gentleman – whatever his DNA demanded of him.
He drank in the sight of her. She was standing there waiting for him to open the door, clearly nervous, pressing one bare foot on top of the other. Once again she was drowned in another cotton t-shirt which made her seem even younger and more vulnerable than she actually was. Her dark hair was pulled back messily and she looked a little flushed. He brought the hand that he still held up to his lips and brushed his lips against it, without thinking.
Chloe didn’t balk at the action; it seemed oddly natural for them. She scoffed at herself. What the hell was natural between them? He was a bald billionaire whose father she had had put in prison, she was a nosey reporter who had got herself in too deep, been in hiding for around five years and now had so many issues that she couldn’t even sleep by herself. If 15 year old Chloe had met her she would have told her to grow up and get over it. 3 year old Chloe would have told her that she was a big girl and could sleep without the nightlight.
As if sensing that she was getting too caught up in her own – not entirely productive thoughts – Lex opened the door and hoped to joke her out of it. “You now have the distinction of being the only woman to ever have been welcomed into my bedroom … other than the maid”.
Ever alert for incongruences, Chloe stated, “You were married twice”.
“Yes, but they both had their own rooms, I just visited and then returned to my room afterwards”, Lex explained as he kept hold of her hand even though it was no longer strictly necessary.
“Booty calls whilst married. That’s pretty impressive”, Chloe tried to joke, actually thinking that it sounded rather sad. Neither of Lex’s wives had deserved him. He had just wanted love, he had been so desperate for it that he had been married twice within as many years and he had been screwed over both times.
“I like to think so”, he said as if bragging.
Oh this wasn’t good. Even through his tone she could tell that he had been hurt and God help her she cared. She shouldn’t care. She wasn’t sure that she could trust him. Jimmy might have been a plant. He might have been playing her all of this time. The heartbreak of watching him … No, she wasn’t going to go there. The point was to be able to get a good night’s sleep. She would think about everything else tomorrow morning.
Still not having looked in his room yet, nor entered it she tried to quip, “So, really a tip then? Can’t allow any women in there? Or is it that there are so many half naked pictures of women on the walls that you can’t let them in?”
“No”.
“What? The pictures are not of women?” She pretended to look shocked.
“Get inside”, he growled, finally letting go of her hand to give her gentle shove inside, before closing the door and hurrying over to her to take her hand again.
“Wow”, she exclaimed, her snarkiness and a good portion of her doubts forgotten as she looked around in awe. “This place is huge.” Chloe stared, almost drooling, at one of the paintings on the walls, “Is that an original? What am I saying? Of course it is. Although I thought that it was in the Louvre”.
“They have a copy, I have the original”, he shrugged.
Chloe stared at him suspiciously for a second. Would he really have …? No, she didn’t want to know. “This place is gorgeous”, she continued looking around.
“I like it”, he said with false modesty.
“You decorate it yourself? Well, I mean did you pick it out yourself, not do the actual painting and lifting”, Chloe clarified her question.
“Yes”, he answered, feeling a little put out that she didn’t think that he was capable of doing the actual decorating. Of course, he hadn’t. But that was just because he didn’t feel like it and had better things to do with his time, not because he couldn’t have.
Apparently unaware of Lex’s discomfort she stared at the fireplace. “It’s so lovely. The fireplace …” She broke off and blushed. “Sorry, this is really inappropriate”. She hadn’t been invited in here to snoop.
“No, it’s not. You should never feel uncomfortable here. So, do you have a preferred side of the bed?” He wondered trying to make her feel as at home as possible, whilst ignoring the reasons that Chloe might have for having a preferred side of the bed.
“No, I’ve never … I never spent the entire night with someone”, she admitted.
“Except me, last night”, he smirked, he couldn’t help it.
“Yes, except you. Last night”.
He gave her a smile, “Well then you can sleep on the left, it is nearer the fireplace and I was watching QI and Steven Fry showed evidence that women are far more likely to be cold during the night”.
Chloe returned his smile, repeating her mantra that this would not change anything. The only reason why she was there was so that the bad feeling would go away – which it had. She allowed herself to be led around and watched, trying not to giggle, as Lex pulled back the covers and helped her into bed, covering her back up. His fingers remained laced with hers as if he didn’t want to let go, until he had to. He kissed her knuckles and told her, “I’ll be back in a second”.
He was trying to sound calm and as if he weren’t petrified that she was going to leave. He walked as normally as he could to the bathroom, but once there he scrubbed his face, brushed his teeth and slipped into his jogging bottoms in under a minute then walked back out trying to look casual.
Chloe listened to the sounds of him getting ready and smiled a little. However calm he tried to appear, she could tell that he was anxious. It made her feel a little giddy that she could have that effect on Lex Luthor. As he reappeared she tried very hard not to notice how delectable he looked, not realising that he was having much the same thoughts. As he looked down at her, Lex didn’t think that his bed had ever looked quite so inviting.
The mattress was so large and firm that it didn’t even move under Lex’s weight as he got in. Chloe also remained stock still. Lex felt her nervousness and knew that it was up to him to take the lead. He moved over slightly and used one hand to raise her head as he slipped his arm under her neck as they had the night before. She allowed it, and automatically turned, placing her hand on his chest, he wrapped his arm around her waist, hugging her close, she moved her leg across on of his and he stroked her hair.
A contented sigh left Chloe’s lips, without her intending it, as she snuggled into him. She was exhausted, everything that had had happened in the last month had been terrible but she could sleep now. He was so comfy. She couldn’t understand how his wives had ever tried to kill him; he was the perfect pillow cum radiator.
“Tell me”, his voice was soft and she craned her neck to see his face. “Whatever it is your thinking about, tell me”.
He looked, and sounded, so sincere. In that moment she couldn’t help but want to tell him everything, but she knew that she couldn’t.
Sensing her about to refuse, “At least tell me whatever it was that prompted you to seek me out tonight, not that I am complaining. I need to know, if I am going to help you”.
She considered this for a moment; it would be a good test. If he had known about Jimmy then nothing she told him would be new information, and if he hadn’t then there was no point in keeping things from him. Besides, he was right. She would have to talk about it at some point.
“I was thinking about the first time that I met Jimmy”, she told him only part of the truth. There was no way that she was telling him about almost overdosing on pills.
“Go on”.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
*Chapter Sixteen: Part Two*
A couple of weeks after her father’s visit and her uncle’s departure Chloe was depressed. She had gone through yet another day of training and language learning, interspersed with random walks around the base but nothing would lift her spirits. She knew that things were technically better for her here than they had been in America and that she would get to see her Dad more regularly now, but she wanted to see him right then. She wanted to see her friends. Hell, she at least wanted to see Davis but he too had left a few days before on some mission he couldn’t talk about.
She sighed. She was being selfish and petty and she knew it. They had jobs to do, the military base was safe and they couldn’t just spend all of their time cooped up there with her but she had really grown used to having someone to share her meals with in the last few months. Going back – more or less – to how the first few months had been was even more difficult now.
Chloe kicked at a stone as she wandered around in-between large army buildings. At least now she could walk around by herself and get some fresh air – even if she couldn’t go off the base. She wondered where Davis was then, whether he was thinking of her. Probably he was, she was fairly certain that he had put off his mission for a couple of weeks so that he could make sure that she was settled – which she was. She knew who everyone else, where everything was. She didn’t get scared of stupid things anymore … well not that often. She had her routine down and Davis would be back in a few days. She had to snap out of this.
It was time for dinner, she would normally head for the officer’s mess then and found her feet heading in that direction but when she was already virtually outside it she reconsidered. She only ate in there because that was where Davis – and normally Dru and Victor – ate and demanded her company. She wasn’t an officer, she had no right to be in there without them.
She was just about to amble back to her room when the smell hit her and her stomach rumbled. She considered. She was ostensibly the daughter of a three star general; she could go anywhere she wanted. If she ordered her food it would take 20 minutes, if she went it now she could be eating in 20 seconds.
Greed won out. She would just have to get used to going around alone. Besides, although she was now Lucy Lane she was still Chloe Sullian and there was no way that Chloe would ever have been worried about going into a room just because she didn’t have an escort and she wasn’t sure where she fit in. That was pathetic. She really had to get a grip on herself. Chloe Sullivan was the woman who had doggedly pestered everyone – even the great Lex Luthor – until he had given in and allowed her to interview him.
Chloe went in, got her food and sat down at her regular table. She started to eat, it was very good but as she tucked in she looked around the room. She was lonely and she was bored and people watching had always been a hobby of hers. Everything was the same as normal; they were all sitting in the same places, all talking about the same things, except for one person.
There was a new man there. He didn’t look like he could have been more than 20, if that. He looked younger but that could have just been because he was baby faced. He only 6 foot, a respectable height to be certain but made him look much smaller than the other men in the room who were all a good 5 inches taller than him. He had dark auburn hair which curled slightly. He looked sweet with a smattering of freckles across his nose and a smile, which was a little timid.
Her heart went out of him. He was holding his tray and looking around the room looking a little lost. She remembered her first day at Smallville Middle School. Everyone had already known everyone and she knew no one. She and her father had just moved over from Metropolis and she hated nearly everything about Smallville. She had briefly considered just throwing her lunch away and going to the library to do some reading until she had spotted Clark. It had been love at first sight, and not being shy she had made a bee line for him and asked if she could sit down – right after she had actually sat down.
She smiled at the memory. She caught the man’s eye and was about to offer him a seat next to her when someone yelled at him. Looking in the direction of the noise Chloe saw that it was Brian, one of the younger British officers. He would probably be happy at that table, from what she had seen Brian was quite nice.
“Wholesome Olsen, get over here”, someone else at the table seconded the invitation.
He gave her a polite nod and then went to sit where he had been told to, seeming not to be at all bothered by the teasing.
Chloe couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She turned her eyes to her food but strained her ears; she had become quite adept at listening in to conversations.
“Don’t you know who that is?” She couldn’t just make out one of the officers asking.
“No”. It was the first time that she had heard his voice. He was American, probably front Granville based on his accent. He made her feel a little less homesick. He had a nice voice, warm but not too deep. It wasn’t like Lex’s, it was like a boy her own age.
“That is Lucy Lane, General Lane’s daughter”, someone supplied. Chloe rolled her eyes.
“So what is she doing here and sitting all by herself?” It was an innocent enough question to Chloe’s ears and she couldn’t understand why there were so many scoffs in answer.
“Where have you been?”
“Iraq, you?” Jimmy replied and Chloe moved her head forwards so that her hair fell down obscuring her face and giving her the opportunity to spy through it for a second before tucking it back behind her ear and returning her gaze to her plate.
Brian had blushed at the comment; apparently he had not yet seen action. Chloe couldn’t help but be concerned that the newcomer had. He looked far too young to be risking his life.
“Well you didn’t hear it from me but I was talking with some of the men over in America, base to base stuff you know. Anyway, about a year ago General Lane brought his daughter in. She moved around with him but is here while he goes on special ops because Bloom is taking care of her”.
“Where is Bloom?” His tone made it evident that he had been told all about Davis. It was interesting, Chloe had been able to find out absolutely nothing about him as there were no records and yet the name Bloom inspired terror in so many.
“Also on an op but the base is safe enough”, someone – Chloe was fairly certain that it was Toby – explained.
“Why so much security for one girl?”
Chloe could practically hear the shrugs.
“We don’t know. The story is that she was out of control”. That was definitely Jeremy.
“She doesn’t look like the type”, Olsen sounded thoughtful. Chloe could tell that he was staring at her and tried to continue eating as if she couldn’t hear them – which a normal person probably wouldn’t have been able to over the general background noise of the canteen.
“Agreed, but you know how these things are. The strange thing is that I know his other daughter Lois, and she hasn’t ever been to see her sister from what I’ve heard.”
Chloe dropped her spoon in her soup, but covered by pretending that her phone had rung and that it had been the vibrations that had caused her slip. She pulled it out and stared at it as if reading a text, all the while blinking back tears.
“What else do you know?” He sounded genuinely interested. Chloe snorted, it figured that the first man to be interested in her that wasn’t a meteor freak didn’t even know her name.
“She’s only been England a couple of weeks, she spends all of her time in her room, training or studying”, Brian explained, through what sounded like a mouthful of food. Honestly, Chloe had been informed that all of the English had perfect manners.
“Certainly makes early morning work outs more fun doesn’t it, seeing her sweating and … Oomph”.
Chloe winced at the sound of Jeremy being hit on the back of the head. There were several sniggers.
“I do it for your own good”, Brian assured him, “You can look – and believe me, everyone does – but you don’t touch”.
It really was amazing what one could find out, listening in on other’s conversations. Chloe briefly wondered what Clark would have thought of that but then buried the thought. Thinking of Clark would only make her melancholy and this was the first bit of fun that she had in … well she couldn’t remember.
“Bit rough on the poor girl isn’t it; being left on base in a foreign country without any family”.
“Aww”, Chloe thought to herself. He was a sweetie.
“Yeah, it probably is. But take my advice mate and leave her well enough alone. The men who look after her could bench press you”. It was Brian again.
Chloe manoeuvred her knife so that she could watch his reaction to that. He just smiled and went on eating. She wasn’t sure whether she should be flattered or annoyed that so much interest was apparently taken in her around the base.
She wondered what Wholesome Olsen’s first name was. He did look wholesome. Dependable. Not to mention trustworthy. And cute.
The new boy ate quickly and then said, “Thanks for the company lads, but as you have implied that I could be bench-pressed, I had better go and hit the gym”. There were laughs and the sounds of hands slapping him on the back and then he left.
Chloe didn’t look up. She ate the rest of her dinner and then left via the opposite door. She considered going back to her room but then thought that there was no reason for that. She was allowed to walk around. A little trip to the gym might be just what she needed.
~*~
Lex listened with interest to Chloe’s tale as her voice got quieter and quieter until eventually giving out completely, signalling that she had fallen asleep. Lex tightened his grip around her slightly and kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that Chloe, but I promise you that I knew nothing about Jimmy and that I will eventually make you forget all about him”, he whispered.
As he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, he did not even entertain the thought that he might lose her.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
oh yes, Lex, yes! Make her forget all about Jimmy!
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
Yes Lex please make her forget. :)
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
*Chapter Seventeen*
Chloe moved around in her sleep a little but feeling Lex’s arms around her settled back down. It had been five hours since she had fallen asleep; it was too much to hope that she would get an entire eight hours without any dreams. Luckily Lex was so exhausted from the fright that she had given him that evening that he was still dead to the world and didn’t pick up on anything.
~*~
Using the routes she knew didn’t contain security cameras Chloe soon arrived outside the gym and before her courage could fail her she pushed open the door and let it make a noise as it closed after her.
The room only had one other occupant and she was happy to see that she had been right and that it was the new boy. He was just sitting on a stack of mats looking rather unconcerned until he heard the noise. He looked over, saw her and smiled. He jumped down from the mats and walked over to her.
Chloe smiled back. He had obviously been waiting for her.
“Jimmy Olsen”, he said, sticking his hand out to her.
She retracted slightly as she always did but pushed passed it and shook his hand, “Lucy Lane”, the lie tasted bitter.
“Nice to meet you Miss Lane”. He had a good handshake, not too weak but not overly strong as if he were trying to weld her knuckles together either.
“You too, Mr Olsen”, she replied.
“Please call me Jimmy”, he grinned. It seemed to be his habitual expression.
Chloe wanted to tell him to call her Chloe but she caught herself at the last moment and said, “And you must call me Lucy”.
“I was informed that I should, under no circumstances ever speak to you”, he said, as if he weren’t aware that she had been listening in to their entire conversation.
“Do you think that I am dangerous?” She teased him.
“No”, he shook his head. “Just bored and lonely”.
She ducked her head and fiddled with her hair. He took a step forwards, he was just going to put his hand on her shoulder but Chloe darted backwards.
“Oh God Lucy, I’m sorry. I didn’t know”.
“Know what? That I’m a snob and that I don’t like to be touched”, she tried to shrug it off.
Jimmy took a step back, “I didn’t know what had happened to you. But it makes more sense than that you would have done something bad enough for your Dad to make you stay here to keep an eye on you”.
“I don’t know what you are talking about”, Chloe lied, hating herself … and him for having worked it out. No one else had. “I’m leaving”.
“No, please don’t. You don’t want to talk about it. That’s okay. We can talk about me”, Jimmy offered walking back over to the mats and hoping up, hoping that if he didn’t crowd her she would come over to him. It worked. Chloe’s interest was piqued, she liked to nose around people’s personal lives and she hadn’t had the chance since she had been on the base. The others didn’t have personal lives.
“Okay let’s talk about you Jimmy. How old are you?” Chloe asked as she followed him across the room, but kept her distance.
“I’m 19”, he answered simply.
“Bit young to be an officer, aren’t you? Most have finished University. Are you a genius or something?” She wondered.
“No”, he ran his hand through his hair, “nothing like that. I didn’t even finish High School”.
“Really? You look like the kind of guy who would have”.
“You mean that I look like a geek?” He smiled at her, not taking offense. “I am, I’m just not really smart and I’m not an officer, well not technically”.
Chloe looked interested. “You are from the States?”
“Yeah, I was born and raised in Metropolis. My Dad was a really good guy, he ran a successful mechanics business until I was five years old, even after my mother left we did alright. Then one day a baby turned up on our doorstep.” He gave a bitter laugh, “Turns out that my mother had had a baby with the man she had run off with and hadn’t felt like keeping it so she sent him back to be with Dad”.
“That’s terrible”, Chloe couldn’t help herself. “I know what it is like to lose your mother at a young age”.
He looked at her in interest.
“She died”, Chloe supplied lamely, remembering just in time that she was supposed to be Lucy, not Chloe. “Did your Dad keep the baby?”
“Yeah, tried his best to do what was best for him but …” he broke off. “It was difficult for him. He started drinking and lost his business, which just made the drinking worse. He went from being his own boss to a part time mechanic”.
“I’m sorry”, Chloe said, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s alright”, Jimmy said with a shrug. He would have liked to have dropped the conversation but he knew where this had to lead so he pushed on.
“It must have been hard on you”.
“It was worse for my little brother James. He got the brunt of Dad’s anger; he wasn’t even his flesh and blood after all. I tried to stand up for him as much as possible, make sure that he was never left alone with Dad and stuff like that but it took its toll on my school work”, he tried to distance himself from the memories.
“He was lucky to have a brother like you”, Chloe said honestly.
Feeling that he should have done more, Jimmy brushed it off. “Anyway, luckily for me and for James I did go in to school one day and your father”, his eyes narrowed her at Chloe’s tiny reaction to these words and stored it away for later investigation, “saw me. He was there to tell boys to stay in school etc. He came over and spoke to me afterwards, asking where the black eye I was sporting came from, told me about self-defence classes. I was so shocked that I blurted out that I couldn’t hit my Dad and … well the whole story came out”.
“I bet my”, only the slightest of pauses, “Dad didn’t like that”. Chloe was certain that her Uncle would have paid the mechanic a visit and ensured that there was a little accident which involved a wrench inserted somewhere painfully.
“No, he didn’t. Next thing I knew we were on a military base. My brother was sent away to military school where he would get a great education and learn a trade. Then he asked me what I wanted to do …”
“And …”
“I told him the truth. I have always wanted to be a photographer. I want to find out the news but more than that, I wanted to give a voice to people who didn’t have one”, he studied her reactions very carefully. “I knew what it was like to be powerless, to be knocked around by someone who was meant to be protecting you but much worse things happen to other people. Much worse things happen to women. I thought that if I could help give these people a voice then my life would be worth something, that somehow that would make up for every time I hadn’t been there and my father had hit James. Make up for every day I didn’t tell the school what was happening”.
Chloe sat down on the mats, a good metre away from him. “You did what you could”.
“It wasn’t enough”, he scoffed.
“You went to Iraq?” She asked, trying not to let him get bogged down in guilt which from what she could see was completely unmerited.
“Yeah”, he said, not bragging. “And South Africa before that. There are a lot of abuses that go on in the world and someone needs to photograph them”, he chuckled. “You probably think that I am something out of some old movie. I know that it isn’t fashionable to be concerned with journalism, nearly everything is tabloids now. But, I don’t know, I think that it is still possible to report on the news, to get to the bottom of things, to show people what is going on in the world. If I had the talent I would write about it, but I don’t. All that I can do is point a camera and let the story tell itself.”
He took his phone out of his pocket and flicked through a few photos before showing her one, “This little girl is only 8 years old and yet she was supposed to be married that day”, he looked like he might be sick. “No one can see her face and think that she is just some statistic”.
“I don’t think that that is stupid at all”, Chloe assured him, fighting back tears as she saw the little girl’s face. “I was a reporter in High School. But I focused on tales of the weird and unexplained rather than things like this”.
“I’m sure that if something untoward had been going on you would have reported on that too”, he said.
“Yes, but that got me in trouble”. She realised that she had said too much and handed his phone back with a word of thanks.
“The point is Lucy, that I have photographed hundreds of girls like this, and ones who have been abused. I recognise the look, the fear of being touched”, he was treading on dangerous ground now and he knew it.
Chloe’s eyes were full of fear as she looked up at him.
“Did someone hurt you Chloe? Was it someone on the base or is that the reason that you are here in the first place?” If her General Lane didn’t know, he would have to be informed.
She shook her head. “It was nothing like that. I …” his eyes were so kind and she needed to talk to someone so she talked to him. “When I was in High School I got involved with someone older than me. He was bad news, I knew it but I thought that I would be able to control the relationship, but I was wrong. It wasn’t anything sexual EVER! At least not on my part. For a while everything went well but then he wanted things from me that I wasn’t willing to give. He was powerful and started to threaten me and my family. I had friends in high places and well … he ended up in jail”.
“But he did something to you first, didn’t he?”
~*~
Something was bothering Lex. He didn’t know what but something was not right. Slowly he woke up and prodded his brain into telling him the answer. He didn’t feel ill. He wasn’t aware that he was running late for anything. His father was dead. He was alone in bed. He was alone in his bed. Where was Chloe?
He jerked upright.
“Chloe?”
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
*Chapter Eighteen*
“Chloe?” Lex asked again as he fumbled around for the lamp. Where was the damned thing? It had always been there before. After a few more seconds he found it and finally succeeded in flicking it on. He had deliberately not turned it on the night before to get Chloe used to the darkness, now he regretted it. As light finally illuminated the room he heard Chloe’s voice and his heart started to beat once more.
“I’m here”, she announced walking over to the bed and popping what looked like a tray in the centre of the bedspread.
He blinked a few times to clear his vision and asked, “Where did you go?” trying to keep the note of fear out of his voice. He looked down at the tray of sandwiches and drinks.
“Your stomach was growling. Then I realised that you hadn’t had chance to eat because of what happened.” She looked guilty. “And you were just drinking in your study”, anger washed over her features only to be then tinged with a little more guilt; she was the reason why he had been drinking. “And I figured that there was no way that you could possibly be sleeping well without food in your stomach and that you would eventually wake up and so I went and I made sandwiches”.
Lex stared at her for a couple of seconds; he was touched – although he would rather have starved than wake up without her by his side. “I didn’t even know that you could cook”, he commented wondering what this meant for her threats to leave the following morning. The night before when she had come to him he had been so confident that she would never leave him but his awake up scare had knocked his confidence. She cared about his comfort, that had to mean something. Right?
“Don’t get over excited. I can only do three types of pasta, one type of cookie and sandwiches”, she warned. “Well, and a wide variety of coffees”.
He smiled as he remembered Chloe’s lamentable eating habits from her early teen years. He remembered vividly watching her chase Pete around the Kents’ farm with a French fry when he was on a health kick because of his interest in karate. It hadn’t taken long for the boy to allow himself to be caught and fed. He scowled.
Chloe noticed the scowl and looked worried so he shot her a smile to show that it had nothing to do with her and pulled himself up into a proper sitting position to eat one of the sandwiches. It was very good; she hadn’t scrimped on the fillings. Noticing that she wasn’t eating he offered her one.
“Then you won’t have enough”, Chloe protested, watching him thoughtfully as if trying to see if his drinking binge from the previous night would have any lasting damage.
Laughing, he explained, “I don’t eat like Clark, or like one of the guys on the base. Two entire metre long French sticks is enough for me, I can leave one for you”.
“Ok, thanks”, she acquiesced and began nibbling. Oddly enough she hadn’t actually thought of her eating before but now that she tasted the food she realised that she was hungry, ravenous in fact. It made sense she supposed; she hadn’t eaten much with the Kents still not quite comfortable and then had thrown even that up.
They munched in companionable silence for a little while before Lex got his courage up and said, “I take it that it wasn’t my stomach that woke you up”.
“No”, she admitted. The imprints her teeth had left on her sandwich were really rather interesting if one stared hard enough at them.
“Bad dream?” He inquired, certain that she would not just have woken up for no reason or because his stomach had growled; she would have to have been already awake to hear that. He had noticed the night before that when she was asleep she was dead to the world.
“Not exactly”, she avoided the question and his eyes.
With a sigh he pulled her back against him with one arm so that they were both leaning against the headboard.
“You know, it is never going to get any better if you don’t talk to someone about it”, he told her.
“What if I talk about it and it just gets worse?” She voiced her fear. Speaking about it made it more vivid, it was ten times worse than the dreams she had and that was saying something.
“That’s what I’m here for. Besides, it doesn’t seem to me like not talking about is stopping it replaying over and over again in your head”, he rubbed her shoulder.
She couldn’t tell him. He would judge her. He would think her the worst person in the world. He would detest her. He … he had to have sent Jimmy. It was the only way that made sense that both Lex and Jimmy had known so much that they should have had no way of knowing. It was the only way that didn’t make her the worst person on the face of the planet for the way that she had used Jimmy.
Chloe slammed her eyes shut but she just saw Jimmy’s face.
“Alright, I’ll tell you”, she gave in, turning and hugging Lex tightly, sure that this would be the last time that he ever held her. He would be far too disgusted afterwards.
Lex put down his sandwich and cuddled her properly.
“Every evening there was a period of time that we would both have free and Jimmy and I would meet up in my room for a couple of hours to talk. We discussed everything. Current affairs. Politics. Sometimes we would just watch TV. I found out all about his family and told him some stuff about me. I felt so close to him. He was my only real friend there and I grew to love him, as a friend. But we were both young and …” She struggled to find the words for what they had done.
“It became a sexual relationship”, Lex finished for her, trying to remain calm.
Chloe could feel the tension coming from his body and knew that he judged her for being so easy.
“Yes”, she admitted, not adding how many times it took for them to get that part right. Jimmy had been so kind and patient with her, always allowing her to be on top so that she shouldn’t get scared, only touching her occasionally at first until she was more comfortable. Agreeing to keeping the majority of their clothes on as it made her more comfortable not to be looked at too much.
God she had been a pain to him and it wasn’t as if couldn’t have just gone off the base and found a nice normal girlfriend, one who didn’t mind it when he kissed her.
“He was a really good man. He was so loyal and caring and kind and … and I didn’t love him as I ought. He was asked to go along on a mission to be the official correspondent for a few months. It was so dangerous that I didn’t want him to go but he said that he had to. That night was different. I wasn’t as afraid as I had been before, it was perfect and he … he …
~*~
“I love you bright eyes”, he told her as she moved over him. He no longer called her Lucy, he hadn’t for years now, not since soon after their first meeting when he had worked out that she tensed slightly every time that he did and that that could not possibly be her real name. Now she was always darling, sweetheart or his favourite bright eyes.
“I love you too Jimmy”, she was surprised by how easily the words came to her. They had never said these things to each other before, as they had always tried to keep the physical aspects of their relationship separate from their friendship.
He smiled. “Let me see you”, his voice was strained.
She hesitated for a moment, she was wearing a lacy negligee but at his earnest request she pulled it over her head. He gasped at her beauty and put his hands on her hips to stay her movements.
“I swear I won’t hurt you. I’ll never hurt you. When I come back I will make everything right”, he declared earnestly.
She knew what he was asking. He was going out tomorrow on a dangerous mission and Chloe just knew that they wouldn’t get their happily ever after. This was going to be it. This was the night that she would remember with him for the rest of her life and this was going to be the memory he carried around with him. You didn’t deny a man who was already condemned his last wish.
Chloe bit her lip and eased herself off him, sitting on her knees next to him.
Jimmy sat up and pulled his t-shirt off over his head and tossed in on the floor beside her bed. Chloe gulped slightly as she saw the scars that marred his body. She slammed her eyes shut to stop the tears, she wished that he had lived in Smallville. Wished so fervently that she could have known him, helped him before all of this happened.
“Hey sweetheart, it’s alright”, he promised her stroking the side of her face. She heard him taking something out of his undone trouser pocket before taking them off fully and she opened her eyes.
“I know that it is normal for men who are leaving to ask for a memento to take with them to remember their beloved by. But I have enough photos to fill an album, although I could never forget what your gorgeous face looks like”, he whispered to her. “But I would like you to have something from me”.
“Jimmy that’s not necessary”, she tried to assure him but felt him taking her hand.
“Darling, will you accept this?” He placed a simple gold band next to her ring finger on her left hand. “I want you to always have something that will remind you that you have someone, however unworthy, who loves you more than anything else on this earth. Someone who would do anything to make you happy. Someone who prays that he will one day be worthy of making a life with you”.
“Yes”. There was no other possible answer.
He grinned and slipped the ring on.
Slowly, they sank back onto the bed. Jimmy hovered over her kissing her cheeks and her neck and finally her lips. He was sweet and she could feel the excitement building within her although fear was always present in the back of her mind. He was wonderful and she knew that he would never hurt her intentionally but she also knew that they didn’t have a future. Jimmy Olsen’s days were numbered.
This would probably be the last time that she ever saw him, ever touched him, ever kissed him. She blinked back the tears; she would have the rest of her life to mourn him. Tonight she would be strong and give him what he wanted: her body and apparently her love.
She ran her hands up and down him moaning as he caressed her and tried not to be afraid or to let herself get tense. If that was the last night that they would ever spend together then he deserved the most amazing experience of his life.
~*~
Lex held her close, hating the way that she trembled as she sobbed. He had barely been able to make out the end of her story and it took almost an hour for her to calm down enough for her to speak normally again. He didn’t want to push her anymore. It was more than he could bear to see her like this, and he was beginning to think that it might be better to just leave it and to try to just let her heal as she was. No, that was stupid. That was just his way of making things easier on himself without thinking about what was best for Chloe. He knew full well that a wound couldn’t heal until it had been cleaned and aired, until then it would just keep reopening and causing pain every time that it did.
Knowing that he had to push on if he was going to get the full story, or at least as much of it was she was up to giving that night, he prompted her, “He survived his trip abroad. You were in Italy when he returned. Was he the reason why you and Davis disappeared only a day after your birthday?”
She nodded.
~*~
Chloe woke up the morning after her birthday on the Italian military base, still floating on cloud nine. Last night had been amazing, it had been the first night that her thoughts had not been filled with Jimmy since he had left three weeks ago.
“Hello bright eyes”, a voice came from the foot of her bed.
She blinked for a few seconds before throwing herself at the figure there. “Jimmy!” She squealed. Chloe hadn’t truly known what he had meant to her until she had seen him sitting there alive and well.
He hugged her and for once she forgot everything that Lionel had done to her.
“Oh God Jimmy, I am so happy to see you”, she gushed, pulling back to look at him. He had been somewhere hot, her reporter’s eye picked up on the fact that his hair was flecked with gold and his skin was tanned. He also looked as if he beefed up a little more.
“So I see”, he laughed and then pulled her close and kissed her. Sensations coursed through her, she felt tingly and warm and safe.
“Did you get what you needed?” She demanded.
“Yes”, he smiled as he rubbed her back.
“Good because you are never going away again. I had nightmares that you were dead every day”, she told him. That was all that she was going to tell him on that score, she had feared that she was in some way cursed and that being important to her lead people to death and destruction, but here was the proof that she had been wrong. Despite all of her horrific fantasies and bad omens he had gone into a very dangerous situation and had come back alive. The curse, if there had indeed ever been one, must have been broken.
“Well there is no reason to be afraid now, I’m back and I’m back for good. I got a job at a real paper – the Daily Planet – and it is a pretty good pay cheque”, he wasn’t bragging, Jimmy didn’t brag, but he was getting close.
“I am so happy for you Jimmy”, she replied honestly.
“I know you are. I want you to come with me”, he announced.
Her heart sank. “Jimmy … I can’t, my Dad …”
“Your uncle”, he corrected her.
She stared at him.
“I worked it out a while ago. That was why I left Chloe. I couldn’t bear to see you sitting here worrying your life away. You should be free to enjoy your life. Ever since you told me what that man did to you I made it my mission to find out who you were and who he was. I worked out that it was Lionel Luthor, and once I knew about him it wasn’t too difficult to find more dirt on him. He has been smuggling diamonds out of certain African countries without their gangs knowing. I have the photos and all of the evidence now, your Uncle helped me. Once I send these to the police it is just a matter of time until he gets the death sentence. Then justice will be done and you will be free”, he explained. The idea of a man being put to death didn’t sit well with him, but in this case it was a necessity. He would do anything for Chloe and if that meant staining his soul, well that was a price that he was willing to pay.
Chloe just gaped at him.
~*~
“He left me to get ready. He went out to buy me some flowers. He didn’t get two metres of the base before it happened”, she sobbed.
Lex powerless to anything but pat her back.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
Yay! she didn't really love him as much as I thought she would!!
So yay CHLEX!
And sorry, but I had to skip the whole Chimmy sex part, you write great, but I just can't read any sex without Lex in it:D I do the same with some Zannie's fics as well...
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
She did love him but not in the romantic way.
Don't worry about it, I tried to keep the sex to a minimum but I can understand if it is too difficult to read - doesn't mention the idea I once had for a good and an evil Jimmy Olsen who wanted Chloe for themselves for the afternoon, based on the idea I had for a Chlex fic which went much the same way.
Hopefully the next chapter will be up sometimes this evening and that might be more your cup of tea.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
*Chapter Nineteen*
Lex watched the shadows as they crept along the floor. He was not accustomed to sleeping with the lamp on and hadn’t realised quite how many patterns his tiffany lamp would cause across the hardwood floors. It was really rather interesting, it … Who was he kidding? It wasn’t in the slightly bit interesting it was just the latest thing in a long string that he had been trying to occupy his mind with.
It wasn’t working. Just as counting the number of parquet panels he could see hadn’t. Trying to recite the all of the monarchs past and present in Europe in reverse order hadn’t. Nor had the other ridiculous ideas he had come up with once he had decided that trying to think about anything serious wasn’t going to work. Nothing could distract him from the woman who lay in his arms.
Chloe still laid where she had cried herself to sleep many hours ago, in his arms leaning against the headboard. He had clung to her as she had convulsed with sobs, genuinely afraid that she might actually break or make herself sick but powerless to help. When she had finally worn herself out he had replayed her tale over and over in his mind, trying to see if there was anything that he had missed. Anything that he could use to make her feel better, but there wasn’t. He had then been through every plan he could come up with only to realise that they were all useless. Then he had started on the silly methods of distraction. Needless to say, those had also proved to be complete and utter failures.
He couldn’t sleep. He didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t care how many hours had passed, didn’t care what had gone on in the world outside. His only job in that moment was to try to put Chloe back together again. If only he had some idea of how to go about performing such a task.
Lex looked down at her, even after so long her face was still scared with tears. He clung to her helplessly. He had no idea how to make any of this better. She was miserable and he was partially responsible. Now all he could do was hold her.
At least in sleep she looked almost peaceful, if she could stay like that for a few more hours then maybe he would have worked out some way of making things right. Just as he was thinking this there was a buzzing noise coming from the bathroom. Lex groaned as he realised that he had left his cell phone in the pocket of his trousers. He was tempted to just ignore it, he knew enough of Chloe’s sleeping habits to know that it wouldn’t wake her up but then he thought that she had told Clark that she would call him. She had no doubt made similar promises to Lois and if they didn’t get an answer then they were likely to barge in and neither of them needed that.
With a sigh he gently removed his arm from around Chloe’s shoulders and laid her down properly in the bed and covered her up. He slipped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom, coming back into the room and sitting back down on the bed so that he could stroke her hair as he spoke on the phone. He had noticed that she fussed a little she lost the heat from his body, even though it had been replaced by the blanket.
“Hello”, he said softly into his phone.
“Lex? Why are you whispering?” Clark’s voice came from the other end of the line.
“I am whispering because Chloe is asleep and I don’t want to wake her”, he informed him calmly; he saw no reason to lie to his friend. If he took that as a subtle hint to leave Chloe alone, then so much the better.
“Oh, right”, Clark said uncertainly. “I was just calling because I couldn’t get through to Chloe on the number that she gave me and I was worried that something had happened to her”.
“Her phone is probably in the office or in her bedroom”, Lex said conversationally as he stretched his legs out on the bed. This was fun. It was just what he needed to distract himself for a few minutes from the fact that Chloe was hurting and that he couldn’t help her.
“Oh … um … yes, of course”, Clark mumbled.
Lex could hear some fussing in the background and wasn’t surprised to overhear Clark explaining to Lois that Chloe was fine; her phone just wasn’t turned on.
“But Chloe never turns off her phone”, Lois complained.
“It is also in the other room”, Clark added.
“Well then tell her to go and get it. Are you speaking to her now? Give me the phone”. Lex smirked at Lois demonstration of temper as he thought that he couldn’t have wished anything better on Oliver - she would make up for the way that Queen had treated him for all of those years at boarding school.
“Here you go, but not I’m not speaking to Chloe, I’m speaking to Lex”, Clark sounded agitated.
“Is Chloe with him?” Lois demanded, from the odd sounds coming from the receiver probably grabbing the phone from Clark.
“Yes, but she is asleep”, Clark informed him.
“Okay”, Lois said, sounding appeased for a moment before asking Lex, “What are you doing in the same room as my cousin while she is asleep?”
“Watching her sleep”, he answered easily.
“Because that’s not too creepy”.
“I am a Luthor”, he reminded her.
“True, don’t you get any ideas about my cousin”, Lois said, “she is in a fragile emotional state and the moment and I don’t want you to take advantage of her”.
He swallowed. Winding Clark up had been fun but he really did regret what Lois had been put through, “I’m not going to take advantage of her. Look, I am sure that Chloe will kill me if she ever finds out that I have told anyone but she is having very bad nightmares. It helps to have someone with her.”
“Oh”, was the only response he received.
“I have got her to talk about most of them, hopefully that will help her to get passed this. But if not I have the finest therapists who can all be here within a matter of hours”, he explained.
“Do you really think that it will come to that?” Lois asked, sounding overly brash which he had come to realise meant that she was really scared.
“I hope not but I’m really not sure. She had been through a lot, if professional help will assist her recovery then she will have it and she will submit to it even if it means that she ends up hating me”, he said.
“She won’t hate you”, Lois assured him.
“Chloe is very kind but …”
“She won’t hate you, trust me. I know her”, Lois repeated. It wasn’t for her to tell him about the crush that Chloe had had on him since her freshman year, but she knew that Chloe could never truly hate him and she figured that there was no harm in Lex being aware of that fact too, seeing as he had saved her life and was now attempting to do the same for her sanity.
“When she is awake and up to it, tell her to call one of us”, Lois instructed him.
“I will”.
“Okay, bye Lex”, she paused as he said goodbye as well. “And thank-you for what you are doing for her”. Lois then hung up before he could do anything more than look at the phone in shock. People didn’t thank him.
Chloe stirred.
“Who was that?” She wondered. Apparently Lex had overestimated her ability to sleep ever so slightly, and his conversation with her cousin had in fact woken her up.
“It was Clark and Lois, they were just checking to see if you were alright. I’m sorry to have woken you but there is nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep”, he said softly turning his phone onto silent.
This seemed to satisfy her for a moment and she nuzzled her pillow, then her eyes popped open. “Lois and Clark?”
“Yes”, he was surprised by her sudden outburst.
“Why were they calling? What’s the time?” She pushed herself up with her arms.
Lex looked at her in confusion, not certain what the time had to do with anything, or what time it was actually. He looked at his phone and informed her, “It is 10 to 12”.
“In the morning?”
“In the morning”, he confirmed. “Although not for much longer”.
“I have to get up”, Chloe announced as she attempted to do just that.
“You don’t have to get up”, he assured her, “you don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to. Work can wait”.
“No, it’s not that”, Chloe said as she untangled her legs from the covers.
“Then what is it?” He wondered getting up and walking around the bed to her.
“I wasn’t meant to be here in the morning”, she informed him too concerned with getting her foot free to realise what she had just let slip.
He stopped at this. “You weren’t supposed to be here in the morning?” He repeated.
“No”, she tugged her t-shirt down so that it was covering her.
“You weren’t supposed to be in my bed in the morning or you weren’t supposed to be in the mansion in the morning?” There was a dangerous edge to his voice, which came from pain.
“The first. Both. I don’t know”, she said a little confused, “I just wasn’t supposed to be here”, she tried to walk around him to the door – she had to get out of here and quickly if she was going to gather her thoughts- but felt herself being held.
“What do you mean you weren’t supposed to be here? You were just going to leave in the middle of the night without telling me?” He demanded, the thought of her just disappearing like that making his blood boil.
“I mean that I wasn’t supposed to be here in the morning. I wasn’t supposed to be here last night”, she tried to get out of his grip but Lex wasn’t having any of it.
“That’s not good enough Chloe, you owe me an explanation”. He knew that that wasn’t the right thing to do, that that would just raise her ire but at that moment he didn’t care. He didn’t care if that meant that they were going to have a blow-out row. They were going to have this out and she wasn’t going to walk out on him.
She tried to wrench herself out of his grip but it didn’t work, she only succeeded in hurting her arms. Seeing this, Lex lifted her and threw her on his bed, in a minute he was on top of her pinning to the bed. He didn’t really think about what he was doing, he just knew that he had to restrain her and not let her leave without hurting her.
“Let me go!” She spat at him.
“Not until you tell me what you were planning on doing”, he straddled her hips.
“I … I don’t know”, Chloe almost shouted, sounding desperate. “Don’t you get it? I don’t know what I’m doing from one minute to the next anymore”.
“And don’t you get that I don’t know how to help you unless you tell at least a little bit of what you are feeling, even if it makes no sense?” Lex could see that she was starting to panic.
“Who asked you to help me?” She demanded.
“You did”, he shot back. “Maybe not in words but he came to me in the middle of the night because you couldn’t sleep alone, you let me hold you, you let me in. You can’t now just clam up and act like none of this ever happened”.
She turned her head away from him.
“Tell me Chloe, did you plan on leaving in the morning even as you came to me last night?” He demanded.
“Yes”.
His heart sank.
The silence weighed on her and she knew that he was right; she did him an explanation – or at least as much of an explanation as she could pull together. “I couldn’t sleep again. I was so exhausted and I tried to take tablets but … it didn’t work. I was sick and I just couldn’t help but think that if I could just have you hold me again that I would feel better. I used you, just like I used Jimmy”, she was numb. “I don’t blame you for being mad”.
“I’m not mad that you came to me. I’m mad that you thought of leaving. That was always the plan. To get a good night’s sleep so that you would be well rested for your departure?”
“Not exactly”, she searched for the words, “I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t make my brain work and I thought that if I didn’t wake up with you then it wouldn’t count. I could pretend that it hadn’t happened but that after a full night’s sleep I might be able to think straight. There are so many things whirring around in my brain and they won’t stay still long enough for me to make sense of them”.
He transferred both of her wrists into only one of his hands so that the other one was free to stroke her cheek. He was angry, he was hurt, but he couldn’t help but respond to the anxiety in her voice.
“Do you want to leave me?” He finally summoned the courage to ask.
“No”, she answered honestly, “but in the harsh light of day, I think that I must. At night I can pretend that none of it exists, but that doesn’t change the facts”.
“And what are the facts?” He inquired, already decided that whatever these facts were he wasn’t going to let them come between them.
“The first is that I am evil”, she couldn’t look at him as she rattled off the list of her evil doings. “My own mother couldn’t love me. I put my father in danger and even now cannot be the good daughter I should be. I didn’t realise that one of my best friends was in love with me and ended up hurting him. I was in love with my other best friend and when he didn’t return my feelings I plotted to hurt him. I disrupted my Uncle’s life for years and that of several army bases. I almost destroyed my own cousin whilst masquerading as the other one. I used one of the sweetest men on the face of the planet and ended getting him killed. His brother will forever be alone because of what I did. I hurt you over the years and put you in a terrible position and now I have used you as well”.
“Chloe I …”
“Don’t”, she cut him off. “If you knew the whole story then you would hate me”.
“I could never hate you”, he knew that it was the truth as he said it. He could never hate her. Everything that he had just said, he could find an excuse for. “What is the whole story? What are the facts which you think mean that you have to leave?”
“I killed your father”.
Did you all see that coming? I bet you did, didn't you?
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
Hmm... Well, I didn't expect this, but I wasn't too surpirsed.
I am just curious now how they will work things out and considering that Lex regretted he hadn't killed Lionel, he won't hold it against Chloe.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
I really didn't see it coming
But the bastard deserved it :)
I'm sure Lex won't hate her because of this
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
I have to agree, I really don't see Lex having any issues with this, other than regretting that he didn't do the deed himself. Did Chloe really pull the trigger, or does she feel responsible for the cirumstances leading up to Lionel's death?
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
I didn't see that coming. but lex will not hold it against her.
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
No I didn't see that coming. Please more....
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
*Chapter Twenty*
The colour drained from Lex’s face.
“I killed your father”, the words reverberated in his head but he couldn’t wrap his mind around them. He must have misheard. That quite simply could not be true. He could practically feel his world ripping apart at the seams.
“No”, his voice sounded almost calm, as he tried to think about the situation logically. His hearing was perfect so he hadn’t misheard, there must be another explanation. “You’re lying.” Yes, that made far more sense. “You are just trying to punish me. You didn’t do that. You couldn’t have”.
“You don’t know what I am capable of anymore”, Chloe said sadly. This was not going as she had imagined. She had thought that she would be punished for it when he found out, but she had expected him to lash out at her immediately, not to have to try to convince him that she was telling the truth first. All the while waiting for the truth to sink in and waiting for his first strike.
“Not that”, Lex shook his head. He just couldn’t believe it.
Chloe swallowed. She almost wished that he would just hit her so that she wouldn’t have to look at his face right at that moment. He looked devastated and she knew that that was the end of anything between them. She knew that the reason why she hadn’t done anything over all of those years wasn’t because she valued the law, or because she was afraid; it was because Lex loved his father. If she destroyed Lionel she would destroy Lex too, by extension.
It was Lex’s love for his father that had kept her a prisoner for so many years. When she had come back and had heard him saying that he should have killed his father she hadn’t been able to believe it, he was just confused. She knew that he loved his father, he had told her. If everything that Lionel had done to him over the years before that couldn’t alter that fact, then nothing that Lionel had done thereafter could.
She couldn’t bear to see him like this anymore. She couldn’t bare the weight of her own guilt, not over the murder but over hurting Lex. It would consume her if she let it, she had to put up her last line of defence.
“Well now we are even”, she injected her voice with as much venom as she could muster, but it still came out sounding weak. “You sent Jimmy to set me up, well congratulations. It back fired”. Chloe made another attempt to get up but was held down.
“No. Let’s get this fucking straight”, his face loomed over hers. “I don’t know why the hell you feel the need to read something sinister into Jimmy knowing some more information than you think that he should have.” He was barely an inch from her, she could feel his hot angry breath across her skin, feel the strength of his arms pushing her down.
“But”, he continued, “it has absolutely nothing to do with me and you know it or you wouldn’t have come to me last night. You feel guilty because you treated him badly, well too fucking bad.”
Chloe retracted from his words as if from a physical blow.
“Deal with it because I had nothing to do with it. If I had known about it, he wouldn’t have got shot!” Lex roared.
She gulped. She believed him. Her shield was gone.
Chloe trembled. She thought of Jimmy, she thought of Lex. She had wronged them both and she hated herself for it but there was no going back now.
“This is all just payback for what you imagined I had done to Jimmy, isn’t it?” Lex asked, his voice softening. He sat back up, keeping hold of her wrists but loosening his grip and massaging them as he held them in front of his chest, rather than over her head.
“Just say yes and we will forget all about it”, his voice was warm and sensual (obviously by design, she realised) but there was a hint of pleading there.
Chloe stared at him mutinously. A few seconds before she had been ready to lie to him, to say that she had been making it all up to keep from hurting him but his change in tone proved to her that he was just playing with her. He already knew the truth.
“Just say yes”, his tone was more urgent this time and made Chloe doubt herself.
“No”, she finally got out.
“Chloe”.
She could still lie, there was still time. Maybe there was a chance for him, maybe it was for the best to lie. She opened her mouth to say the words that would make it all better, the words that would secure her safety and a future for them … She couldn’t lie to him.
~*~
Chloe bounced out of her bedroom on the Italian base happy and freshly showered and dressed. She almost skipped down the hallways as she made her way to the main area where she knew that Jimmy would be waiting for her when he came back from his little outing.
“Ciao Riccardo, come stai?” she greeted the back of one of the soldier’s heads as she entered the room.
“Lucy, sei qui.” He said turning to her, she could see the distress on his face. “Devi venire con me, c’era un’incidente”.
Chloe did go with him; they were moved into a hummer and sped away towards the hospital. She tried to get the rest of the story from Riccardo but he wouldn’t tell her anything more. There had been an accident and she was to go with him.
Her mouth was dry and her knees were weak as she entered the hospital and saw Davis, “What’s happening? Was it my … my father?” She asked. The whole journey her mind had been plagued by the possibility that her uncle had somehow been hurt on his operation and that she would find him with multiple holes in his body when she got to the ER.
“No, it’s not your father”, Davis informed her, also looking a distressed. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but one of the soldiers was attacked … shot, just outside the base. His said your name, I called General Lane and he told me to make sure that you got in to see him”.
Chloe’s face was a mask of horror as the realization crashed over her.
“It’s Jimmy isn’t it?”
He nodded and Chloe was sure that she was going to die right then and there.
She was not sure that she would even have made it to his room had it not been for Davis’ arms around her, supporting her the whole way.
“How bad is it? He is not going to be permanently paralysed or something, is he?” She asked, begging him to tell her that it had just been a flesh wound although she knew from his expression that it wasn’t.
“He isn’t going to last the day”.
They were at the door of his room and Chloe knew that she had to go in.
“He asked for you”, Davis explained, not bothering to think why that might be. “They have done all that they can, he is attached to every machine possible but there is nothing that surgery can do. This is just buying him enough time to say his goodbyes.”
“Does he know?” It was the only thing that she could think to ask.
“I don’t know”, Davis admitted.
Chloe prayed harder than she had ever prayed before that she would know what to do and that God would give her the strength to do it.
As she finally entered the room and saw him she panicked, he was deathly pale and his eyes were closed. It was only the beep from the machines that convinced her that she was not too late.
The nurse who was standing next to him taking his vital signs walked over to her and confirmed this, whispering, “Don’t worry, you’re not too late. We have done all that we can but it is only a matter of time. He is on morphine so he is in no pain, he will just fall asleep again and then …” She gave Chloe a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand, “He won’t feel a thing”.
With that she left them alone and Chloe walked over and sat gingerly on the side of the bed.
“Jimmy”, she said his name softly as she stroked the side of his face, trying to ignore how clammy his skin felt.
“Bright eyes”, he croaked, opening his eyes with difficulty. It was as if sleep wanted to claim him.
“Yes, it’s me Jimmy”, she bent forwards and kissed his forehead. “How do you feel?”
“Not too bad. What are the doctors saying?” His tone was light, seeming almost unconcerned.
Chloe gasped, was it really possible that they hadn’t told him? He didn’t know that he was about to die. She couldn’t tell him the truth. Who would it help? She did not doubt that God would take Jimmy into his mercy; he did not need to make a deathbed confession or beg for repentance. He would just be hurt. Praying for forgiveness she decided to lie.
Her jaw quivered slightly as she forced a bright smile, “They say that you were very lucky. The bullet just missed everything vital and whilst you are going to be here for a while and have to be on pain killers you are going to make a full recovery”.
The lie stuck in her throat but seemed to please Jimmy if his smile was anything to go by. That was how she wanted to remember him, that was what his last conscious moments were going to be like. He was going to have everything that he wanted, or at least everything that was in her limited power to provide him with.
“Then we are going to take down Lionel Luthor for good, we are going to move to Metropolis and get married. Do you hear me Jimmy Olsen? I have had enough of you trying to run off on me”, she tried to make her voice sound like it was a joke at the end, but she knew that she had fallen short. She hoped that he would be too out of it to notice.
Jimmy smiled at her and reached up to cup her face. Chloe leant over to kiss him, wondering why she had been so reluctant to let him kiss her lips for so long. He wasn’t Lionel, he wasn’t going to hurt her, and she had wasted so much time with him.
“I love you so much Chloe”, his voice was weak and she helped him to drink something as she replied, “I love you too Jimmy”.
The grin which suffused his face hurt her heart.
“I’m not afraid you know”, he assured her.
“What?” She asked in confusion.
“I’m not afraid of dying”, he clarified patiently, he was always patient with her.
“You aren’t going to …” Chloe tried to deny his soon to be gruesome end.
“That is sweet of you to say, but we both know the truth”, he cut her off. Jimmy stroked her cheek.
Chloe swallowed
“I never was afraid of death”, he tried to explain himself to her. “I don’t know, I’m not suicidal or anything but I have faith. This isn’t going to be the end for me and I did what I thought was right, in the end”.
“Jimmy don’t”, she begged.
“No Chloe, every day I lived with the guilt that I hadn’t protected my brother, soon that will be gone”, a sad smile crept over his lips. “The only thing that I will regret is leaving you but you listen to me.” He sounded far more authoritative than she had ever heard him before, “You aren’t to feel guilty about this. None of this was your fault. If it weren’t for you I would have gone on another mission within months of being back the first time and I would have died on that trip”.
“Don’t say that”, Chloe protested. She had always had the feeling that he would end up getting hurt because of her, but she couldn’t handle this. She needed him. She needed him to stay with her. She needed to make this better. This was all her fault.
“Please God take me not him”, she silently begged.
“It’s the truth”, he was no longer smiling, her pain hurt him far more than the thought of his approaching death. “Chloe, I went into this profession with my eyes wide open. I knew that I was going to die, probably painfully but I think that it was worth it.”
“But this morning, this last mission”, she protested as if his saying that he wasn’t going to die would make it so.
“I was fairly certain that this last one would be suicide, no one was more shocked than me when it all worked out”, he chuckled. She didn’t understand how he could be so calm about all of this.
“But it is alright. Really it is. The pictures are safe on my drive, now you will be free. You don’t love me, or at least not in the way that I love you, and you wouldn’t have been happy in the long run. This is what I get for my selfishness. I want you to be happy Chloe. Use the photos and be free. Find that fellow of yours, the one who was so far above you “, he remembered what she had once told him, “and show him how amazing you are.”
“Jimmy don’t …” tears streamed down her face as she tried to work out what she should say.
“Hey, don’t”, he brushed the tears away. “Angels don’t cry, they smile. Smile for me Chloe, my love and promise me that you will be free and happy”.
“I promise”, she said, it was all that she could say. She leant forwards and brushed her lips against his, he smiled and then … he was gone.
Chloe sat there for hours. She didn’t feel sad, she didn’t feel anything. She was completely numb. The nurses had come and taken Jimmy’s body away, the room had been cleaned and still she sat there.
“It’s time for us to go”, Davis said softly as he put his hand on her shoulder. He had given her as long as he could but it was time for them to leave, not just the hospital but the country. Jimmy had been murdered and the General had filled him in on why.
“No”.
“Lucy we have to leave now”.
“Chloe”.
“What?”
“My name is Chloe”, her voice was quiet but clear.
Davis ran a hand through his hair as he crouched down beside her. “You know that you are Lucy now”, he whispered.
She shook her head. “I have been trying to be Lucy for years now but it hasn’t worked. People are still getting hurt because of me and it ends today”.
“What do you mean?” He sounded concerned.
“I mean that Jimmy died because he was trying to protect me. Everyone I love gets hurt, Lionel hurts them to get to me. He poisoned Lex because of the information that I have him. My father got fired, lost his house, had to leave everything behind and now just when he is getting his life back together he can’t remarry because he will have to be moved again soon. My cousin is probably a mess thinking that I am dead and now Lionel has killed Jimmy”, her tone was even.
“There is nothing that we can do about that now Lu … Chloe. We have to get out of here”, he reached out to her but she flinched from his touch.
“I am not going”.
“Chloe, you have to. You could be killed”, he didn’t want to scare her but she had to see the danger.
“Quite possibly. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Jimmy is dead because I didn’t want I should have done years ago. He died thinking that his hard drive was safe but we both know that by now Lionel will have cleared that out and Jimmy’s death with have been for nothing”, Chloe felt her sense of purpose grow as she spoke of the decision which she had taken the moment Jimmy’s eyes closed.
Davis didn’t deny it, he couldn’t.
“Well I won’t let his death be for nothing”, Chloe stood up.
“It won’t”, Davis assured her, “with time we will find a way…”
“No, this ends today”, Chloe shifted her bag on her shoulder.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I am sick of waiting for a system to protect us when it belongs to Lionel Luthor”, she erupted. “I am sick of sitting around terrified because of him. Because I can remember him touching me, still feel his breath against my face. His hands all over my body. It is sickening.” She trembled from head to toe.
Davis reached out for her but she dodged him.
“I am sick of the cat and mouse games. Jimmy is dead because I didn’t act sooner”.
“What are you going to do?”
“I am going to kill Lionel Luthor. It was what I should have done the first time that he dared to threaten me”, her hand tightened around the strap of her bag, “The first time he acted against my family. I should never have let it come to this”.
“You are a good shot Chloe but you would never get near enough to him”, David pointed out, trying to get her to think about this sensibly.
“I don’t have to be”, she took a step closer to him, “we both know that the army has tablets that can kill someone without leaving a trace. When I kill him it will look like a rare liver disease and he will be dead inside a month”.
“You have access to them?” He asked.
Chloe nodded. “I have had them ever since the first time he put his hands on me. I thought that I could give them to him, I could kill him without anyone knowing but … something stopped me”, she didn’t say Lex’s name.
“My job is to protect you Chloe”, Davis announced.
“Well I relinquish you of such an unpleasant task”, she said as if that were all it took for him to give up his duty.
He shook his head. “Do you know why I was put in charge of your security?”
“No”, Chloe admitted. She had wondered several times, but hadn’t been able to find out anything about his past.
“Then let me show you”. Right there before her eyes Davis changed into a monster, it was a meteor freak ability like none Chloe had ever seen before.
“Davis?” Chloe checked, as she took a step towards the monster.
“Yes. I will not allow you to kill Lionel Luthor, you will not have that on your conscience”. He didn’t say that one more death for him would mean nothing, he didn’t have to.
With that he scooped her up and disappeared in a blur.
~*~
In truth it had not been by Chloe’s hand that Lionel Luthor had died but she would still take the responsibility. It had been her idea and she had provided the pills which had sentenced him to a month of agony before dying an excruciating death which no drug could ease. She had been the one to send him a blood red rose every single day of his illness with a note attached with only two words printed neatly on it: “Love Jimmy”.
“I killed your father”, she stated plainly in resume of the story she had just told him.
Lex sat to the side of her, inadvertently letting her get up.
“So that is why you disappeared” he said as he worked it all out. He felt ill as the truth finally dawned on him. It made sense; that was why his father suddenly had a disease he hadn’t had before and of which there was no trace in the family.
“You killed him”, he repeated, still not really believing it that she had been the one to poison him. He was sure that it was Davis who had actually done the deed, for which he would receive just payment.
“Yes”. Chloe stood up.
Lex felt beyond sick now. Chloe had been in some way tainted. He had not missed the part of the story where she had mentioned Lionel’s hands on her.
He couldn’t ask about that.
“I’ll leave”, she said.
He snapped at that. He grabbed her by the arms and lifted her off the ground. “No”, he shouted. “Let me make myself quite clear Chloe Sullivan. After what you have just told me you are not going anywhere. You will go, you will get changed and then we will start work. You will not leave because if you try to I will track you down and bring you back kicking and screaming if necessary. I will go through the people that you care about to keep you if I have to. I will show you how terrifying the Luthors can really be”.
She shook but she still managed to retort bitterly, “I believe that I already got that memo”.
He placed her back on the floor.
“And for God’s sake eat something. I am sick and fucking tired of having to check that you are eating stuff every day, the second anything goes wrong you become self-destructive. Get over it!”
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
Davis's s meteor freak? I liked it
:)
I hope now Chloe can be her strong self again
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
That was a surprise about Davis. Lex took it well about the killing the father thing. She should have told him it was Davis. But Chloe being Chloe ugh...
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Re: Resurrection (NC-17) Updated on 3rd March 2013
Malugargula: Not exactly no, he is Dooms Day like in the series but Chloe doesn't know that, she just assumes that it is a meteor ability. But in this version he is not evil, once Lionel kicked him out General Lane saw him and got him adopted by an army family who couldn't have kids and has been checking up on him ever since. Davis is 100% loyal to General Lane and was given the job of protecting Chloe because he is the only one who could definately do it. Even when he was away on assignment he couldn't have returned in the blink of an eye. I Chloe will go back to being strong as well too.
Hfce: Off topic but how do you say your name? I thought that he didn't take it as well as he could have, what with him being aggressive with her and not making it clear why he was angry. Naughty Lex.